Scotland 6N summary and post-mortem

First topic message reminder :

If someone had told me in January that we were gonna come 3rd and score 7 tries I wouldn't have believed them! However I can't help but think we have played worse than last year, and regressed in several aspects. However the question is does that matter? Is 2 wins and 3rd place the be all and end all? I'm not convinced.

England 38 - Scotland 18

Try: Hogg, Maitland
Conversion : Laidlaw
Penalty: Laidlaw (2)

Forgot the scoreboard was so high against us! This wasn't the best start to the championship and we were pretty much 2nd best in every aspect. We were well and truly dominated but scored a couple of cracking tries, announcing our back 3 as a lethal threat that we should look to use more of.

Scotland 34 - Italy 10

Try: Visser, Scott, Hogg, Lamont
Conversion: Laidlaw (4)
Penalty: Laidlaw (2)

Much, much better. Dominated Italy in the 1st half and amassed a large lead. Took the foot off the gas and let Italy dominate possession but we still ran out comfortable winners. Scored 4 - yes 4 - tries and showed some great attacking intent. Hogg's solo effort was one of the tries of the tournament but my personal favourite was Matt Scott's - it came from a first phase move, which we haven't seen for a long time!

All in all a very promising performance and augured well for the future.

However....

Scotland 12 - Ireland 8

Penalty: Laidlaw (4)

The freak game in the championship. Scotland again 2nd best, and had the lowest possession and territory stats in living memory, but still somehow win. Completely reliant on Ireland messing up their chances but we stuck in well and Laidlaw's boot won us the game in the end. Major concerns at the breakdown however.

Scotland 18 - Wales 28

Penalty: Laidlaw (6)

Our lowest point in the championship. Dominated in most aspects of play and destroyed in the scrum. Farcical refereeing and negative tactics from both teams made it a difficult watch, and Wales out-thought us to the win. Back to earth with a bump.

France 23 - Scotland 16

Try: Visser
Conversion: Jackson
Penalty: Laidlaw (3)

Never been a better time to beat France, but we didn't exactly show that we were wanting to! Good first half where Laidlaw dominated but the 2nd half was one of the poorest performances in the championship I think. Fantastic Visser try but why did we wait until the 76th minute to pass it to the backs??


So a real mixed bag of results. I think we had good performances in individual areas over all the 5 games, the problem obviously being that we didn't manage to put them all together at the same time!



Front row

Probably gain pass marks on the whole. Dominated by England and Wales in the scrum, upper hand against Ireland and Italy and just held in against France. Ford's throwing is still suspect, but hew wasn't helped by his jumpers.

2nd row

Again probably just pass marks. Hamilton had a stormer against Ireland but let himself down again Wales. Gray was looking good and very physical up until his injury - hope he gets back playing soon.

Back row

Kelly Eye-brows led from the front in every match and put a huge performance in, even though playing out of position. Harley started off well against Italy but was a lot quieter in the following games. Beattie showed early promise but again faded through the championship. Made a few mistakes and I'm still not convinced by his mentality at this level. Overall though the backrow must take a lot of responsibility for the farce that was our rucking and ball retention.

We desperately need to get Brown back at 6 and a genuine openside fit and in form.

Halfbacks

Laidlaw grew into the little general role as the tournament went on. Best kickier in the 6N and marshaled the pack well. I think he takes too much responsibility on to himself though and there are times when he was needing to just be a scrum half and give some rapid service to the backline.

Standoff was a real mixed bag, but other than the Italy game they were given hee-haw ball. I am a big fan of Weir though and think he is worth sticking with. Jackson showed his usual mix of good touches combined with glaring flaws in his basic skills - i.e. kicking.

Centers

These guys had a real lack of ball in most games, and were resigned to defencive duties in most. Matt Scott had fantastic game against Italy, and showed up well against France. Lamont tries hard but definitely isn't a 13 - time to blood the next generation I think.

Back 3

The stars of the show but criminally underused. If we can keep these 3 together over the coming years they can be real superstars. They have a real good balance - Visser the finisher, Maitland the alrounder and Hogg the spark in attack. Question marks on defence but that should get better.


Summary

All in all disappointing performances but 2 wins and 7 tries. Massive amount of work required on the breakdown and ball retention - how has it gone downhill so quickly?? - but hopefully we can get a good coach in that can fix it. We have a lethal back 3 that can win us games - we just need to give them some ball.

Oh right - his hair must have got in his eyes then ! Why did he stop doing it ?

Because hes gone off form, like so many players do. Thats like asking why did Ronan O'Gara decide to stop kicking Ireland to victory every game.

The sexual tension between you two is palpable...

you could cut it with a cricket stump.

In other news I almost literally bumped into Richie Gray yesterday in Edinburgh - he didn't seem to be limping or anything so hopefully the hammy injury isn't too major.

Of course it is a good thing we didn't collide as I would have overwhelmed him with my manly strength...

What's he doing in Edinburgh a fortnight after the 6N? Unless...

He has been getting care at the Murrayfield spire hasn't he?

I did wonder that. Maybe he's not Mr popular at Sale anymore having played a handful of games, got injured and announced he's buggering off at the end of the season!

God knows what he was doing in Dalry though! It seems to be a fairly popular area with the rugby guys - I used to pass Andy Robinson quite a lot and Rob Moffat either lives there or owns a flat there. I know a lot of the guys live in Roseburn.

Big Richie still has his flat in Hyndland too. Rock on big man and get down to Scotstoun tonight !