6N 2017: Scotland v Ireland, 4 February

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SCOTLAND v IRELAND 
4 February 2017
KO: 14:25
BT Murrayfield, Edinburgh

Referee: Romain Poite (France)
Touch judges: Jaco Peyper (South Africa) and Nick Briant (New Zealand)
TMO: Glenn Newman (New Zealand

Live on BBC, RTE, DMAX, FR2, ITV (H)

A. Head to Head

132 Played 132
66 Won 61 
5 Drawn 5
61 Lost 66
1,380 Points 1,475

B. Recent Form

19 March 2016
Aviva Stadium, Dublin
35 – 25 to Ireland

15 August 2015
Aviva Stadium, Dublin
28 – 22 to Ireland

21 March 2015
BT Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh
10 – 40 to Ireland

2 February 2014
Aviva Stadium, Dublin
28 – 6 to Ireland

24 February 2013
Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh
12 – 8 to Scotland

10 March 2012
Aviva Stadium, Dublin
32 – 14 to Ireland

6 August 2011
Murrayfield, Edinburgh
10 – 6 to Scotland

27 February 2011
Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh
18 – 21 to Ireland

20 March 2010
Croke Park, Dublin
20 – 23 to Scotland

C. Teams

SCOTLAND 

15-Stuart Hogg; 14-Sean Maitland, 13-Huw Jones, 12-Alex Dunbar, 11-Tommy Seymour; 10-Finn Russell, 9-Greig Laidlaw (capt); 1-Allan Dell, 2-Fraser Brown, 3-Zander Fagerson, 4-Richie Gray, 5-Jonny Gray, 6-Ryan Wilson, 7-Hamish Watson, 8-Josh Strauss

Replacements: 16-Ross Ford, 17-Gordon Reid, 18-Simon Berghan, 19-Tim Swinson, 20-John Barclay, 21-Ali Price, 22-Duncan Weir, 23-Mark Bennett

IRELAND

15-Rob Kearney; 14-Keith Earls, 13-Robbie Henshaw, 12-Garry Ringrose, 11-Simon Zebo; 10-Paddy Jackson, 9-Conor Murray; 1-Jack McGrath, 2-Rory Best (captain), 3-Tadhg Furlong, 4-Iain Henderson, 5-Devin Toner, 6-CJ Stander, 7-Sean O'Brien, 8-Jamie Heaslip

Replacements: 16-Niall Scannell, 17-Cian Healy, 18-John Ryan, 19-Ultan Dillane, 20-Josh van der Flier, 21-Kieran Marmion, 22-Ian Keatley, 23-Tommy Bowe.

Composure from Ireland is exceedingly poor. They will want to be in touch by half time or it could be all over.

Scotland with their 3rd try...

Ireland defensive coach is a legend.

Terrible lineout defence Ireland!

We want 4!

I'm feckin loving this. Loving it.

I hope it continues.

TightHEAD wrote:Ireland defensive coach is a legend.

I think the players should be taking the blame, no intensity

Scotland now even collecting restarts... Bad signs for Ireland.

The impudence, the audacity!

What a great game.

eirebilly wrote:Scotland now even collecting restarts... Bad signs for Ireland.

If only they could scrummage.

I guess bonus points is a good thing

We look rattled. The usual lack of inventiveness in attack. Oh dear.

If we don't win the collisions, we don't have the creativity to do much else.

Ireland simply have to stop Scotland scoring anymore points before halftime.

Excellent from Scotland, more composed, better prepared and hungry.

CJ Stander has been the only forward fighting at the breakdown that I have seen. Finally gets his reward.

Lol, heaslip just having a lay down on the wrong side there

Scotland's defence is stopping Ireland getting over the gainline, really putting Ireland on the back foot.

Simply look poorly prepared and lacking any sort of attacking threat. Very predictable from Ireland.

Why do we defend so, so narrow??

Great first half, means the England France match will be boring

Still in touch at half time but I cant see Ireland coming back from this. Scotland are much more structured in attack and defence.

