Lamonts on a mission to spoil the party

A funny thing happened in one of the lecture theatres at the University of Stirling on Friday. It was approaching noon, and Scotland's pre-match press conference was almost an hour old. Suddenly, out of the Caledonian navy- blue, somebody happened to mention the "W" word.

In the midst of the latest public airing of Scotland's rugby grievances, it was remembered that Wales are visiting Murrayfield this afternoon. There had been nothing spoken of them during the formal part of the proceedings, as the Scotland coach, Matt Williams, was forced to mount a rearguard action in defence of his faith in the labouring Dan Parks at No 10 and of his "parachuting" of a fellow Australian, Ben MacDougall (a rugby league man with a failed drug test on his CV) to the brink of the Scotland team. A poll on the Scottish Rugby Union's website, asking whether Williams should resign, was also heatedly debated.

It was only at the end of the informal quizzing of the Lamont brothers that the small matter of Mike Ruddock's would-be Grand Slammers was raised. "We've been here nearly an hour and nobody has mentioned Wales yet," Sean Lamont said, more than a little wearily. "It's you guys who ask the questions. We've been concentrating on Wales. We hope we can spoil their party."

And there were the Welsh thinking they might have trouble keeping everybody focused on the 80 minutes in Edinburgh this afternoon rather, in the case of their supporters, than the potentially grander occasion of Ireland's visit to Cardiff next Saturday.

If Williams thought his life as Scotland coach would be made any easier by his team's home win against Italy a fortnight ago, he was very much mistaken. The pressure remains on him. Still, a little of it will ease if his search for international class among his threequarters has unearthed a suitable find in Rory Lamont. At 22, Lamont makes his debut today on the right wing - just 10 matches into his professional career with Glasgow, where he plays with his 24-year-old brother, who will be on Scotland's left wing.

"He's got a very similar physique to me and a very similar style," the 6ft 2in, 16st Sean said of the 6ft 1in, 15st Rory. "We both have a strong running style. He's very good under the high ball and he's got a very good kick on him, much better than mine.

"I always thought he would play for Scotland. My mum said when we were four or five that we both would."

The Lamont brothers will become the 19th set of brothers to play together for Scotland, following in the recent footsteps of Gavin and Scott Hastings, John and Martin Leslie and Gordon and Alan Bulloch. Born and raised in Perth to the ages of nine and 11 respectively, the Lamonts learned their rugby at the Melton Mowbray club in England's East Midlands, and gravitated to Glasgow after failing to break through with English Premiership sides - Sean with Rotherham, Rory with Northampton.

Sean made his Scotland debut against Samoa last summer, and wins his 11th cap today. "I'm still pretty new to this myself," he said. "I'm still adapting. I'll be concentrating too much on my own game to start worrying about anyone else, even Rory. The only thing I can say to him is, 'Just have confidence. You've just got to leap into the deep end and do it'."

Thus far, Sean is managing to keep afloat. He has endured the odd sinking feeling, treading water defensively at Murrayfield against Australia in the autumn and against Ireland last month. His powerful running, though, has earned him tries against the Wallabies and Japan, and his forceful play in attack and defence made him man of the match against Italy.

The elder Lamont is far from the finished article, but has the raw materials to solve one of Williams's 15 problems. Whether his brother has the necessary equipment to solve another remains to be seen.

Before Rory joined Glasgow in September, the brothers last played together for Leicestershire Colts. Not that their play together has always been mutually constructive.

"When we lived under the same roof, there used to be a fair old bit of destruction," Sean confided. "I remember one time we were just messing about and I dump-tackled Rory on to his bed and it broke up... It wasn't that long ago, actually. It was just before I went to university."