Taylor can’t make case for defence after Nice got nasty
WHO would be a Scotland defence coach? When it comes to Scottish sport right now, finding yourself tasked with keeping a clean sheet is only slightly less thankless a job description than being SFA compliance officer.
Football, where our coaches bemoan a historic lack of central defenders, is bad enough. But in rugby yesterday Matt Taylor was being asked to pick the bones out of the first of four warm-up matches ahead of the Rugby World Cup in Japan – a performance where Scotland’s defence was unable to stop a rampant French side scoring five tries to nil.
And all this despite defence being made the main focus of the national team’s eight-week training camp.
Even worse is the sobering fact that, for all the attacking chutzpah of Gregor Townsend’s team, you had to think back to a 14-9 win against Argentina in November 2018 for the last time Scotland have kept an opponent try-less or down to double figures.
That was six matches ago, six matches during the calendar year of 2019 where the least they have conceded is 18 points.
As for defending well away from home, well the two matches Taylor alights on when asked if he was genuinely happy with the defensive display were a 44-15 win against Argentina in the summer of 2018, and the 24-19 win against Australia in Sydney in the summer of 2017. In other words, not for a while.
In particular, Taylor bemoans the lack of intensity the Scots showed to defend against the French. And is beating himself up for not doing more to whip them up in a frenzy.
There are unlikely to be the same mistakes as Scotland attempt to atone for that reverse in France at BT Murrayfield this Saturday lunchtime. “Sometimes, as a defence coach, I’ll sit back and think we’ve covered what we need to cover and they’ve gone and done a really good job, but at other times they haven’t,” said Taylor.
“On reflection, we were away from home on Saturday – we had done a lot of work on our defence, we had done a lot of work on everything – and we just left it up to the players to get themselves in the right frame of mind.
“With it being a warm-up in a nice place like Nice, we just assumed that level of intensity was going to be there, and it wasn’t.
“Listen, whether you are an attack coach or a defence coach if you do a good job you get credit, if you don’t, you get criticism,” he added.
“You know, every opportunity I get to coach or represent Scotland I want to do a good job and we didn’t do that. I am disappointed in that. And I am disappointed in myself. “I told the players that I didn’t get them to where I need to get them psychologically. I will make sure I do that this weekend, but they have to do their part as well.”
While the fervour of a home crowd will help Scotland in the battle this Saturday, the vibe will be different on the other side of the world. The match in Georgia,
I told the players that I didn’t get them to where I need to get them psychologically. I will make sure I do that this weekend