POOR IN ATTACK AND DEFENCE... IT DOESN’T GET MUCH WORSE
It is hard to take any positives out of that very disappointing performance. It was so poor.
I have talked before about how Scotland only seem to have one way of playing and if that doesn’t work, they are bereft of any other ideas of how to change the way the game is going. It was clear after 20 minutes that Ireland had done their homework defensively and had worked out where Scotland were attacking.
It is not rocket science to know that Finn Russell and Stuart Hogg are the key attacking players for Scotland. Ireland put huge pressure on Russell and Hogg and that was that. they completely snuffed out Scotland who didn’t try to change things. It was so frustrating to watch.
the players have the experience and rugby nous to know that they had to change the point of attack and use the other players who Ireland had almost ignored. there were times when Duncan taylor was unmarked and absolutely free but Russell passed wide to Hogg.
When Russell is on top of his game, he excels in this area, picking the right option and executing the skill. the defence completely controlled the attack pretty much for the whole game and Scotland looked very naive.
there were too many mistakes as well. the execution was poor, passes dropped, passes behind players, kicks going too far and missed tackles.
It was far too easy for Ireland to score their first three tries; three times in Scotland’s 22 and three tries scored. When your attack is not working you need your defence to keep you in the game but it was poor and Scotland looked defensively soft in comparison to a physical Ireland.
So poor in attack and poor in defence, it doesn’t get much worse.
Sadly it did, with the injury to Hamish Watson which looked like it could be a serious one that rules him out of the rest of the World Cup. He would be a huge loss as he could make a real impact in this tournament and be a key player for Scotland.
the lack of variety in the game plan really worries me. this was Scotland’s most experienced team with all the senior leaders on the pitch but, still, they didn’t seem capable of changing what was happening. We had captain McInally alongside Laidlaw, Barclay, Watson, Gray, Gilchrist — all captains of Scotland or their clubs at some point.
throw in Russell who runs the show and that is a very extensive think-tank yet none of them were able to change the way that Scotland were playing.
the players must take responsibility and I would hope that the senior players’ meeting that will take place has some honest self-reflection on how they manage the games going forward. I have always been confident that Scotland would qualify from this group, but this performance has made me question this now.
Quite simply, there needs to be a huge improvement against Samoa in all aspects of the game to get the campaign back on track and erase the memory of this woeful opening performance.