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EDINBURGH - Scotland coach Frank Hadden named his squad for the rugby World Cup today then condemned the rules that allowed teams to include only 30 players for the six-week tournament.
"It should be 34 in each squad...if the product is to be attractive you have to go for this," Hadden said.
"The hard decisions could be made a lot easier for a lot of countries."
Hadden has opted for a 17/13 split between forwards and backs for the tournament in France which begins on September 7 with the main surprise being the inclusion of flanker John Barclay.
"We play Romania, who are a very tough side up front, and then five days later face New Zealand, who are not a bad side," he said.
"Then we have only six days before taking on Italy. It's a very tough programme for the second seeds in the pool."
At 20, Glasgow openside Barclay is the youngest and the only uncapped member of the squad.
First five-eighth Gordon Ross and lock Alasdair Kellock, both first-choice players 12 months ago, were left out.
Ross' omission paved the way for Chris Paterson to play at first five-eighth, where he appeared in the warmup game against Ireland last Saturday. But with only 13 backs selected Paterson could also be required to play in other positions.
Hadden kept faith with halfback Chris Cusiter, who was confident he would recover from his ankle injury in time for Scotland's opening match on September 9.
"On the basis of advice from the physios and doctors, I'm pretty confident I'll be available for the game against Portugal" Cusiter said.
SCOTLAND
Backs: Mike Blair, Chris Cusiter, Rob Dewey, Marcus Di Rollo, Andrew Henderson, Rory Lamont, Sean Lamont, Rory Lawson, Dan Parks, Chris Paterson, Hugo Southwell, Nikki Walker, Simon Webster
Forwards: John Barclay, Kelly Brown, Dave Callum, Ross Ford, Jim Hamilton, Nathan Hines, Allister Hogg, Allan Jacobsen, Gavin Kerr, Scott Lawson, Scott MacLeod, Euan Murray, Scott Murray, Craig Smith, Simon Taylor, Fergus Thomson, Jason White (captain)
- REUTERS
