The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Let’s hope for divine
HOW DESPERATE are Scotland as the English come to Murrayfield today? After the wettest January in a century, we’re fervently praying for more rain.
A Scottish kamikaze — I’m not advocating suicide missions to stop the English juggernaut, I refer to the actual meaning of the Japanese word, “divine storm” — is needed this afternoon. Something very wet is forecast, but the winds will not match the famous Calcutta Cup storms of 2000 and 2006, when highlyfavoured English teams were ambushed.
Swamp-dwelling scavengers, is this what we’re reduced to? In actual fact, there is a noble tradition of this, not least former England coach Geoff Cooke’s bitter description of the Scots as “scavengers” after the 1989 drawn match at Twickenham. We tend to do well against England luring them into traps and feeding on them, as proved in 1990, 2000, 2006 and 2008.
The draw in 2010 and 2012’s loss should have been added to those, and the latter match looms large in the recent histories of both nations.
Scotland were the better team two years ago but failed to win, their defeat coming despite dominating territory and possession, thanks to Owen Farrell’s boot and a chargedown try by Charlie Hodgson — actually, the only try England have scored in Edinburgh in 10 years.
That was current coach Stuart Lancaster’s first game in charge, when he was just a caretaker. Had the game been lost, it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that England would have struggled that season, and someone else would be England head coach now.
However, now Lancaster is all but unassailable, even if England lose today to start the championship many thought they could win with a Grand Slam with two defeats instead. The foundation is clearly there for a strong England hosting theWorld Cup in 2015, and their coaching team has an abundance of homegrown riches to pick from.
Not that this has stopped them looking further afield, with Samoan and South African-born and naturalised players included. Any mentions of Kilted Kiwis sound pretty hollow and hypocritical these days.
Yet the addition of the Vunipolas and a Tuilagi — although Manu is not present through injury — adds to England’s traditional values of set-piece power and forward strength. They have a little flair in the backs, but playing territory and capitalising on muscle and organisation are still their staples.
Sadly for Scotland, defending this has been among the most glaring of their weaknesses.
Defence coach Matt Taylor freely admitted yesterday that the Scotland pack had a huge target on their backs these days for opposition teams to aim their driving mauls squarely at. Two tries against South Africa, and one against Ireland, and the Scots have a reputation at being unable to defend the drive. “Sometimes it’s mentality,” said Taylor. “The guys know if we can’t defend a driving lineout we’re going to get one every week. If England try it and succeed you can guarantee that teams will drive against us every test match. We’ve just get to set our stall; part of it is knowing what your role is in defending and part of it is positioning and intent.
“Last week on the try Ireland scored we had a couple of guys just slightly out on their designated roles. We’ve done some work on that, some live work against the Under-20s and development guys, and we’re confident it’s been sorted.”
England’s monster pack driving at the Scots, with the livewire Danny Care dancing around the base ready to dart off, is the stuff of Scottish nightmares. A storm is not going be terribly effective in helping the home side there.
Elsewhere, the visitors’ impactful, almost violent work at the breakdown simply blew Scotland off the ball last year at Twickenham. It nearly did the same to France last week but the bigger Bleus hung on, used their bench well and stole the win.
Scotland have countered with Chris Fusaro, who surely can’t help but improve the back-row turnover ratio from Dublin of a big, fat, glaring zero.
The openside has the opportunity to be a huge irritant to England, but it’s a job