'No change' the likely outcome

at Murrayfield a week on Saturday. Indeed, when the team is named this

morning it will surely be unchanged despite the 11-3 defeat by France at

Parc des Princes on Saturday.

Wright, well established as Boroughmuir's right prop, was drafted in

out of position at loose head against France in the absence of the two

Alans, Sharp and Watt. The former missed the Murrayfield match against

Ireland last month when he was found to have a hairline fracture of a

leg bone, and his stand-in, Watt, dropped out of Scotland's chosen Paris

team because of a viral condition that is still defying indentification.

Sharp said yesterday that his injured leg was improving, though not

fast enough for his liking. The Bristol prop added that he would

continue treatment on the London Scottish hyperbaric oxygen machine

whenever possible.

A definite prognosis of Watt's illness cannot be ascertained this

week. Donald Macleod, the Scottish Rugby Union's medical adviser, has

arranged for the Glasgow High/Kelvinside prop to see a specialist who

does not return from holiday until next week.

Derek Turnbull, the Hawick wing forward whose left pinkie was

dislocated in the Paris match, is expected to be fit to play against

Wales even though an X-ray has shown a crack in the injured finger. He

will miss Hawick's national league match against Boroughmuir at

Meggetland on Saturday to avoid aggravating the injury, but medical

opinion is that the finger will have settled by the end of next week.

Wright, who was capped as tight head in Scotland's two internationals

on the tour to Australia last year, did enough against France to justify

the selectors' faith in their decision to field him out of position.

Scotland's scrummage was secure almost throughout the match, and he did

the bits and pieces outside the set-piece as well.

If a change in the team is contemplated it would be to inject Gregor

Townsend's pace at outside centre, with Scott Hastings moving inside. It

was the format the selectors obviously had in mind until Townsend,

Gala's 19-year-olf stand-off, damaged knee ligaments in the Murrayfield

trial two weeks before the game against Ireland.

Scotland's midfield lacked bite against France. The fault, however,

was as much in Scotland's failure to win snappy second-phase ball in

regular enough quantity against typically mean French forwards.

I suspect, though, that the selectors will leave well alone. The

solution to the Paris problem would be better found on the training

field than in the selection committee room, with Ian McGeechan,

Scotland's coach, and his associates taking the responsibility to tune

the forwards' ball-winning as well as finding means to improve the

backs' ball-protection in the tackle. Scotland's midfield game in Paris

would have appeared more profitable but for three knock-ons, two by

Graham Shiel and one by the intruding Gavin Hastings, as they were hit.

Such small points meant much in a contest that was closer than the

margin of 11-3.