Worcester's Alex Grove in Scotland A debut

Jun 12 2009 by Brian Dick, Birmingham Post

BRIAN DICK

Worcester’s Alex Grove has been handed a Scotland A debut in tomorrow’s opening IRB Nations Cup match against Russia.

The 21-year-old has been born and bred in England but qualifies for Scotland through his Glasgow-born grandfather and has come through the Scottish age-group sides.

Scotland’s 26-man squad includes 12 players capped at full Test level by Scotland but new coach Andy Robinson is keen also to see how many young up-and-coming talents fit in with the more established figures. To that end Grove will partner Ben Cairns in the centre with Edinburgh’s Jim Thompson starting at full-back and wing Simon Webster and Rob Dewey, the Glasgow-bound centre, on the other flank. Chris Cusiter will captain the side picked by former England head coach Robinson.

Robinson said: “Everything has gone well so far and I’ve been really pleased with how the squad have trained in extremely hot conditions, but the proof will be in how we play against Russia. We’ve picked several experienced international players for the match and we will be aiming to put down a marker for the rest of the tournament in terms of our performance.

“Alex has been given an opportunity to start in the back division and I’ve liked what I’ve seen of him so far.”

Grove’s emergence as a genuine Premiership quality player has been one of the few positives of a dire season for Worcester. He scored a try on his full debut against London Wasps and then put in a series of outstanding displays during the run-in.