Hectic schedule for Chalmers but Nicol has to wait

in Scotland later this month. Inevitably, his hope is that, once it is

all over, the All Blacks will be more sick of the sight of him than he

is of them.

Chalmers, already chosen by the South to face the All Blacks on

Wednesday, was named yesterday as captain of the Scotland A team to play

the tourists in the CIS Insurance international at Old Anniesland a week

on Saturday. It goes without saying that his third game facing the Kiwis

will be for Scotland at Murrayfield a week after the Glasgow game.

Arthur Hastie, the A team's manager, explained that Chalmers needed

the games. The stand-off's rugby this season has been restricted by a

knee injury, though he is now fully recovered.

However admirable it may seem for the selectors to give Chalmers the

opportunity for sharpening up against the All Blacks before the

Murrayfield encounter, his probable international partner, Andy Nicol,

the Dundee scrum half, has not been accorded the same facility even

though his rugby has been similarly restricted. Nicol's one game against

the tourists would be the international itself.

Instead of giving Nicol a pre-international run, the selectors have

gone for Bryan Redpath, Chalmers's own club partner, and Derek

Patterson, Edinburgh Academicals' scrum half -- both, admittedly,

deserving causes. Chalmers and Redpath join forces for the A team, as

they do for the South, whereas Patterson is in the Scotland Development

XV to meet the All Blacks at Myreside a week on Tuesday.

Hastie emphasised that the selection of Scotland's XV for the

international was by no means cut and dried by the announcement of the A

team. Yet it is impossible not to draw a draft of Scotland's XV by

comparing the A team and the current national squad.

Gavin Hastings, already named as Scotland's captain again, and 10

others are in the national squad but not the A team.

Continuing the logic, it appears that the selectors are looking for a

left wing, an open-side wing forward, and a lock from the A team. Kenny

Logan and Michael Dods are the threequarter contenders (though neither

is to be on the left wing at Anniesland), Rob Wainwright is being set up

for a return to international rugby on the open flank, and Shade Munro,

playing on his home ground at Anniesland, will be vying with Andy

Macdonald to join Cronin in the second row.

John Amos can be added to the open-side equation though he is not in

the team for either Anniesland or Myreside. The Gala flanker has to call

his bid in the South's colours.

A vacancy has been left at hooker in the Development XV to allow the

selectors to compare Jim Hay at Netherdale and Kevin McKenzie at

Anniesland. One will join the national 21, and the other will play at

Myreside.

Scotland A -- M Dods (Gala); K M Logan (Stirling County), S A Nichol

(Selkirk), I C Jardine (Stirling County), G A Parker; C M Chalmers

(captain), B W Redpath (all Melrose); A G J Watt (Glasgow

High/Kelvinside), K D McKenzie (Stirling County), D J Herrington (Dundee

HS FP), D S Munro (GHK), A E D Macdonald (Heriot's FP), D J McIvor

(Edinburgh Acads), C D Hogg (Melrose), R I Wainwright (Edinburgh Acads).

Replacements -- D A Stark (Boroughmuir), D S Wyllie (Stewart's Melville

FP), D W Patterson (Edinburgh), P Walton (Northampton), P H Wright

(Boroughmuir), J A Hay (Hawick).

Scotland Development XV -- K A Bray (Harlequins); D A Stark

(Boroughmuir), F J Harrold (London Scottish), R C MacNaughton

(Northampton), C S Dalgleish (Gala); D S Wyllie (Stewart's Melville FP)

captain, D W Patterson (Edinburgh Acads); J J Manson (Dundee HS FP), A N

Other, G D Wilson (Boroughmuir), C A Gray (Nottingham), S J Campbell

(Dundee HS FP), P Walton (Northampton), F D Wallace (GHK), I R Smith

(Gloucester). Replacements -- I C Glasgow (Heriot's FP), A Donaldson

(Currie), G H Oliver (Hawick), S A Aitken (Watsonians), D J Herrington

(Dundee HS FP), S J Brotherstone (Melrose).