Dean Ryan’s patience with international calls on his players is growing thin, and it could come to a head as scrum-half Rory Lawson tells Scotland he would rather play for his club against Bath on Saturday than for the international A team. Gareth Cooper and Dave Lewis are both injured, and Ryan has praised Lawson’s club loyalty, which has caused anger North of the Border.
The trouble is, Scotland are not obliged to release him. While most clubs and fans accept the release of players for Six Nations and other senior international fixtures, A team games and events like sevens tournaments tend to anger coaches. Ryan (right) told the Citizen: “I’m a little bit frustrated with all the union relationships at the moment. I don’t think an A game against Italy comes above Premiership against Bath.“But there are other arguments which are going on elsewhere.“We’ve always been supportive of international rugby, but it can become a little bit wearing when you’ve got World Cup sevens, you’ve got Six Nations and then A games appearing. It’s becoming quite difficult to manage.” There has been talk recently of Ryan Lamb switching to scrum-half, but the coach feels asking him to operate there for a full game is a different situation to him filling in briefly during a game.“I think it’s a big ask for him to play a complete game at nine, albeit he can cover 15 or 20 minutes. I hope we can find a solution somewhere else first,” said Ryan. The Bath game is, of course, an even bigger one than the usual clashes between the two old rival. With Glaws top of the GP table, Bath are four points behind, but they do have two games in hand. The final stages of the GP season promise to be intriguing, and Saturday’s game could play a major role in deciding the final outcome.
Scrum-half problem for Ryan ahead of Bath game
Posted by: Shedloads (IP Logged)
Date: 25/02/2009 11:12
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Hopefully Scotland will do their bit for club n country relations and release Rory, it is not as if his game is unknown to the Scotland coaches plus I wouldn't fancy being the one who takes DR's phonecall if Lawson is held onto! I see Bath will have a debutant hooker on Saturday, welcome to the GP!
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009:02:25:13:20:22 by cheerycherry.
If Lawson is ruled out then Glaws have serious problems. It's a massive game to chuck Lamb into at 9 but when the other options are academy lads then Glaws probably have no choice. I cant believe Scotland would cause a load of aggro over an "A" international against Italy....
cheerycherry Hopefully Scotland will do their bit for club n country relations and release Rory
But The England fans are always telling us that it is an honour for the club and player to be called up for country, yet as soon as it is not England stealing one of our players the england fans forget all that. What hypocrisy!
Ask the players if they'd mind doing without the money they make playing for England then. They wouldn't know where their next Range Rover was coming from.
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Ryan (right) told the Citizen: “I’m a little bit frustrated with all the union relationships at the moment. I don’t think an A game against Italy comes above Premiership against Bath.“But there are other arguments which are going on elsewhere.“We’ve always been supportive of international rugby, but it can become a little bit wearing when you’ve got World Cup sevens, you’ve got Six Nations and then A games appearing. It’s becoming quite difficult to manage.”