HUGO Southwell has wedding bells on his mind this week as he prepares to marry his Italian-born fiancee in Dunbar, but the honeymoon will provide only a brief respite from a strengthened pursuit of international honours.
The Edinburgh full-back suffered the disappointment last month of being dropped from a Scotland 22 for the first time since his Test debut in 2004, when coach Frank Hadden opted to return Chris Paterson to the No 15 jersey in Rosario and promote Thom
Evans and Simon Danielli to the wings. Defeat meant a swift re-jig for the second Test in Buenos Aires and Southwell was restored, Paterson returning to the flank. The week spent on the outside looking in was extremely unpleasant, said Southwell, but he hopes the style unlocked by the team he was part of – even more than the fact the Scotland side recorded a first full Test victory in Argentina – will have revived his international prospects.
"I was pleased to have been given the chance in the second Test, and it was great to be a part of that victory," he said, "but we have to move on from that now. The first half was definitely some of the best rugby we've played under Frank (Hadden] and it was good for him, us and the supporters to show that we could play to that level.
"It's important now that when we play our first game in the autumn internationals we don't return to the level that dogged us for most of last year."
Southwell was pleased to see Hadden given a vote of confidence last week to continue through 2008-09 by Gordon McKie, the SRU chief executive, and feels their display in Buenos Aires has given him some deserved breathing space.
But he also spoke in glowing terms of the influence of tour assistants Andy Robinson and Sean Lineen.
"The balance of Andy, Sean and Frank was key," Southwell added. "Frank has done a great job and people have said since the Argentina game that he actually has a good record, but the coaches all added something different and intertwined well, which was a massive bonus on tour.
"Even if they (Robinson and Lineen] don't have direct involvement (in the autumn Tests and Six Nations] I'm sure they'll still be verbally involved. It's about getting different bits of advice from different people and moulding it together and I thought on tour that worked really well.
"But, while, yes, everyone was delighted to win in Argentina, that's put to bed now. For the next few months everyone has to be focused on doing well with their clubs."
The full article contains 448 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
