It’s not perfect but it’s better, so much better “After Nice it was important Scotland held on to win"
This was better. Not great and certainly not where the performance levels need to be for scotland, but better.
They took their time. in what was a very poor first half by both teams, two mistakes by scotland had gifted France a comfortable lead but things got much better in the second half.
Ordinarily, winning these games is secondary to performance and getting players match-fit after the summer off. But after what happened in Nice last week and the manner of the defeat, it was really important that scotland held on at the end to win the game by three points. it didn’t mask the poor decision-making and execution of basic skills in the first half, but winning breeds confidence and, especially, winning at home.
What was pleasing was the players seemed to work out for themselves what was going wrong. They were not looking to the coaches’ box or waiting for Mike Blair to relay messages onto the pitch when masquerading as a water boy. Greig Laidlaw, Finn Russell and John Barclay showed good leadership and game awareness to ensure that scotland’s collective performance got better as the game went on.
This is something i have not seen too much of in the past 18 months when things were not clicking, so this was quite encouraging.
it was a roller-coaster of a game for Russell but isn’t it always? he didn’t have his mojo in the first half and you could almost see the frustration building up inside him. This wasn’t helped when he dropped an easy kick which led to France’s second try. But he got better and stronger as the game went on.
he played his part in conducting scotland’s best attacking phase in either game so far when scotland finally scored with sean Maitland going in at the corner after many phases. This was Finn at his best, controlling where they were going to attack next, getting the ball carriers organised and communicating clearly and effectively.
it took 39 minutes of this game and the 80 minutes last week in Nice for scotland to, finally, cross the whitewash and get a try but it was worth waiting for.
They got another one in the second half after they showed good composure and decision making deep in France’s 22. There was no white-line fever or players trying the miracle pass; it was structured, physical play and then a good line from Chris harris to score under the posts. so much better shape in attack, eventually, but there was much improvement in scotland’s defence from the first whistle.
in conceding five tries last week, scotland had lacked bite, lacked shape and lacked technique in dealing with big French ball carriers. From the get-go on saturday they were on it.
Blade Thomson and sam skinner were at the heart of this along with hamish Watson and Ryan Wilson. There was good line speed and intensity to the defensive effort and France did not look like scoring other than when we gifted their two chances.
The injury to skinner looked a bad one and will cause Gregor Townsend a lot of concern. When only picking 18 forwards in the final squad of 31, a player who can play both second row and back row at the highest level is invaluable and skinner is that man but it didn’t look good.
Thomson also went off injured but had shown exactly why the head coach had wanted him in his squad for a while; a big aggressive ball-carrying No8 who can smash people back in defence. he secured his ticket to Japan.