Rugby Union: Tait scare for Scotland

JIM TELFER, Scotland's coach, faces an anxious few days after his most experienced player, Alan Tait, was taken off with a sprained ankle near the end of the Scots' hard-fought 40-20 victory over Edinburgh Reivers in a World Cup warm-up match at Inverleith yesterday.

With just over two weeks to go before their opening game against South Africa at Murrayfield, Telfer said: "My one big fear about having a game like this was someone getting injured."

Scotland had to rely on a late flurry before subduing the super district. However, Telfer insisted: "That's exactly the kind of game we were looking for. We wanted tough opposition to get us tuned up for the World Cup, and the Reivers certainly provided it.

"We took a while to get going but that's because the guys were trying to put training moves into practise right away. They were probably trying to do part two before mastering part one."