Scotland were rubbish – the review will be brutal, admits Barclay
Straight after this record shellacking, John Barclay summed up Scotland’s performance in three pithy words: “We were rubbish.” The man who captained his nation to an embarrassingly emphatic defeat was in no mood to make excuses afterwards.
“Momentum is a big word in rugby and we got such a bad start,” he said. “But by no means did that define the game – we gave away soft tries. It’s hard to appraise it at the moment but we’ve always been a very honest bunch of guys so it’ll be a pretty brutal review because there were just so many errors.
“It’ll be a test of character but this is good group of men – we’re not kids, and no one is going to shirk responsibility. There’ll be some hard truths but we have to dust ourselves down.
“It’s pretty dark at the moment but we get to finish with Italy at a sold-out Murrayfield and still have the possibility of finishing second. So there’s a lot to play for but we also have to learn some lessons.”
You suspect that much of the rewinding of footage will include the Scotland centre partnership of Alex Dunbar and Huw Jones. They were first bamboozled then dismantled by the English midfield triumvirate of George Ford, Owen Farrell and Jonathan Joseph, the first three tries coming off first-phase ball with a virtually identical move that saw the ball won at the back of the line-out by Courtney Lawes and then the Scottish midfield torn apart with surprising ease.
For rising star Jones it was as bewildering as it was mortifying despite the 23-year-old scoring two of Scotland’s three tries. “Two tries is small consolation,” he said. “We just weren’t good enough. We let ourselves down in the first half with a couple of defensive errors, let through some soft tries, it was tough to come back from that.
“All my family is here. It was a huge disappointment. We should be able to do a job and at least compete better than that so we really let ourselves down. What’s left is anger and sadness – anger at ourselves for whatever that was, and just disappointment that we have come down here with high hopes and got nothing out of it.”
England coach Eddie Jones was in no mood to let the Scottish midfield off the hook, although he did concede that England had been at the top of their game. Historically, when the men in white have had outstanding distributors of the ball at both 10 and 12, such as when Mike Catt and Johnny Wilkinson combined, they have been a potent threat.
“I have got to say Scotland didn’t defend well but having two passers at 10 and 12 is an advantage and then we need gas on the outside and then we need power on the outside,” said Jones. “We are looking for that – we executed some lovely plays. Some of the space created for JJ [Jonathan Joseph] today was absolutely outstanding and it was the work of George and Owen on the inside.”
Huw Jones, though, was in no mood for a plea in mitigation for himself or his partner in crimes against defence. “We obviously did our analysis and looked at JJ,” said Jones. “He attacks well but there were a couple of system errors that meant that we let him through softly. I don’t think they did anything different from what we expected, we just made stupid mistakes.”
Lions coach Warren Gatland spoke earlier in the week about Scotland’s need to perform away from home if the nation’s top players wanted to be considered for spots on this summer’s tour to New Zealand. Jones and Dunbar were two players he mentioned in dispatches as potential Lions, and yesterday’s defeat may well have holed their cause beneath the waterline.
But there are other, more immediate, considerations – such as Saturday’s Murrayfield match against an Azzurri side who have been far better than their results have suggested.
The match against Italy is also head coach Vern Cotter’s last in charge. “It’s a massive disappointment, we have fallen short and really let ourselves down with that performance, but I think the strength and character within this group is enough that we can bounce back next week,” Cotter said.
On the evidence of yesterday that will be easier said than done.