Farrell and Co exposed by Scottish grit and self-belief
I’M TECHNICALLY still clinging on as a professional rugby player. The miscreants I play with spend many a day winding me up about how I’m the grandad of the team at 35. It is true, and I have to admit it on occasion as I drag my weary carcass off the floor each day in training at Newcastle. But even at my age, albeit broken and battered, I was still more fresh faced than those who were around the last time Scotland won at Twickenham. No longer.
This was the challenge that faced the Scottish players last weekend. In fact, it’s very safe to say none of the 23 that took the field were born or potentially even thought of before the last time Scotland went south and won at Twickenham in 1983. Can you imagine that? In your lifetime an event that you wished for more than anything else had never occurred. Shocking. But then ‘when Saturday comes’ at last, it doesn’t half come.
We can try to put context on this, but it is delicate. England were poor – in fact they were dismal – but is that unfair on Scotland? Were England left stunned and clueless because of how
If the barometer of a Test side is their captain, then England’s leader was MIA
well Scotland played? They deserved their victory. England were unable to find rhythm as the visiting team frustrated, out-enthused and outthought the hosts.
The marauding band of brothers marched south in the knowledge the weather, and England’s preparations, suited them, and my goodness did they take the chance. They suffocated England. We saw nothing of their bigtime players. If the barometer of a Test side is their captain, then the home team’s leader was MIA.
Owen Farrell is the barometer because he is such a wonderful competitor. However, without a club game in more than five months, to ask him to drive a team forwards with his normal aplomb was a huge ask. Added to that, there were four Saracens team-mates who, due to their club’s punishment for financial irregularities, had also not played any rugby. It meant England could not rely on those men they normally do.
Added to that, their high illdiscipline, poor attack and lack of possession left them with an almost impossible task to salvage the game.
From the moment Maro Itoje charged down Ali Price, and subsequently Jonny Hill dived off his feet when the tryline beckoned, England never recovered the favour of the referee. Scotland rode the wave of belief, emotion and the whistle.
They dominated the gritty parts of the game. Referee’s calls or not, they looked like a different beast to the one that often comes south. The belief between the 23 was almost tangible, made even more remarkable by the fact Finn Russell, their talismanic No.10, had an indifferent game by his high standards.
This result breaks open the tournament. Scotland will be looking at this weekend as a huge opportunity, as an injury-ravaged Welsh side comes to town, with a chance of Gregor Townsend’s team being two from two and setting up a winner-takes-all game in Paris in their third match.
It leaves England, the tournament favourites, on the back foot, with a huge mountain to climb, especially with France winning in such outstanding fashion. Italy this weekend at Twickenham will not be a procession – the hosts will win but the key is the manner in which they do it. For both Eddie Jones and many of his under-performing players, this feels like make or break for the tournament.