Scotland 2020 Internationals

First topic message reminder :

With club rugby in Europe back up and running I thought it might be time to begin a new International thread.

Scotland's Upcoming 2020 International Fixtures

Warm Up

Scotland vs Georgia 23rd October BT Murrayfield (KO TBC)

6 Nations

Wales vs Scotland 31st October 2.15pm KO (venue TBC)

Eight Nations Tournament pool games

Italy vs Scotland November 14th November 12.45pm KO (Venue TBC)

Scotland vs France 22nd November 3pm KO BT Murrayfield

Scotland vs Fiji 28th November 1.45pm KO BT Murrayfield

December 5th Eight Nations play-off matches (1st vs 1st, 2nd vs 2nd, 3rd vs 3rd, 4th vs 4th)

TheMildlyFranticLlama wrote:

NeilyBroon wrote:I think what tattie is saying is that it isn't going to happen, which is probably true but we can't accept that as a standard when it's been baseline for so long. Toonie was signed on the back of promising that he'd improve the side, so he needs to deliver and needs to be accountable for how far backwards we've gone, and let's not forget the massive WC failure that never should have happened.

It's particularly difficult to forget when you travelled all the way over there to witness that, believe me! Great trip though, Scottish rugby aside

I had a fantastic time visiting Japan a while ago. Lovely people and beautiful scenery, and so so clean!

Finn Russell is back for Racing! Hopefully he's not been rushed back as that's much earlier than was predicted.

RDW wrote:Finn Russell is back for Racing! Hopefully he's not been rushed back as that's much earlier than was predicted.

Fingers crossed!

So, potentially, we could have Wales and Japan in our World Cup group as a draw?
I wouldn't be disappointed with that.

Anglobraveheart wrote:So, potentially, we could have Wales and Japan in our World Cup group as a draw?
I wouldn't be disappointed with that.

We thought that about Ireland Japan and look how that turned out!!

I think I've written off the next WC, it's very unlikely we'll get a nice pool. All I hope is at least Toonie can keep us in the top 8 for the next draw.

Wur all doomed!!
C'mon Nelly, we are in transition, and we need to remember:
1. Ireland have evolved into our bogey team, but bogeys can eventually be flicked away.
2. Japan trained as a unit for about 15 months prior to their event. And with that advantage alongside their home event, they beat us by 7 points.
Break it down, and we can break them down too.
The draw will be what it will be, but we can find a way to win if the will is there and the minds are right.

Anglobraveheart wrote:Wur all doomed!!
C'mon Nelly, we are in transition, and we need to remember:
1. Ireland have evolved into our bogey team, but bogeys can eventually be flicked away.
2. Japan trained as a unit for about 15 months prior to their event. And with that advantage alongside their home event, they beat us by 7 points.
Break it down, and we can break them down too.
The draw will be what it will be, but we can find a way to win if the will is there and the minds are right.

Like the attitude, let's see what happens in the next two years of Toonies contract. I would love to be proved wrong!

Bet we get:

New Zealand
France
us
Samoa
Some random team that makes up the numbers

South Africa, Ireland, maybe Tonga and Spain, Belgium or Russia.

It is going to take a top performance to get out of that group.

What a farce. Feel bad for the players and coaches, that's a tough group. I can't believe Fiji, Aus and Wales are all playing each other again in the same group. World Rugby need to change the way they do the draws.

bsando wrote:What a farce. Feel bad for the players and coaches, that's a tough group. I can't believe Fiji, Aus and Wales are all playing each other again in the same group. World Rugby need to change the way they do the draws.

What can they do though? There's simply not enough teams that play in the tournament.

Scotland have been drawn with Ireland again. Also the 2nd tie in 3 tournamnets we've had SA.

Only way to do it would be to draw on a basis of who you've not played before and then it's not a draw it becomes predeterminded and one step closer to a world league1

I think they could easily set it up so each Tier 1 team can't be drawn with teams they played in the previous WC. Therefore as an example, Wales could not be drawn with AUS or FIJI and NZ could not be drawn with SA or Italy. That would be one way to go about it.

It's only an issue for Rugby because the pools are so small compared with the football world cup. It just seems like it is a pretty fixable problem to me.

