Oops! Captain Hogg has a Dublin calamity
Scotland began their Six Nations campaign with a 19-12 defeat against Ireland in Dublin. But it could have been oh-so-different had skipper Stuart Hogg not dropped the ball when a try seemed certain.
IRELAND 19 SCOTLAND 12
Stuart
Hogg will remember his first game as Scotland’s Six Nations skipper – but not favourably.
The game was finely poised when smart work and handling saw the ball delivered to the full-back’s hands, and all he had to do was dot the ball down in the left-hand corner.
But he was far too casual and simply dropped the ball as he stooped to ground it and Scotland’s best chance of a try, in a game they could have won, went abegging.
And they had a few good chances, at leasthalf-a-dozen, as they gave as good as they got in the Aviva Stadium.
Gone was the abject no-show when they played the same opponents at the World Cup.
In its place was a dogged determination to go toe-to-toe with Ireland. But whenever the tryline was in sight, either a Scottish error, a careless penalty or streetwise Irish work at the breakdown – sometimes a combination of all three – saw them fail to turn pressure and territory into points.
This was a different Scotland. The coaching team acknowledge they got things wrong in Japan, and that the all-singing, alldancing style simply wasn’t working.
This was far more pragmatic and, while that obviously meant it was less flashy and thrilling, it was still absorbing stuff as they were never out of the game.
The Scots’ backline, even shorn of Finn Russell, boasts as good an array of attacking talent as they’ve had in the professional era. But they just couldn’t unleash it to its full extent.
Speaking of Russell, we really shouldn’t be as Adam Hastings had a fine game in his stead.
He’s from the same mould but actually offers more with the boot from both the tee and the hand, the latter increasingly important as the kicking game becomes evermore vital in today’s rugby.
It was Hastings who banged over a fifthminute penalty to open the scoring. But the lead was short-lived as Ireland found it all too easy to create a yawning gap in Scotland’s defence, through which Johnny Sexton galloped unimpeded, adding the extras himself.
It looked as if – unsurprisingly – Scotland’s new defence coach Steve Tandy hadn’t managed to work miracles in plugging a porous defence in the mere month he’d been in post, though the new emphasis on a pressing defence improved as the game went on.
His fellow newbie coach, scrum specialist Pieter de Villiers, looked to have had more influence as the pack – the heaviest ever fielded in dark blue – won the first of a few scrum penalties and Hastings was on target once again.
The Scots had by far the better of the opening half-hour but they couldn’t get points on the board. Sexton made them pay when he extended the lead to 10-6 with a penalty when Ireland finally broke out of their own half again.
Scotland came out early for the second half, eager to claw back a game they could be leading, but almost immediately coughed up another easy penalty for Sexton to slot home.
The Dark Blues were posing sufficient threat to the keep the normally cocky Aviva crowd quiet, and it looked as if Hogg had notched Scotland’s first try.
But that was the cue for Hoggy’s horror show as he fluffed the rugby equivalent of an open goal – to the horror and disbelief of the visiting fans – and Hastings’ penalty was scant consolation.
Sexton and Hastings exchanged threepointers and with 15 minutes to run we had a four-point game.
When Sam Johnson barged Andrew Conway as he chased a through ball, Sexton goaled his fourth penalty and you sensed it had slipped away from Scotland, though two late assaults on the Ireland line were frustrated by, you guessed it, Ireland milking yet another penalty from the Scots and an unforced error. IRELAND – Larmour; Conway, Ringrose (Henshaw 41), Aki, Stockdale; Sexton (Capt.) (Byrne 73), Murray (Cooney 60); Healy (Kilcoyne 50) (Healy 51) (Porter 66), Herring (Kelleher 73), Furlong (Healy 78), Henderson (Toner 68), Ryan, Stander, Van der Flier, Doris (O’Mahony 5). SCOTLAND – Hogg (Capt.); Maitland, Jones (Harris 65), Johnson (Hutchinson 73), Kinghorn; Hastings, Price (Horne 65); Sutherland (Dell 65), Brown (McInally 46-52, 57), Fagerson (Nel 73), Cummings, Gray (Toolis 65), Ritchie, Watson, Haining (Du Preez 73).