By Steve Scott, rugby correspondent

ANDY ROBINSON gave a vote of confidence to his Scotland team—measured with an insistence that the performance is raised considerably—and made no changes to the squad to face Australia in the second Bank of Scotland Corporate Autumn International at Murrayfield on Saturday.

The same 22 that defeated Fiji 23-10 on Saturday have been re-selected, with Robinson admitting that a need for continuity was part of his reasoning, but also underlining his satisfaction with the victory.

Naming an unchanged side was a luxury his predecessor Frank Hadden was rarely given—the last time it happened was for the Rugby World Cup quarter-final in Paris two years ago—so it’s not surprising Robinson has taken the opportunity to do so immediately, although it was no rubber-stamp exercise, he insisted.

“Selection took quite a time. On Sunday night we challenged every area, we had a very good look at how we performed,” said the coach.

“The first 35 minutes I was really pleased with what we were doing. We tailed off after that, and I was disappointed that when we went to 23-7 we didn’t then kick on.

“I have a philosophy that I believe everybody should be given a second opportunity. So that comes into my thinking, but I also have a philosophy that we have to improve game by game.

“Every player had good parts to his game, and every player had things to work on. There is confidence in the way they performed last week but also we need to show that level of improvement.”

Improve everywhere is the coach’s message— as only that will good enough to compete with Australia.

“Every single area,” he continued. “We have to improve at the scrum, because we are going to be under huge pressure there, we are going to have to improve our line out play, defensively we will have to be better in the way we get our line speed and also the hits that we are putting in.

“The obvious improvement we need to make is that we have to enjoy having the ball in hand and work with quicker ball.

“There is a lot for us to work on, and the players understand that. That I why we kept the same team to say—go out and show us those improvements.”

The coach has set a mark of a 15% improvement for the Wallabies, and flanker John Barclay says that’s the least he expects.

He said, “At the weekend we set out to win at all costs and we did that reasonably comfortably, but it says a lot for the guys that you come up against a team like Fiji—above us in the world rankings—and be disappointed to beat them by 13 points.

“There wasn’t relief exactly afterwards, but we did know we have to play better to win next week and that became more apparent when we watched the game on Monday.

“We were frustrated and angry at the way we have played, but it’s still a lot better to have come in to see those clips having won.”

Robinson may have considered bringing back Ben Cairns, now fit again, and his probable original outside centre—but he was genuinely impressed with Alex Grove’s debut.

The coach has invested too much faith in Alasdair Strokosch as his new pack leader to bring back Jason White after only one game.

The only other switch that might have been considered was to replace Simon Danielli, whose defensive lapse allowed Fiji their try, with either Thom Evans or Nikki Walker—but Robinson has opted to leave well alone.

Johnnie Beattie missed training with an ankle problem on Monday, but returned to work yesterday, with Mike Blair expected to do so this morning after an ankle injury.

A cognitive test to the former captain after he seemed to take a head knock when on as a replacement on Saturday has shown no problems.

Scotland—Rory Lamont (Toulon); Sean Lamont (Llanelli Scarlets), Alex Grove (Worcester), Graeme Morrison (Glasgow Warriors), Simon Danielli (Ulster); Phil Godman (Edinburgh), Chris Cusiter (Glasgow Warriors, capt); Alan Jacobsen (Edinburgh), Ross Ford (Edinburgh), Moray Low (Glasgow Warriors); Nathan Hines (Leinster), Alastair Kellock (Glasgow Warriors); Alasdair Strokosch (Gloucester), John Barclay (Glasgow Warriors), Johnnie Beattie (Glasgow Warriors).

Replacements—Dougie Hall (Glasgow Warriors), Kyle Traynor (Edinburgh), Jason White (Clermont-Auvergne), Richie Vernon (Glasgow Warriors), Mike Blair (Edinburgh), Chris Paterson (Edinburgh), Nick De Luca (Edinburgh).