Crestfallen Hogg says: We have to be better than this
STUART HOGG has endured a rollercoaster ride since he became Scotland captain — and it looks like things aren’t going to level out anytime soon.
Who can forget the opening Six Nations defeat in Dublin last year when he dropped the ball with the try line at his mercy? Or the next week, when he carried it over his own line, leading to England’s winning try at BT Murrayfield.
Thankfully the trajectory was upwards again with victories over Italy, France and then the delayed match against Wales in Llanelli.
And the thrills were all too apparent when he led Scotland to their first victory at Twickenham in 38 years at the start of the current tournament.
But it’s all been rapidly downhill again since then, with dreams of a Grand Slam following that win over the Auld Enemy quickly turning to dust.
Reduced to 14 men against Wales, they lost at home by a point. Against Ireland yesterday, Hogg’s team drew level from 24-10 down before Ali Price gave away a stupid penalty allowing Johnny Sexton to win the game by three points.
In isolation, the history books will show it as another narrow defeat... but too many of them are happening on Hogg’s watch.
He has vowed his team will show they are ‘a lot better’ when they take on Italy in Edinburgh on Saturday.
With all due respect to the Italians, they shouldn’t be too difficult to beat for the Scots — even without star man Finn Russell, who picked up a head knock yesterday, and the second row pairing of Scott Cummings and Jonny Gray, who are also major doubts.
Hogg was honest enough to admit his team were architects of their own downfall against the Irish after giving away too many penalties. Gregor Townsend’s side should have closed this game out there and then and left Murrayfield with at least a draw.
‘The frustrating thing for me and the rest of the boys is that we know we are a lot better than that, better than what we showed at times,’ said Exeter full-back Hogg after yesterday’s 27-24 defeat.
‘That defeat really, really hurts, 100 per cent hurts. Every defeat hurts, but definitely this one.
‘It is really, really frustrating to lose and we are so disappointed at the final outcome. What has happened has happened, though, so we have to stick together and come back well against Italy next weekend and start doing what we do best.’
Hogg was furious at the way his team started the game and who could blame him. He had told his players it was vital to start well but clearly those warnings fell on deaf ears.
Ireland came out of the stalls the fastest and Scotland were 8-0 down after just ten minutes and seemed to concede penalty after penalty.
Sexton started as he would go on by running the show and stretching the Scotland defence.
‘We didn’t help ourselves in any way in those early stages,’ said the Scotland captain.
‘The thing we talked about was not having to chase games and trying to be in control from the get-go.
‘We know how good we can be in attack, how good we can be in defence but that has to happen from the first whistle.
‘In those first 20 minutes, we got on the wrong side of the referee and we did not help ourselves.
‘That was compared to Ireland who were outstanding for 80 minutes out there and they fully deserved their win.
‘They took their opportunities but, for the second game in a row, we have been ill-disciplined and we have given away easy field position and killed ourselves at times
‘We scored 24 points playing the way we want to play.
‘We were scoring tries by throwing the ball around, but we have to be that bit more clinical at times. We have to take on board all that we learned from this defeat to the Irish really quickly and get back to what we do best.
‘There are some battered and bruised bodies in the dressing room, so we have to recover from that and make sure we are in the best place possible looking forward.’
A victory over Six Nations whipping boys Italy is hopefully assured but the real test of Hogg’s leadership will be how his side fare in their final game, against France in Paris, which was delayed because of a coronavirus outbreak in the opposition camp.
Hopefully the rollercoaster becomes a thrilling experience for skipper Hogg and Scotland supporters once more, rather than the white knuckle ride we’ve been forced to endure over the last couple of games.