Scotland have the more dangerous backline through Russell, Jones, Seymour and Hogg. The problem was always going to be if they could win up front. Well, scrum aside, that is exactly what they are doing.

Can we win this? Can we actually?

We're going to have to weather an Irish storm that's for sure

Rory_Gallagher wrote:Why do we defend so, so narrow??

Simply, I feel that Cotter has out thought Schmidt so far. Cotter knew exactly how Schmidt was going to approach this game and has countered it brilliantly. The Scottish players have been outstanding and taken every opportunity given.

Our game management has been atrocious. From taking lineouts over scrums, stupid exit strategies and then just running into fantastic scottish tackling jackson and murray are giving no guidance at all.

Scotland are ferocious in the tackle. We're wining the game because we're winning the collision

Scotland have turned up in style. Well worth their superb lead.

Ireland - utter dross.

eirebilly wrote:

Rory_Gallagher wrote:Why do we defend so, so narrow??

Simply, I feel that Cotter has out thought Schmidt so far. Cotter knew exactly how Schmidt was going to approach this game and has countered it brilliantly. The Scottish players have been outstanding and taken every opportunity given.

So we defend so narrow because Cotter out thought schmidt who is not even defense coach? Or are you answering a different question?

Ireland need a rocket up their arses, they are losing the forward battle which mean their backs haven't much ball. But when they do have the ball it's predictable.

Who's the Irish lineout coach? They need sacking

wolfball wrote:

eirebilly wrote:

Rory_Gallagher wrote:Why do we defend so, so narrow??

Simply, I feel that Cotter has out thought Schmidt so far. Cotter knew exactly how Schmidt was going to approach this game and has countered it brilliantly. The Scottish players have been outstanding and taken every opportunity given.

So we defend so narrow because Cotter out thought schmidt who is not even defense coach? Or are you answering a different question?

Would Schmidt not have the overall plan and then the other coaches fit their tactics in to that?

Honestly I think it's a player issue anyway and not a coaching issue.

wolfball wrote:Our game management has been atrocious. From taking lineouts over scrums, stupid exit strategies and then just running into fantastic scottish tackling jackson and murray are giving no guidance at all.

Have to agree with this.

We all knew the line out was a major issue for Ireland but Scotland have exposed it badly. POM desperately the most missed player for Ireland today.

RDW_Scotland wrote:Can we win this? Can we actually?

We're going to have to weather an Irish storm that's for sure

I think the storm is coming from Scotland. It's fairly dry here. I don't see anything changing. This is where we need a Sexton or an O'Mahony to drive the team forward. I just don't think Best or Heaslip lead in that sort of fashion. 

We look rattled. Scotland just need to remain composed and continue to apply the pressure.

wolfball wrote:

eirebilly wrote:

Rory_Gallagher wrote:Why do we defend so, so narrow??

Simply, I feel that Cotter has out thought Schmidt so far. Cotter knew exactly how Schmidt was going to approach this game and has countered it brilliantly. The Scottish players have been outstanding and taken every opportunity given.

So we defend so narrow because Cotter out thought schmidt who is not even defense coach? Or are you answering a different question?

I think that Schmidt had a definite plan to defend narrow expecting a very strong forward battle, Cotter knew this and set his attacks up to spread Ireland thin. Its just my opinion.

Everything that could go wrong..

Badly missing POM for both lineout and defence.

eirebilly wrote:

wolfball wrote:Our game management has been atrocious. From taking lineouts over scrums, stupid exit strategies and then just running into fantastic scottish tackling jackson and murray are giving no guidance at all.

Have to agree with this.

We all knew the line out was a major issue for Ireland but Scotland have exposed it badly. POM desperately the most missed player for Ireland today.

Like I said, I think POM is our 6. Leadership, line-out prowess, aggression in contact. Stander has to fight with Heaslip for the 8 shirt.

I think we should bring van der Flier and Dillane on quite soon if things don't change. A bit of pace and power is much needed.

eirebilly wrote:

wolfball wrote:

eirebilly wrote:

Rory_Gallagher wrote:Why do we defend so, so narrow??

