FAULTY SCOTS HIT OFF SWITCH
Promising year ends on flat note with limp denouement in Dublin
WHEN someone urges you to look at the big picture, your first instinct should always be to wonder what horrors they’re trying to bury in the detail.
Scotland’s glitching, twitching, and blundering final rugby act of 2020 is a case in point.
Anyone subjecting Saturday’s match in Dublin to close inspection may well conclude that Gregor Townsend’s team were perfectly in sync with this new live-streaming era.
Much like the online broadcasters who have wheedled their way into international rugby during this late-lockdown period, the Scots showed themselves to be not quite the finished product.
Plenty of flashy features but consistently let down by an ability to do the basics? Sounds about right.
It was perfectly acceptable, then, to agree with Ali Price when he insisted Scotland have taken enormous strides since last year’s World Cup — and still pick fault with a performance that ended in near-total humiliation.
No offence to one of the most articulate and cerebral players in the game but, for the army of armchair fans watching from back home, the experience was about as enjoyable as trying to get your Amazon Prime feed to produce HD pictures during a light drizzle.
Half an hour of excellence was followed by the tame and tepid surrender of all initiative and momentum. The entire second half was an effort barely worthy of the name. Or the jersey.
And so, having flattered to deceive in fits and starts, Scotland end their Autumn Nations Cup campaign feeling just a little battered, having been beaten up by a pragmatic and power-orientated Ireland.
The home side didn’t exactly reinvent rugby with their percentage-play tactics. But they scored three tries off the back of a solid platform. They also kicked brilliantly. A little too often, for some tastes. But with intent and guile, skill and devilment.
Whatever strength Ireland might have brought to this third and fourth place play- off, Scotland’s total collapse cannot be explained away by merely pointing to the opposition.
If we can cite the yellow card for Duncan Taylor on the half-hour mark as a turning point—the temporary man advantage allowing the Irish to take the lead for the first time in the game just moments before half-time — what was Townsend’s excuse for his team playing most of the second half on t he back foot?
The head coach, about to sign a new deal taking him to the next World Cup in 2023, insisted afterwards that his team hadn’t been ‘bullied’ by Ireland.
But Peter O’Mahony left the pitch having tucked Scotland’s forwards neatly in his pocket.
Some of us are getting tired of bemoaning the Scots’ lack of a nasty type to counteract all the black arts deployed by opponents. The search continues.
Still, Townsend can boast of an overall winning record in a calendar year that began and ended with defeats in Dublin.
From nine outings against a mixed bag of opposition, the Scots emerged with five wins (France, Wales, Georgia and Italy twice) and four defeats (Ireland twice, France and England).
‘We are in a completely different place to when the team came back from Japan,’ said Price (below).
‘ It’s been a strange year for everyone. The fact we’ve been able to finish off the Six Nations and get these games played has been good. I think we’ve played nine tests this year. And, bar this one, we’ve been within a score of every result — win or lose.
‘ I think that shows massive character because we’ve come up against two or three of the best teams in the world, who are in the northern hemisphere.
‘We’ve matched those teams and, on our day, that’s what we’re capable of. I think the way we’ve finished the second half is disappointing. ‘But 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 definitely in a better place than we were this time last year.’ True. But Scotland were at a low ebb post-Japan. The only way was surely up.
For about 30 minutes on Saturday, we dared to dream of seeing them reach new heights.
Good? They were superb in those early stages. Stuart Hogg running, the ball going through hands with pace and accuracy… they were a joy to watch and deserved to be at least 9-6 ahead when Taylor was sinbinned for a deliberate knock-on.
The fact Ireland capitalised on their extra man to go in 11-6 up at half-time, courtesy of a Keith Earls try on a free play during a penalty advantage, was only a minor concern.
But after the break, Scotland weren’t in it. With Johnny Sexton pulling the strings, Ireland scored another couple of tries and, frankly, pulverised the visitors whenever they threatened to bite back.
‘When you’re on the field, you feel these momentum swings,’ added Price. ‘I’ve mentioned before about trying not to compound error on error, penalty upon penalty.
‘When we started the second half, we did exactly that. They had the ball, they were suddenly winning all the collisions.
‘We got into our defensive sets and fronted up. But it’s just a matter of time, almost, when you’re under that amount of pressure.
‘Against a good side who are going to keep the ball, it’ s inevitable that they’ll come away with points.
‘All week we focused on being physical at the breakdown, speed to breakdown. An area where we’d struggled in the February game, especially in attack, was Ireland’s speed over the ball.
‘In the first half, we matched that. Our ball carriers were carrying hard, our speed to support the carrier was good — and we were able to play, force penalties, build a score.
‘Test matches are won and lost on swings in small time periods of games. Poor discipline allowed Ireland to get good field position for the first ten minutes of that second half and they came away with points. Before you know it,
you’re 14 points down and that’s hard to chase.’
Amid the second-half misery, Scotland fans should enjoy Duhan van der Merwe’s dynamic solo try for the sheer beauty of it.
Scotland can draw comfort from that memory during the dark months between now and their next international fixture. England away in round one of the Six Nations. IRELAND: Stockdale 7; Keenan 7, Henshaw 7, Aki 6, Earls 8; Sexton 7, Murray 7; Healy 7, Herring 6, Porter 7, Henderson 6, James Ryan 7, Stander 7, Doris 7, O’Mahony 8. Replacements: Farrell (Henshaw 78), Byrne (Sexton 63), Gibson-Park (Murray 78), O’Sullivan (Healy 65), Kelleher (Herring 65), John Ryan (Porter 74), Roux (Henderson 39), Van der Flier (O’Mahony 51). SCOTLAND: Hogg 7; Graham 5, Harris 6, Taylor 6, Van der Merwe 7; Van der Walt 7, Price 6; Sutherland 7, Brown 6, Z Fagerson 6, Cummings 6, Gray 6, Thomson 6, M Fagerson 6, Ritchie 6. Replacements: Turner (Brown 69), Kebble (Sutherland 64), Nel (Z Fagerson 69), Skinner (Cummings 64), Cowan (Ritchie 69), Hidalgo-Clyne (Price 74), Jones (Taylor 44), Maitland (Graham 56). Referee: Matt Carley (England).