Scots' Spanish stroll

For Scotland this was a Spanish stroll. Now a confrontation with Samoa will discover if Jim Telfer's side are making great strides in the world game.

Telfer names his team later today for the quarter-final play-off on Wednesday afternoon. Most of the side who stretched their legs on Saturday will not be going on that voyage of discovery but a routine victory over the Spanish amateurs did help a couple of hopefuls to book their passage.

John Leslie's ankle injury has created a vacancy for a centre partner for Alan Tait and a likely scenario would be to move the wing Cameron Murray, scorer of the best of Scotland's seven tries on Saturday, to outside centre and promote Shaun Longstaff to the wing. This would give the Scots a little more beef in their backs to help cope with Samoa's ultra physical challenge.

The Edinburgh Reivers' centre Graham Shiel was called into the squad yesterday as Telfer looked to keep his options open.

Telfer did hint, though, that Gregor Townsend may move to centre to accommodate the steady Duncan Hodge at out-half. Hodge gave the midfield a reassuring air of solidarity on Saturday although it must be said that he was given an armchair ride by his superior pack while Townsend has performed fitfully in his two World Cup outings since his return from a knee operation.

Paul Burnell and Robert Russell may also have played themselves into contention for places in the Scottish front-row but although Doddie Weir performed well it was difficult to judge his display, so unchallenged was his mastery of lineouts and drop-outs.

Scotland tried to play a more direct game to avoid being dragged into a close quarters forward battle. Their quick rucking was at its best when Hodge and James McLaren combined cleverly to send Murray over for his second half try.

But Spain were never able to compete in the scrums and lineouts. They were penalised early in the game to have deliberately lowered a scrum near their own line and a penalty try was given.

From then on Spain were intent to keep the score semi-respectable and there was rarely the danger that they would concede the 85 points that they did in their World Cup qualifier against the Scots at Murrayfield last December.

If Telfer's European champions can survive a bruising encounter with the men from the South Pacific, the real big fish, the All Blacks, will be testing the resolve of the Scots next Sunday. That at least would fill the empty seats at Murrayfield.