Simply, I feel that Cotter has out thought Schmidt so far. Cotter knew exactly how Schmidt was going to approach this game and has countered it brilliantly. The Scottish players have been outstanding and taken every opportunity given.

So we defend so narrow because Cotter out thought schmidt who is not even defense coach? Or are you answering a different question?

I think that Schmidt had a definite plan to defend narrow expecting a very strong forward battle, Cotter knew this and set his attacks up to spread Ireland thin. Its just my opinion.

Fair enough, well argued

eirebilly wrote:

wolfball wrote:

eirebilly wrote:

Rory_Gallagher wrote:Why do we defend so, so narrow??

Simply, I feel that Cotter has out thought Schmidt so far. Cotter knew exactly how Schmidt was going to approach this game and has countered it brilliantly. The Scottish players have been outstanding and taken every opportunity given.

So we defend so narrow because Cotter out thought schmidt who is not even defense coach? Or are you answering a different question?

I think that Schmidt had a definite plan to defend narrow expecting a very strong forward battle, Cotter knew this and set his attacks up to spread Ireland thin. Its just my opinion.

I'd be surprised by that. Everyone knew Scotland were going to throw it wide.

Rory_Gallagher wrote:

eirebilly wrote:

wolfball wrote:Our game management has been atrocious. From taking lineouts over scrums, stupid exit strategies and then just running into fantastic scottish tackling jackson and murray are giving no guidance at all.

Have to agree with this.

We all knew the line out was a major issue for Ireland but Scotland have exposed it badly. POM desperately the most missed player for Ireland today.

Like I said, I think POM is our 6. Leadership, line-out prowess, aggression in contact. Stander has to fight with Heaslip for the 8 shirt.

I think we should bring van der Flier and Dillane on quite soon if things don't change. A bit of pace and power is much needed.

Heaslip has been great today. SOB has been poor. Flier to come on asap.

We've always defended narrow. That is why Jared Payne was pretty essential at 13. He is an excellent defensive organiser.

Rory_Gallagher wrote:

Like I said, I think POM is our 6. Leadership, line-out prowess, aggression in contact. Stander has to fight with Heaslip for the 8 shirt.

I think we should bring van der Flier and Dillane on quite soon if things don't change. A bit of pace and power is much needed.

Harsh on Heaslip but I would have CJ over him if POM starts at 6.

Defo pace and power required. I do think that Ireland have the stronger bench so if deployed at the right times (Schmidt is very clever at this) then Ireland are not out of this.

The forward pack is doing fine, I don't think POM would make much difference (henderson isn't up to speed really though). Our 3/4s defence is dire and our halfbacks are so predictable.

Would never have thought that Scotland would have scored 3 tries in the first half. 3 tries in the whole game, maybe but not in the first 40 minutes.

Ireland not looking good at all at the moment. they (Ireland) need to come out and really perform and take the game to Scotland in the second half, or else Scotland will win and win comfortably.

Surely Schmidt wouldn't have told Ireland to defend narrow?

1-8 Ireland are better as a unit.
10-15 Scotland are better.

Surely he'd know that Scotland would go wide as often as they could

Scotland can't maintain this defensive effort for the whole of the second half.Ireland are physically stronger in the tight and it will take its toll eventually.
Hope I'm wrong though as with ball in hand they look very dangerous and have exposed Ireland in the wide channels consistently.

Better defence there. SOB looked pretty fired up coming out of the tunnel.

Entertaining match so far - ref letting quite a lot go however ...

Much better there. We need to score though. Scrum - good option.

Best actually makes a good decision to go for the scrum

This could be the crucial point in the game - if this goes in Ireland's favour then I can see Scotland losing a player for 10.

Russell going off for an HIA. He is your key man in this tournament.

Here comes meatball.

Score here and its defo game on considering Ireland Bench.

That try could have saved Scotland a man in the bin...

Okay - game on. Let's go.