Rob Dewey maintains inside centre is his best position but is ready to rise to the challenge of playing anywhere Scotland coach Frank Hadden asks him.

The 23-year-old will start at outside centre against Ireland tomorrow at Murrayfield, the first of Scotland's two World Cup warm-up matches.

For Dewey it promises to be an interesting and educational afternoon, going head-to-head with Brian O'Driscoll, who will be playing his first game since aggravating a hamstring injury against Italy on March 17th.

Dewey, who will move from troubled Edinburgh to Ulster next season, said: "It is a new thing for me but hopefully I can step up to the plate.

"We've been training really well and I'm looking forward to it.

"We've been doing quite a bit of work on defensive alignment, so now it is a case of putting that preparation into practice.

"I played outside centre against France at the end of the last Six Nations, and I felt quite happy with my defence that day, but obviously it is going to be a new challenge this weekend against Ireland.

"Frank has given me a few words of advice. He wants me to follow guys into the heavy traffic and look for offloads and things like that, so it's a case of trying to be more of a predator rather than playing my usual game of trying to bash through the opposition."

David Strettle, meanwhile, yesterday recalled the moment when his World Cup dream was destroyed - and England lost one of their most dangerous attacking weapons.

Harlequins wing Strettle is unlikely to play again until mid-November after a training injury applied the brakes on a career that had seen him accelerate through the ranks from club player to potential World Cup star.

Strettle had a screw inserted yesterday into the fifth metatarsal in his left foot, fractured during training at the University of Bath on Tuesday.

He said: "I was doing some open running with the ball in hand, and I took a sidestep. I just heard a crunch. I suspected something was broken, but it wasn't confirmed until I had it X-rayed.

"The specialist I saw last night has told me I won't be playing again for 12 weeks, which is obviously a massive disappointment.

"I felt that, subject to selection, I was getting closer to something that everyone dreams of doing, and that is playing in a Rugby World Cup."