Hogg happy defence is proving to be Scots best form of attack
St u a r t Ho g g is ri g h t l y regarded as one of the best attackers in world rugby.
So it’s ironic that the current five- game unbeaten run being enjoyed by the Scotland team he skippers is based largely on a solid defence.
Since Steve Tandy came on board as defence coach they’ve shipped just a try- a- game on average, and their 59 points conceded was the meanest record in the recent Six Nations.
But when the man who’ll captain his country against France in the Autumn Nations Cup at BT Murrayfield this afternoon is asked if he’s missing the swashbuckling style of old, Hogg insisted: “Absolutely not.
“We’re winning Test matches and that’s what we’re here to do. I fully believe in our scrum and lineout, our set- piece in general, that we are going to cause teams problems.
“I love the attitude of the players, because I turned round twice against Italy and Wales and said: ‘ We’re going after them’ and everyone nodded and agreed and we got two tries on the back of it.
“The mindset and the attitude in the camp is huge. I love the fact we’re challenging each other to go after teams.
“We enjoy the challenge of trying to get the ball back. We don’t feel stressed in any way about our systems, we back each other. We try to spend as much time as we can in attack but Steve Tandy has brought a whole new outlook to the way that we defend.
“It’s given us confidence and you can see that in the way that we’ve performed. The big thing now is taking that confidence, turning it into belief and really going after France.
“A large part of the game now is turnover attack and the ability to punish teams after defending.
“That’s when the likes of myself and the rest of the back three come alive because we have very little influence on what’s happening on the frontline in terms of boys smashing each other.
“We want to be tough to beat and to fight for absolutely everything that we can. We want people to be getting off the deck and smashing lumps out of guys, going time after time after time.
“Te a m s w i l l b re ak down eventually. If we continue to go after them, they’ll get bored and kick us the ball.
“That’s what we want. Any time France kick on Sunday, we’ll see that as a little victory because they no longer want to attack.”
Scotland beat France in the Six Nations in March after going after them with such aggression, prop Mohamed Haouas was sent off for punching chief pest Jamie Ritchie.
As Hogg explained: “We rattled France the last time just through being in their face the whole time – and they didn’t like it.
“That’s what we’re about. We need to have that hunger and desire to go after teams.
“We k n ow that we’ l l be disciplined and, hopefully, they’re not.
“We’ll meet fire with fire and enjoy the challenge.”
Though h e’s wa r n e d his charges against focusing on one Frenchman more than another this afternoon, Steve Tandy admitted they will have to keep a close eye on live wire scrumhalf Antoine Dupont.
“Yeah, he’s pretty special isn’t he?” nodded the Welshman. “He is up there as a world-class No. 9.
“He is a danger, he can take people on, he is a great off-loader, he can kick off both feet. He sees space really quickly so we know we can’t leave any separation in our defensive line.
“If you leave even a metre too much, he will take you on and get offloads and then you’ve got the big guys able to sit you down around the gainline.
“That’s where we’ve got to be really on point around that ruck area because if he spots even half a gap, he is generally through it.
“And if he has got through it, there is an offload coming off the back of it.”