We can take advantage of a below- par Wales outfit
SCOTLAND’S warm- up match against Georgia on Friday was satisfying if not overwhelming. Any victory by eight tries to one has to be seen as a useful exercise, especially since it showed that Scotland could take on the big Georgians up front and also punish their mistakes with some very fine attacking play.
Even Georgia’s try was a trifle fortuitous, and over the 80 minutes there was no doubt about the dominant and better team. Wales’ warmup match against France in Paris, however, was a complete contrast with the home side running in five tries to win comfortably.
Here’s how one of my wellinformed Welsh observers saw it: “Huge disappointment. Our defence coach appears to have learnt nothing from the Six Nations games. Our alignments were out of sync. We were torn to shreds by an ebullient French team.
“The scrum half, Antoine Dupont, had a tremendous quicksilver game, and we appeared slow- witted and ponderous in comparison. Dan Biggar definitely had a problem. He doesn’t miss that many kicks. He looked to have
a leg injury in the middle of the first half and been in some pain. Considering it was the leg he pivots on to kick, someone in the management team should have been aware of the consequences of it. Dan should have been replaced early in the second half ( it was a friendly, after all) and Rhys Patchell given a run. As it was Biggar declined one pot at goal and missed three others.
“It is decision making like this that can win or lose the game. Not been impressed with Wayne Pivac so far. I am fearful that the visit to the Parc Y Scarlets will end up in ignominy for the Welsh, as Scotland looked to be confident, sharp and full of running. Especially so if Hogg & co return!”
Thanks for that, PB, and hope the Scotland camp take your message to heart.
Arithmetically I have to correct those who say that Scotland are only playing for fourth place in the 2020 Six Nations table. All it would take to finish third would be for us
to beat Wales, and assuming England beat Italy, if Ireland beat France in their match in Paris without the hosts scoring a bonus point then we would finish third. That would be a remarkable achievement considering Scotland’s poor start to the tournament and would make us rue those mistakes against Ireland and England even more.
It is such a pity that there will be no crowd in Llanelli on Saturday to acclaim the great Alun Wyn Jones as he breaks the world record for international caps. He has been a complete inspiration to the Welsh and the British and Irish Lions and I’m sure I speak for every Scottish rugby fan in congratulating him on his magnificent career so far. For cap 149, the Welsh will be fired up to give their captain a day to remember, but Scotland must take the field being prepared to spoil the party.
How we achieve that is the question that Gregor Townshend will be mulling over right up to the final whistle on Saturday. In reality, this match is a dead rubber between two teams who have underperformed in this tournament, so part of me wants to see both sides fling the ball about and give us some good entertainment, and let’s face it, we could do with that just now. But my head says this will be a massive defensive battle for dominance in all positions and in which the tackle count will be very high, and the winners will be those who keep the opposition out.
In my opinion Finn Russell must start the game, because of his strength in defence as well as his attacking ability. Scotland will surely have Stuart Hogg back in the number 15 Jersey after his double winning exploits with Exeter Chiefs, but with Sean Maitland having blotted his copy book in the Barbarians’ coronavirus idiocy, I would like to see versatile back Blair Kinghorn keep his place in the team.
No disrespect to Darcy Graham, but the possibility of Scotland having two giant wingers in Kinghorn and Duhan van der Merwe is mouth- watering.
Unlike my old Scotsman colleague Norman Mair I wouldn’t dream of telling the Scotland coach how to pick his team but I think we need big powerful men everywhere and the following XV would make a terrific starting lineup, while we would still have plenty talents on the bench.
Hogg; Kinghorn, Harris, Lang, van der Merwe; Russell, Price; Sutherland, Brown, Z Fagerson; Gray, Cummings; Ritchie, Watson, M Fagerson.
Start with that XV and have the likes of Nel, Toolis, McInally, Skinner, Hastings, Jones, and Graham to come off the bench and we might well be party poopers on Saturday.
We might well be party poopers