Scotland lose to England but is this a blessing in disguise?

So Scotland lost to England today and I'm not particularly surprised.

Credit though has to go to David Denton for an EPIC performance, he really stepped up to the plate.

Dan Parks, arguably the entire reason we lost that match. Not only because of that stupid kick, but because he was atrocious otherwise. The difference when Laidlaw came on was tenfold, it was just about 60 minutes too late.

Like an illness though we're battling the Parks virus, and now we have the antibodies to remove him from our system, finally. If that wasn't proof to Robbo that this man does not deserve to be anywhere near the team sheet I don't know what else is. So like the disease we'll finally have Parks flushed out, and hopefully this time its for good!

Those kind of 'Blessings in disguise' are the type that you can do without, and i would rather have a grudging, not very classy win than a 'Blessing in Disguise' Defeat.

However, i quite enjoyed the game today as i felt that England would lose, but thanks to AR and Dan Parks i need not have worried. What a day for the new look England and this should have given them some confidence, possibly to go with their arrogance. Hope that AR is ashamed of his comments and enjoys his humble pie later on!! Sad really, no really !!

There's been proof aplenty prior to today, arguably Parks' only good season in recent memory was Robinson's first season in charge. He had some shocking moments in NZ which should have warranted his omission, namely the two kick off's out on the full (I think it was against Romania).

There areno blessings in dusguise in a loss.
Scotland, with all the possession, should have put England away. The boys in white were very fortunate.

How many times do we say that about Scotland though. Even if Parks isn't playing.

I just dont see Robinson picking him and is it a good idea to make changes against Wales?

Wales have a quick and agressive defense the last thing you may want to do is have Laidlaw spinning it wide for those Welsh monsters in the backline to hammer.

Then again with Parks kicking it aimlessly for north, Cuthbert and Halfpenny to counter attack, it could get messy. North and Cuthbert would be very hard for little Evans and Jones to stop.

Scotlands only hope would be to get a quick rucking game going and use Gray and Denton to punch through close range and tie Wales in, to try and get Jones and Evans with space on the outside of their bigger opponents.

the difference being this time though we actually have some competition, Weir MoTM for Scotland A, Laidlaw's looking solid, when Jackson comes back he'll be in the squad, there'll be no room for Parks therefore no excuses for picking him anymore!

Lets be honest that is not an England team that is going to frighten too many sides but somehow Scotland engineered a loss.

Parks was dreadful.

Scotland have a decent back 3 but Scotland at 10,12 and 13 are going no where in a hurry. It was all so laboured. Cussiter takes his time to get the ball out, Parks catches it , stops , shuffles, turns and then hands out a slow pass and by then the opposition defence is all over them. Besides this I thought they were standing too deep which when you are doing things so slowly is a major problem.

Scotland I feel more than anything need a 12.

Laidlaw will surely get the 10 spot now. Won't he??

When Visser qualifies I would move Max Evans in to 13 to make space for Visser on the wing. Max Evans is so strong and quick that he could do some damage there I think but at the moment he is just not getting the ball in his hands enough. The missing piece of the puzzle the for me is a decent 12 who can put Evans in to space to create breaks for Jones and Visser to finish.

I think this is why Scotland were courting Shingler as he could have provided that missing piece of the jigsaw.

scotland are useless end of they never win nothing in sport everyone laughs at them .

I don't see why this loss is a blessing in disguise.

Everything you know now, you knew before this match.

I wonder if England would have played better with Lawes, Wood, Flood and Tuilagi in the side?

biltongbek wrote:I don't see why this loss is a blessing in disguise.

Everything you know now, you knew before this match.

Oh we knew it, everyone in scotland knew it, everyone except Andy Robinson and Gregor townsend.

I didnt want us to lose today, and theres nothing good about losing, but when you have a coaching team that put a positive spin on dreadfull performances in victory (See our pool games against Romania and Georgia) in order to justify maintaining the status quo rather than accepting that their current strategy is utter bull and shaking up the way they do things, you can take some comfort from seeing them in a position where they surely will now have to admit that they were wrong.

Its been implied by many sources that Robinson holds too much power within the SRU and is not held nearly accountable as he should be for failings that are his doing (selection and tactics). I only hope the media actually start putting the pressure on him, although they have a reputation for pandering to the sru and not actually saying "this is not good enough".

Scotland are finding out that AR has a problem when faced with a choice, he laways picks the wrong one.

This is teh guy that picked opat Sanderson, an out and out 7 to play at 8 for the first time at international level.

He had a choice of two proper 8's, couldn't decide so picked Sanderson