If it is possible to pull a 6ft 4in rabbit from a hat that is what the Scotland coach, Vern Cotter, has managed, selecting a lock forward for the World Cup who has not played in any of the three warm-up games so far and was not even part of the extended squad from which the final 31 were chosen.
Add the omission of a Kiwi ever present in Scotland’s Six Nations campaign plus a South African who will not qualify to play for his new country until after the World Cup kicks off and Cotter had plenty of surprises when he announced his squad at Edinburgh University’s Old College Quad.
On Saturday, after a comfortable defeat of Italy, the coach admitted to doubts about his final 31 and even wondered aloud how many locks he might take. However, when Cotter said he did not know whether to pick three or four, few assumed he was even thinking about Tim Swinson, who that day had just played for Glasgow against Canada in Nova Scotia.
Swinson, who has a degree in political science and is the cousin of Jo Swinson, the former Lib Dem MP for East Dunbartonshire, has played 12 times for Scotland, coming off the bench in five of those games including the poor performance against Ireland which completed the Scottish Six Nations whitewash. He did appear in the 46-strong squad announced in June but, having failed to make the game against Ireland or either match against Italy and being left off the list of 40 from which the final cut was to be made while mentioned as having left camp, there were few advocating his call-up.
The other surprise was the demise of Blair Cowan, the London Irish Kiwi flanker who was thought to have withstood a late challenge from John Barclay until Cotter announced that both were out and that he was going with a back-row brigade which included John Hardie, another Kiwi who arrived in Scotland only five weeks ago.
The Highlander is not attached to a northern hemisphere club, is on a short-term contract with the SRU for the duration of the World Cup, and has played only 57 minutes of Test rugby. His preferment over the popular Barclay is sure to bring rumblings about kilted Kiwis and possibly more besides.
When Cotter tried to parachute Hugh Blake into his Six Nations squad before he had played for Glasgow it prompted an on-line petition while the former Scotland and Lions prop Peter Wright tweeted: “Who Blake?!!”
As it is, after one cap, Blake also failed to make the cut. There is, though, a back-row place for Josh Strauss, the South African, who does not qualify by residence until four days before Scotland start their World Cup against Japan at Kingsholm in Gloucester. Strauss, at the heart of Glasgow’s campaign to become Celtic champions, was another stretching his legs alongside Swinson in Halifax.
World Rugby has already warned that it intends to review the three-year residency rule which also allowed Willem Nel, from Loeriesfontein, to win two Scottish caps in the past fortnight, make the squad and probably be first-choice tighthead prop when he meets his former countrymen at St James’ Park, Newcastle, on 3 October.
Elsewhere there were few surprises with wings Sean Lamont and Tim Visser making the 31 after scoring two tries apiece last Saturday, while neither Ruaridh Jackson nor Greig Tonks made the slot to understudy both full-back and fly-half when Sean Maitland was declared fit. The medics also passed the wing Tommy Seymour, but time has run out for the centre Alex Dunbar.