I also blame Alice Renevand and Guy Savoy

Really wish we could swap with Fiji. Probably the easiest group at the minute. England got a good group as well with Argentina and Japan.

Well, there is always a group of death and this is it. This is the reason why losing to Japan was such a pain. We know we have to be better than Ireland or SA on a day sometime in late 2023 and who knows what any of the sides will look like by then.

It's alright, it'll be about 6 years after our last win against Ireland, we're due another!

So realistically we have to beat Ireland to reach the last eight. We are currently 15 points behind Ireland based on our last showing. Of the team that played; Chris Harris will be 32, Duncan Taylor 34, Brown 34, Thomson 33. The rest will be 30 or under. The question is, will Townsend be able to get enough over the next three years to make them sufficiently better that we can make our mark on the next world cup. At the moment it is odds on that we will fail to reach the knockout stages in three out of four world cups.

Not a good draw at all, but to be fair we only had a 1 in 4 chance of getting a decent top seed pick. Ireland are probably the 2nd worst 2nd seed pick.

We were never going to get an easy ride of it. As a draw though it isn't ideal to see so many of the same teams playing against each other again. Wales can count themselves lucky with that draw - particularly as their current performances aren't warranting the top seed status. No idea what shape Australia will be in come 2023.

I'm guessing we're playing for a quarter final against the ABs again?

As a draw there's not a huge amount of excitement here - it's basically going to come down to who wins out of Scotland-Ireland and Wales-Australia. I can already foresee what will happen with the former!

What I would say is I hope for a sympathetic fixture schedule given what happened last tournament.

Hazel Sapling wrote:Really wish we could swap with Fiji. Probably the easiest group at the minute. England got a good group as well with Argentina and Japan.

Well, there is always a group of death and this is it. This is the reason why losing to Japan was such a pain. We know we have to be better than Ireland or SA on a day sometime in late 2023 and who knows what any of the sides will look like by then.

Couldn't agree more with your sentiment here. The draw isn't the problem it's our inability to perform at world cups, particularly when facing the more physical teams. We're constantly looking for a "good draw" when we should be focusing on being able to beat the other Tier 1 sides. Here in NZ they really, really don't care about the draw - they just set out to beat whoever they play. Admittedly the occasional period of mourning and hit to the economy when they don't win can be a bit distressing ;-)

Does someone fancy doing a Scotland 6N thread?

Or has 2020 been depressing enough...?

RDW wrote:Does someone fancy doing a Scotland 6N thread?

Or has 2020 been depressing enough...?

I've done one so feel free to have a look

It might be a bit lengthy but I hope it is OK, let me know if it's too lengthy etc and I can work on reducing it a bit .

https://www.606v2.com/t69891-scotland-6n-2021-thread

Great work HS - that's perfect.

Early start for you??

I'm always up this early lol, I usually go to bed about half 4, during Australian Open Tennis, it can get even later, round about 5 :P.

Ah cool I thought my thread may have been a bit t lengthy.

Do you just really like watching Aussie afternoon TV or something to get up that early every day??

https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/sport/18963302.ten-reasons-scotland-rugby-fans-positive-2021/

A good article about why we should be optimistic in 2021 .

And here are the thoughts of John Barclay and Chris Paterson

https://www.scottishrugbyblog.co.uk/2020/12/barclay-paterson-former-captains-discuss-state-of-the-nation/

Thanks Shaun, the stand out comment for me was the appearance of the adjective "Russellesque".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/55429665

https://www.theoffsideline.com/mike-adamson-referee-six-nations/?v=79cba1185463

Mike Adamson to be first Scot to referee a Six Nations game since 2002 when he refs England vs Italy

Finally seeing some growth in that area of the game. As much as it feels like a rollercoaster, Scottish rugby has generally trended up over the last decade. Hopefully we can get a couple more coming through. Is it Tim Swinson who is keen on reffing when he is finished?

https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/sport/18969763.2020-rollercoaster-scottish-rugby-world-cup-exit/

Another good read .

https://www.606v2.com/t69901-2020-scottish-rugby-end-of-year-awards#3944411

The moment you've all been waiting for!