ONE SMALL STEP OVER ITALY... BUT SCOTS WILL NEED A GIANT LEAP
WHEN FACING THE FABULOUS FRENCH
NOBODY expects France to be shaking in their boots after watching Scotland’s comprehensive shoeing of Italy, a side now entirely reliant on goodwill — and rugby’s famous resistance to change — to safeguard their Six Nations status.
Having now added a record win to their spectacular shattering of the most accursed hoodoo on the books, however, Gregor Townsend’s history boys have every right to feel good about themselves ahead of their rearranged meeting with Les Bleus.
Confident? Maybe even a little cocky? Steady on. Few outside the squad actually expect the Scots to beat the French in Paris for the first time since 1999.
Nothing that happened at BT Murrayfield on Saturday was ever going to convince a majority that another major landmark win — the coda to their season-opening victory over England at Twickenham — is anything more than an outside possibility.
Because Italy are, well… they’re Italy. Young, raw, not particularly good in any one area of the game.
They’re the rugby equivalent of an evening hit around your local pitch-andputt in a level-par 46. That would be the average number of points conceded by Franco Smith’s boys before Saturday’s stuffing.
Using the same golfing analogy, facing France in their own back yard is like teeing it up at Bethpage Black. In a hurricane.
Still, there’s nothing Townsend can do to change that. No more than he could influence the ridiculous wrangling over player availability for a match postponed through no fault of Scotland.
The only thing he can do is emphasise the need for his players to be even sharper, faster, stronger and more clinical as they take a giant leap in class of opponent.
And, yes, encourage them to dream of a remarkable away double in a Championship of firsts and freak results.
Scott Steele, extremely impressive in his first start at scrum-half on Saturday, admitted: ‘It would be massive, again, to go and get our first win in Paris since 1999.
‘It would show that we could back up the performance against Italy.
‘That’s what we’re aiming for, although we know it’s not going to be easy.
‘It’s been a long time since we won over there. It would be great if we could go over and do that.
‘We’ll have to learn from the Italy game, study the things that worked and the things that didn’t work.
‘But that’s the target, to go over there and get the result that everyone wants.
‘We know the challenge ahead. France are going to be tough, a real physical team who have been playing some great rugby.
‘Italy actually stretched us at times, which was good because we could test ourselves.
‘We also spoke after the game about the fact that it wasn’t perfect — but we managed to reset and move on to the next jobs.
‘There will be things we can use from the game, when we review it, as we had into the France game. But we’re all aware of the challenge we’re facing in Paris. It’s something we’re obviously looking forward to, as a squad.
‘Right now, the priority is to get the bodies right so we can go out there and have a real crack at it.’
The fact that Scotland managed to get out of the Italy game without any major injuries may actually have pleased Townsend as much as anything he saw on the pitch.
Yes, scoring eight tries to win by a cricket score — and this despite falling 7-0 behind inside the opening five minutes — was good.
But seeing his key men escape serious bumps and bruises ahead of another six-day turnaround would have settled any fears about heading to Paris with a patched-up group.
After Luca Bigi barrelled over for Italy’s only touchdown of the game, the home side never really looked back.
They put the visitors under constant pressure, forcing penalty concessions in clusters that eventually led to three yellow cards being shown to the Italians.
As crazy as it may sound, Scotland left a few tries — maybe as many as four — out on the pitch.
Breaching the 50-point barrier certainly didn’t flatter a team who carried the ball for over 1200 metres on the day.
Duhan van der Merwe carried for over 200m on his own, beating 15 opponents — a new Championship record, apparently — in 80 minutes.
Italy were charged with 49 missed tackles by the official keepers of Six Nations statistics. Which sounds bad. Until you consider that they made 209 tackles.
Hamish Watson had more carries than anyone on the park, easily earning himself another man-of the-match award. Just give him it before the game next time, eh?
When he starts moving with ball in hand, Watson is as un-putdownable as a John Le Carre novel.
Pity the poor opponent who dares run down his lane when the Scots are out of possession, too.
Details of the Scottish scorers? Well, Van der Merwe got a couple of tries. As did Dave Cherry — not bad for a guy who is nominally Scotland’s fourth-choice hooker.
Darcy Graham, Sam Johnson, Huw Jones and Steele also crossed the try line on a day of quick ball movement, end-to-end attacks, quick line-outs, quicker tap penalties and all manner of circus tricks. Including a between-the-legs pass from Stuart Hogg.
The skipper may not have looked the most natural stand-off in the world. But that’s hardly something that will worry him too greatly, with Finn Russell’s imminent return allowing him to return to full-back for Friday night’s game.
The truth is that every single Scot involved on Saturday, from the starting XV right through to Alex Craig climbing off the bench to win his first cap, performed with more than just competence.
They head to France knowing, of course, that even their very best might not be good enough.
But at least they’re heading to the City of Lights with all of their English-based players now cleared to take part, with Championship organisers and Premiership clubs finally having agreed to end a ludicrous stand-off that threatened to imperil the integrity of the whole competition.
No excuses, then, for Townsend and his team. Just an opportunity to make this campaign truly memorable for all the right reasons.
SCOTLAND: Maitland 7; Graham 8; Jones 8; Johnson 7; Van der Merwe 8; Hogg 7, Steele 7; Sutherland 7, Cherry 8, Z Fagerson 7, Skinner 7, Gilchrist 7, Ritchie 7, Watson 9, M Fagerson 7. Replacements: Van Der Walt for Maitland (55), Harris for Johnson (67), Price for Steele (55), Bhatti for Sutherland (50), Turner for Cherry (49), Berghan for Z Fagerson (50), Craig for Gilchrist (62), Haining for Watson (67). ITALY: Padovanni 4; Bellini 3, Brex 4, Mori 3, Ioane 3; Garbisi 4, Varney 4; Fischetti, 3 Bigi 4 Riccioni 3, Cannone 3, Ruzza 3, Negri 3, Meyer 3, Lamaro 3. Replacements: Zillochi for Riccioni (33), Canna for Garbisi (52), Zanon for Mori (54), Mbanda for Ruzza (64), Fischetti for Lobotti (70), Lucchesi for Bigi (70), Violi for Varney (70), Favretto for Meyer (77). Referee: Pascal Gauzere (France).