Moffat leads way for Scots revival

The last time Stuart Moffat played for Scotland they ran up a cricket score. It was hardly surprising. He was batting at No 4 for them in a one-day match against Durham at Chester-le-Street.

This afternoon Moffat plays at No 15 for the Scottish rugby union team against Romania at Murrayfield. It is to be hoped that his second international debut will prove to be more auspicious than his first. "I only played once for the Scottish cricket team," the Glasgow full-back said yesterday. "I got a pair." The record books, in fact, show that J S D Moffat played in two one-day games on successive days for Scotland at the Riverside ground in April 1997. He did indeed score a duck in both matches, although he boasts a first-class average of 167 ­ the tally he notched on his one and only first-class appearance, for Cambridge in the Varsity match at The Parks in Oxford this summer.

The multi-talented Moffat will be a first-class rugby player if he turns out to be only half as good as the last cricket international who made an international debut in the oval ball game at Murrayfield. "I was actually there that day," Moffat said, recalling the afternoon in 1993 when Jeff Wilson, having struck the winning runs on his debut for the New Zealand all-whites in a one-day tie against Australia, scored a hat-trick of tries on the first of his 60 Test appearances for the All Blacks.

The 51-15 thumping Scotland suffered that day opened the gulf they have been struggling to close ever since between themselves and the three rugby superpowers from the southern hemisphere. It is with a view to closing it, and more specifically with next year's World Cup in mind, that Ian McGeechan, Scotland's coach, has given Moffat his chance today as one of three new caps.

The right wing Nikki Walker and the tight-head prop Bruce Douglas, both members of the new Borders "super-district" team, have also been called up as McGeechan, who gave debuts to nine players on Scotland's summer tour to North America, continues to slake his thirst for new blood, appropriately enough against the country that includes Transylvania within its boundaries.

"The young players in the squad maybe aren't the finished article," the Scotland coach said, "but what they are offering is exciting. There's a challenge for the players and there's a challenge for me."

Moffat is the step-son of David McLetchie, leader of the Tories in the Scottish Parliament, but McGeechan ­ whose preparations were halted in midweek when his Leeds home was ransacked by burglars ­ can hardly be accused of conservatism. His team for the opening match of Scotland's autumn series has the once-capped Gordon Ross rather than the record 66-times-capped Gregor Townsend installed at No 10.

Having left Edinburgh to find a regular place and some first-class form at Leeds, the 24-year-old Ross is, in his own way, as typical of the enterprising new Caledonia as Walker, 20, Douglas, 22, and Moffat, 25, who have all prospered as new professionals on home soil. It might have been different for Moffat, though.

"I did my indentures for a financial firm in Edinburgh before I got the chance to join Glasgow as a professional," he said. "If they had offered me a job, I wouldn't be here now. I'm quite grateful they didn't."

Scotland: S Moffat (Glasgow); N Walker (Borders), A Craig (Orrell), B Laney (Edinburgh), C Paterson (Edinburgh); G Ross (Leeds), B Redpath (Sale, capt); T Smith (Northampton), G Bulloch (Glasgow), B Duncan (Borders), S Murray (Edinburgh), S Grimes (Newcastle), M Leslie (Edinburgh), B Pountney (Northampton), S Taylor (Edinburgh). Replacements: S Scott (Borders), M Stewart (Northampton), N Hines (Edinburgh), J Petrie (Glasgow), G Beveridge (Glasgow), G Townsend (Borders), B Hinshelwood (Worcester).

Romania: G Brezoianu(Bègles-Bordeaux); I Teodorescu (U Cluj), V Maftei (Valance), R Gontineac (Aurillac, capt), V Ghioc (Dynamo Bucharest); I Tofan (Racing Club), P Mitu (Grenoble); P Balan (Grenoble), M Tincu (Pau), D Dima (Toulouse), A Petrichei (Bourgoin), C Petre (Racing Club), F Corodeanu (Grenoble), A Petrache (Toulon), G Chiriac (Farul Constanta). Replacements: P Toderasc (Farul Constanta), S Florea (Cannes), S Dragnea (Valance), O Tonita (Biarritz), L Sirbu (Racing Club), M Colltuneac (U Cluj), C Podea (U Cluj).

Referee: A Turner (South Africa).