The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Newcaptainadmits hehas‘bigshoestofill’
he’s going to have to do largely by himself. Scotland have no surrogate ball-sniffers in other positions in the quality of Ireland’s Rory Best or Brian O’Driscoll to make every breakdown a potential turnover.
Elsewhere, we seem to be looking at what is largely Scott Johnson’s preferred backline for the 2015 World Cup, give or take a return by Sean Maitland or Tim Visser. They actually performed very well last week — Alex Dunbar led all backs with 14 tackles and shut down O’Driscoll — and the ever-improving Matt Scott as a threatening edge only enhances them.
But do they get enough ball to trouble England? And even more so, do they finish the chances off, as they failed to do in Dublin and in the match two years ago? England may have scored just one try at in Murrayfield Calcutta Cup games since 2004, but it’s one more than Scotland have managed.
One try in four matches, when added to the weather, means a kicking duel of territory and possession through setpiece domination.
The disintegrating Murrayfield pitch may help Scotland negate the scrum, but not the lineout, surely, where Richie Gray would have had the English at least a little wary (the English press are as mystified as the Irish were as to why he’s not playing, by the way).
With at least one lineout drive try, England to win by 10 points. “WHENYOU think of the people who’ve led Scotland in the past I know what a huge honour it is, but I don’t just want to be the captain, and play the game – I want to make it a special day, for us, for the team and the Scotland supporters, and especially for Chris Fusaro in his first cap,” said Laidlaw.
“I was at the game in 2000 when Duncan Hodge kicked all the points, it was chucking it down and sat up behind the posts with my dad. That’s the sort of day we remember.”
As for the responsibilities of captain, Laidlaw’s well adjusted to those having captained the Scots after Kelly Brown got injured on the summer tour last year and also against South Africa in the autumn tests, and being the regular skipper of Edinburgh.
“Nothing much changes for me because at scrumhalf you’re always at the front of decision-making as the kind of lynchpin of the side,” he pointed out.
“It’s big shoes to fill because Kelly’s a great captain and I’m certain he’ll continue to be involved in the Scotland team.
“It’s the mark of the man the way he reacted to Scott’s decision but that’s been made now and our focus is on the team and the match now.
“For my part I always concentrate on my own game, it’s never really about what I say in the dressing room or during a game. It’s all about deeds rather than words as far as I’m concerned.”
Laidlaw doesn’t believe that Scotland need a storm to add to a Murrayfield pitch that is soft and will break up even in the dry because of the undersoil problems after an infestation of root-eating worms affected it this season.
“Time will tell really, I don’t think the weather is set to be too kind to us but whatever happens it’s the same for both teams and if it is pouring it will be the team who adjusts to the conditions better who’ll win.
“The pitch is the same, although maybe I’m used to it playing for Edinburgh here, but it’s actually better than it has been in recent weeks. We weren’t responsible for the worms so there’s nothing we can do about it.”
It is the nature of the Scottish team rather than meteorogical occurrences that are the key, he added.
“Rather than the weather, traditionally I think we’re at our best when our backs are up against the wall.
“We are just itching to get out there and get stuck in. We need to right the wrongs of last week and where better to do that than at Murrayfield against England?”
Scotland are sweating on a couple of injury worries with Ryan Grant and Jim Hamilton both having back problems.
Grant sat out the captain’s run at Murrayfield yesterday morning but was stretching instead and is thought to be good to go, while Hamilton took full part. SCOTLAND’S UNDER20 side were unable to give this weekend’s matches against England a winning start after defeat at Netherdale last night to a powerful English side that showed its Aviva Premiership pedigree.
The big margin of victory, however, hid what was an encouraging performance by the young Scots but in the end Scotland’s errors proved costly against opponents who capitalised clinically.
“This was another learning curve for the boys,” said Scotland coach Sean Lineen adding: “We couldn’t live with the speed and intensity of the English game.”
Scotland 3-0 after a minute of play from a Ben Chalmers penalty but by half time England had built up an interval lead of 22-8, Scotland’s other points having come from a try by hooker Sam James after the Scots had been able to put pressure on the England line.
England were quickly into their stride after the break scoring a converted try but Scotland showed their potential with a try by Chris Dean after winger Jamie Farndale had opened the English defence.
The try was converted by replacement stand-off Ben Cooper to narrow England’s lead to 14 points. But thereafter it was England who kept the scoreline moving with three tries in the last quarter.
Scotland under-20: R Young (C Deans 39); J Farndale, B Hutchison, N Herron, D Hoyland; B Chalmers (B Cooper 44), B Vellacot (M McAndrew 44); J Cosgrove (J Malcolm 64), S James (C Barnes 79), D Rae (P Cringle 44), A Cramond, G Young (L Carmichael 56) B Richardson, T Spinks, M Bradbury.