Sean Lineen has challenged his players to re-establish the "A team ethos" when they take on Italy tomorrow.

Lineen, who wants to coach the side when they defend their IRB Nations Cup title this summer, was deeply disappointed by the way a highly experienced Scotland A, containing two British & Irish Lions in Mike Blair and Euan Murray, performed when pandora beads losing to Ireland A in Belfast a fortnight ago.

With those two, as well as Jim Hamilton and Nick De Luca, having subsequently been promoted to the senior national squad it is a more youthful team who will take on the Italians in Biella, but the coach seemed genuinely excited by the prospect.

The Glasgow Warriors head coach has worked regularly with Scotland A for the past two years since he and Andy Robinson, who was then Edinburgh's coach, took them to Italy and claimed an impressive win. Since then, the A team has been a relative success story, culminating in last summer's IRB Nations Cup triumph in Bucharest and continuing into the autumn when they played the Tonga full national team in the autumn before they suffered that thumping 34-19 defeat by the Irish.

"I suppose the A team ethos was let down against Ireland," he said yesterday. "It was always going to be a tough game but the manner in which we coughed up the ball and let in a few quite soft tries. Our desire didn't match our ambition in a way. We wanted to play, but we didn't realise how hard we would have to work when we make mistakes.

"The Irish match wasn't good enough. We had no excuses. We had a good team out, but we coughed up the ball too much, we didn't react quickly enough and our team desire wasn't strong enough as a group.

"The A team over the last few years have been really strong on team spirit and on wanting to play rugby, but we've got to make sure we do the basics. I thought we did that outstandingly against Tonga in the autumn and coming up against a well-prepared Irish team we knew we had to do the basics well, so that was disappointing."

Lineen acknowledged that the A team have functions to perform other than to be competitive in their own right, making that match in Belfast an important one for the likes of Blair and Hamilton, who were rusty as they sought match fitness after recovering from long- term injuries.

In its way, then, the side he has picked this time is arguably better placed to focus fully on being competitive, with a smattering of senior figures like Simon Webster and Scott Gray surrounded by the nation's most promising players.

"It's a young hungry group of players when you look at the likes of Richie Vernon, Richie Gray, Kyle Traynor, Alex Grove, Ruaridh Jackson. These are guys who are on the verge of winning caps or already have have a handful. These are the players you want to have in the A team to push them forward. The most satisfaction you get with the A team is seeing young guys coming through."

For everyone involved in the A team, the main incentive is to catch the eye of the senior team's management and, even if they do not force their way into the Six Nations reckoning, several of those who are in this squad will be heading for Argentina for this summer's two-match Test series.

Others will form the nucleus of the A squad heading back to the IRB Nations Cup when, for the first time in a decade, a senior Scottish international team will defend a title. "We're just finalising dates and who's going to be involved
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