Muirhead rink ready to make amends

THE REIGNING world champion skip, whose high-percentage game was posting missing for several ends, looked resigned as she conceded to Sigfridsson.

“It’s disappointing to lose the first match,” Muirhead said.

“It was always going to be a tough one, which it was, against the world runners-up, the European champions and one of the favourites.

“We got off to a bit of a slow start but managed to crawl back to all square, so the game could have gone either way.”

In truth the Swedes were never behind. Muirhead was correct, though, in arguing the defeat was more welcome in the first game than the final.

“This is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s just one out of nine games, so I’m definitely not too disheartened. We’ll go back and have a debrief tonight, have a chat about the game, get our feedback and tomorrow’s a new day,” she said.

She agreed that her own form had dipped and that some decision-making had looked hesitant.

She added: “I’m a perfectionist. I am one of those players who are super competitive and I really don’t like losing.

“There were a few shots out there that were not really like me to miss. But we all have a great record. But in play-offs we do. And if we meet them again, I won’t be scared.”

Vicki Adams said Muirhead wo u l d be supported by all the girls.

“You can’t play 100% all the time, and we will regroup and come back firing tomorrow,” she said.

“We didn’t have a bad game. But their stone placement was just a little bit better than ours.”

And so to last night, with the pipes and drums playing, by tradition, Scotland the Brave, as Team GB’s men came out to take on Niklas Edin’s world champion rink from Sweden.

Murdoch, with Stirling’s Michael Goodfellow, Prestwick’s Scott Andrews and Fo r f a r ’s Greg Drummond, struck early with a point at the first end, but dropped two in the second, with the third blanked. The Brits brought the score level in the fourth and the midway break found the teams locked together at 2-2.

Edin, who had guided his team to a 7-5 win over Switzerland in the morning, moved clear with a two in the sixth, and though Murdoch pegged the score to 4-3, Edin sent down a brilliant hammer in the eighth to take a four and put Sweden 8-3 ahead, leaving a disappointed Murdoch to concede at 8-4 in the ninth.

“When you don’t play your ‘A’ game you can’t expect to win,” he said. “They were in control of most of the game and we were chasing some of the ends, and you can’t do that if you want to win these games.

“You want to be controlling ends and bossing other teams around. We didn’t do that today.

“But a loss to the world champions isn’t the end of the world. We have to put it to one side now.”

He said it was win or bust at the eighth, where the four was lost. But the damage was actually done in the seventh when Sweden’s Sebastian Kraupp brilliantly cancelled a potential game-changing British steal for four.

“We were one down without hammer (the final stone) in the eighth, so you’re really gambling,” Murdoch said.

“We’re now on one game a day for the rest of the tournament, and we must beat Germany tomorrow.”

Drummond was pragmatic about losing to the world champions. He said: “To be honest we didn’t put enough pressure on them.

“We’re not going to beat ourselves up too much, though. That’s not one of the games on paper we really needed to win.”

Team GB’s men had enjoyed a 6-4 win against hosts Russia in the opening session.

Picture: Getty Images. David Murdoch and his Russian rivals take different views.