When you play as badly as that EVERYONE’S head is rightly on the block
SAYS GRANT GILCHRIST
STRAIGHT-TALKING from the Scotland camp has been somewhat thin on the ground since Gregor Townsend’s side failed to turn up in last Sunday’s World Cup opener against Ireland.
Three days on from the debacle of Yokohama, it took Grant Gilchrist to admit that no player who was involved in that dismal performance deserves to start against Samoa in Kobe on Monday.
Admitting criticism of the display had been absolutely valid, he was nonetheless stung by suggestions that Townsend’s men had not cared enough during their awful bullying at the hands of Joe Schmidt’s outfit.
But the 29-year-old Edinburgh lock confessed: ‘There’s no doubt that when you play as badly as that, everyone’s head is on the block — and so it should be.
‘I am not going to sit here and say anybody deserves their place in the team when they are involved in something like that.
‘It will be up to Gregor who he selects for the next game but the boys who played against Ireland are under no illusions that we are not in a great position.’
Gilchrist confessed that he had been ‘in a dark place’ since the 27-3 thrashing which obliterated the feelgood factor surrounding the team before the tournament began last Friday.
He was at least grateful that the meeting to review the game was open and honest.
‘We now have to close the book on the emotion from that game against Ireland,’ added the second row.
‘We have now got to get our heads up and realise that this World Cup is still alive for us.
‘I was in a dark place for a couple of days. The meeting was a big part of getting us out of that place.
‘Let’s get it all out on the table. Let’s fire the bullets and take the bullets like men. We are professional rugby players.
‘We try not to, but we have the odd bad game. It’s a fact of life. It’s about taking it on the chin and working out how we can be better, collectively and individually.’ Gilchrist let out some of his own frustrations on the training field in Kobe yesterday in what was the team’s first real hit-out since the horror of Yokohama. ‘It was good to get out there,’ he said. ‘The last couple of days were really hard, playing the game over in my head, desperate to have played it better and done things differently. The reality is that we’ve only got the next few training sessions until the next game, so that is the first one done and we have to keep getting better as they go along.
‘There is a huge opportunity on Monday for us to right our wrongs. If we do, the tournament rolls on and we can build on that and set out what we want to achieve in this World Cup and qualify from our group.’
Even without two key players in centre Rey Lee-Lo and hooker Motu Matu’u after they were cited for high tackles in Tuesday’s win over Russia, Gilchrist believes that Samoa will fancy their chances against a Scotland team that looked all at sea.
‘They’ll look at our performance against Ireland and want to have a go at us physically,’ he said.
‘They will want to have a go at some pick and go. I would be disappointed if we conceded a try against them from a drive as we pride ourselves on defending them well.
‘It’s about putting our plans into action now. If we don’t do it on the training pitch, it is not going to just miraculously happen on Monday.
‘We have to put in the hard yards and when we get out there, especially that first ten minutes against Samoa, we have to go through the roof.’
It goes without saying that Scotland can’t afford to start as slowly as they did against Ireland, when they conceded two tries within the first 13 minutes of the match.
‘Simplifying things and getting ourselves into the game early is going to be a big part of our
game,’ nodded Gilchrist. ‘From a front-five point of view, there is always a ruck to hit, there is always a maul to hit, there is always something that can get you physically into the game.
‘We need to make sure that our first actions early on are more aggressive and more energetic than we have ever shown before.
‘People are questioning whether we care and whether we are aggressive enough. That’s hurtful, so we need to go out and really show that we are.’
Gilchrist rightly reasoned, however, that sheer anger is not enough. The tactics have to be spot-on before raw power adds a helping hand.
‘It’s not all just about aggression. There’s a lot of technical things that need to be right to become aggressive,’ he continued.
‘It is not just about us getting angry and going out and hitting the opposition.
‘We would be rubbish if we did that against Samoa. People would say we have lost discipline.
‘Quite often you miss tackles when you try to be aggressive because you are not technically good and we need to guard against that.’
Insisting that cool heads will be required to overcome the South Sea Islanders, Gilchrist added: ‘We’re not going to go out there and chuck the playbook away and say we’re just going to be aggressive.
‘Good, positive aggression comes from being really accurate in what you do and having a bit of edge to you, and that’s what we’re going to try to bring to the game on Monday.’
Scotland captain Stuart McInally, meanwhile, admitted earlier this week that he had no answers to what had befallen his team against the Irish.
He has come in for heavy criticism from those who believe he should have had the team properly fired up.
Gilchrist, for his part, believes his skipper will put the experience behind him and lead the team to better days in this World Cup.
‘He is a strong character,’ insisted Gilchrist.
‘We all had put a lot of work in behind the scenes for the last four or five months building towards the game.
‘There’s no surprise that, in the 48 hours after it, you are going to be in a dark place because everybody is rightly annoyed and a bit p **** d off with how we played.
‘Look, nobody is more annoyed and p **** d off than the guys who have been grafting for the last four months.
‘We understand why everybody else is annoyed but we are more annoyed than anyone.’