Price right IS
Ali: Hefty defeat can’t undermine all our progress
ALI PRICE is convinced Scotland are still on the up despite suffering their heaviest defeat of 2020 in Dublin.
The 31-16 defeat by Ireland in the Autumn Nations Cup saw them miss out in third place.
The tournament was won by England, who beat France 22-19 in suddendeath extra-time with an Owen Farrell penalty.
Glasgow scrum-half Price says Scotland have come on in leaps and bounds since the misery of last year’s Rugby World Cup.
He said:
“We are in a completely different place to when the team came back from Japan. It’s been a strange year for everyone.
“The fact that we’ve been able to finish off the Six Nations and get these games has been good.
“We’ve played nine Tests this year and, bar this one, been within a score of every result.
“That shows massive chara ct er, because beca we’ve com e up againstagai two or threethre of the bestbes teams in the world. W e ’ve m atched t hose teamste and, ono our day, that’sth what we’re capable of. If you look at the big picture, look at how we’ve gone through the course of these nine games to get to where we are, we’re in a better place than we were this time last year.”
For the first half-hour, Scotland were in charge but when Duncan Taylor was sinbinned, Ireland took control.
They went from 9-3 down at that point to 11-9 up at the break and ten minutes into the second half the lead was 25-9.
Duhan van der Merwe scored a fine solo try and Jaco van der Walt converted but Ireland added two more penalties.
Price admitted: “Poor discipline allowed Ireland to get good field position and they came away with points, which you can’t afford to have happen.”