Scotland Rugby league World Cup News

[Bravehearts_RL]

News : Danny’s the boy for Scotland

One of the easiest decisions that Scotland head coach Steve McCormack has had to make in the run up to the Rugby League World Cup Finals has been the appointment of his captain, Danny Brough.

The Wakefield Trinity Wildcats scrum the 25-year-old scrum half has become a dominant figure in Britain’s engage Super League since he joined the Cats from their neighbours Castleford Tigers after masterminding the men from the Jungle’s return to the British game’s elite at the end of the 2007 season.

McCormack said: “It was easy to make Danny the captain. He’s been in great form for Wakefield all year and he’s very proud of his Scots heritage. He has real family connections with Scotland and he takes his international appearances under The Saltire’s colours very seriously.

“I’ve worked with Danny a great deal during the last four years and had to coach against teams he’s played for many times. I’ve got great respect for him.

“While I’ve been coach we’ve had other captains like Dave McConnell and Ben Fisher but Danny’s the one who has adapted best to the role. He’s a real leader who knows his way round the paddock.”

Danny Brough is one of British Rugby League’s most savvy tacticians. His loose play kicking is recognised as being of the highest quality; his distribution helped Trinity through to the semi-finals of the Carnegie Challenge Cup and his goal-kicking sees him running fifth in this year’s all-games scoring chart with 242 points, including 105 bulls eyes in League and Cup fixtures.

He’s often sports League’s most adventurous hair styles featuring streaks of strident colours and has radical collisions with the barber’s shears and razors! His impressive pace of the mark means that many of his opponents don’t have that much time to debate the issue with him but it certainly makes him instantly recognisable on the pitch.

The Scots finally released their 40-man training squad last week and they caught some shrewd observers by surprise with some of their inclusions.

Top of the shop in the surprise department was Wigan Warriors winger Mark Calderwood, who has previously played for England.

Also part of the Scots squad were three Australian-born brothers Andrew Henderson of Castleford Tigers, Kevin Henderson from Brough’s Wildcats and former Bradford Bulls hooker Ian Henderson who is now plying his trade in the NRL with New Zealand Warriors.

McCormack said: “The bulk of the squad is made up of players with whom we’ve worked for the last four years. We always said that kind of loyalty should be rewarded.

“But we also wanted players in the squad who would offer us both experienced and quality.

“We believe that we’ve struck that balance.”

McCormack says that Scotland won’t delay the reduction of their squad to the 24 who will make the trip Down Under very long. They have to do it on or before October 8 by World Cup rules but the Scots coach said: “We won’t be that long because we want everybody to know where they stand.

“As a squad not much will happen until the players in Britain have finished with their engage Super League and Co-operative National League commitments. But once they’re completed then we’ll go to work properly.

“I fully expect that during that process there will be players who will have to drop out of the squad for one reason or another.

“We’ll fly out to Australia on October 14 because we want to have a little extra time to acclimatise.”

Unlike the Irish the Scots will not be indulging themselves with a warm-up fixture. McCormack explains: “We don’t have the biggest of squads and I don’t want to risk losing any of our key players any more than I have to.

“We’ll go into training camp at Huddersfield as soon as the season’s business is over and we’ll spend 12-days together preparing for our first game in the Finals against France at the Canberra Stadium on Sunday, October 26.

“There’s a huge amount of familiarity in our squad/ Most of us have been together for quite some time so we know what we want to achieve.”

[Scotsgait]

Originally Posted by Bravehearts_RL

2008 SCOTLAND Rugby League World Cup Preliminary Squad

Mark CALDERWOOD Wigan

What a performance he put in last night !! It was quite amusing when the commentators suddenly realised that he had opted for Scotland.

(it's just a pity he plays for W*g*n )

[Bravehearts_RL]

SCOTLAND CLARIFY SQUAD STANCE

Scotland manager Richard Thewlis has today confirmed the side’s stance in respect of players being selected for two sides squads ahead of the World Cup
"Put simply we are only interested in players that want to play for Scotland. We initially held back on naming our 40 to confirm that no duplicity would occur with some pretty high profile names potentially being involved. That has not changed and with particular reference to Mark Calderwood we will not be waiting to see if he makes the England side - he has made his choice and is now out of our considerations. At this stage we expect our final 24 to be named during next week.
“It is fair to say we have suffered a number of drop outs yet I remain confident that we will be very competitive in our group and do Scotland RL proud."

[Bravehearts_RL]

Originally Posted by Scotsgait

What a performance he put in last night !! It was quite amusing when the commentators suddenly realised that he had opted for Scotland.

(it's just a pity he plays for W*g*n )

He did have a great game, although it appears Scotland won't pick him now because England have added him to their Training squad. It's a shame.

Also I think Keith Galloway may be out aswell.

[Scottish_Republican]

Rugby League World Cup 2008 Teams