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Pleasant setting for the national team? (11)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

countryside

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'pleasant setting' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both locations as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I don't see?

'national team?' is the wordplay.
'national' becomes 'country' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'team?' becomes 'side' (both can mean a sports team).
'country'+'side'='COUNTRYSIDE'

'for the' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for countryside that I've seen before include "The green and pleasant part of our land" , "Turned so icy (anag.)" , "Rural area" , "Rural areas" .)

I've seen this clue in The Globe and Mail and The Irish Independent.
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