JOHN Brain has hit out at Scotland over their treatment of Ben Hinshelwood.

Worcester's director of rugby has become increasingly frustrated with Scotland's insistence of playing Hinshelwood at full-back and has urged new coach Matt Williams to give him a chance at centre.

Hinshelwood didn't get one op-portunity to show his attacking prowess against England on Saturday and Brain believes Scotland's stance over Hinshelwood isn't getting the best out of the 26-year-old.

"It's frustrating," said Brain. "Andy Keast (Worcester's coach) spent all of last season telling the previous Scotland coach Ian McGeechan that Ben was a better centre than a full-back and I've certainly told the current coach that.

"When you look at what they've got in the centre, you've got to wonder why Ben isn't playing there. He has power and pace and I don't think you can say that they've got an abundance of that in their midfield.

"Ben doesn't touch the ball in attack when he plays for Scotland. You don't have to know a lot about rugby to understand that, to get the best out of Ben, you need to get him involved in the action as much as possible.

"How can you assess Ben if he doesn't touch the ball in attack? At the end of the day, it's not Ben's problem, it's the way Scotland play.

"I've tried to talk to Matt Williams but he's a very difficult man to get hold of. I'm obviously a relatively unimportant individual in the grand scheme of things. Why should he talk to a mere minion like me? I'd have more luck trying to get hold of the Ayatollah!"

Brain, still irritated by Williams' mantra that his international players should be playing their club rugby north of the border to enhance their prospects, was equally damning over Scotland's overall quality.

"To be perfectly honest, the Scottish team would struggle in the Zurich Premiership," added Brain. "They would, without a doubt, fail to qualify for the last eight of the Heineken Cup.

"You have to put them into context as a team and they're not a particularly good team. That's why it's such a surprise when a top quality centre like Ben isn't given the chance in his best position."

Meanwhile, James Brown will miss Worcester's next two league games after having his hand put in plaster.

The fly-half has fractured his thumb and will now miss Worcester's trips to Henley and Penzance & Newlyn. Jon Higgins, who was on loan at Newbury, has returned to Sixways as cover.

Full-back Duncan Roke played 65 minutes of Worcester's second team clash with Orrell at the weekend and could be in contention for a squad place against Henley -- his former club -- on Saturday. Chris Hall is, however, struggling with a back injury.