Sunny uplands await after group potential is realised
Final weekend offers Cotter’s contingent chance of repeating best position in competition
SCOTLAND are on course to equal their most successful RBS 6 Nations Championship performance after beating France 29-18 yesterday to follow up their win over Italy a fortnight ago.
If they win in Dublin on Saturday it will be the first time since 2010 that they have won three games in the tournament.
England, who beat Wales on Saturday, were confirmed as champions by the Murrayfield result, which ended France’s faint hopes of overtaking them on points difference. Scotland are now third in the table, ahead of the French thanks to their points difference.
The character Scotland showed to claim a first win over France in ten years was all the more commendable given the fact that they were under severe pressure early on and lost their playmaker, Finn Russell, in the opening minutes. The stand-off, who was replaced by Peter Horne, will now need to pass a head-injury assessment protocol if he is to play any part in the Ireland game.
“You lose your playmaker in the first five minutes, you lose a try with 14 players on the field – to come back and show composure to win the game, that’s great,” Vern Cotter, the head coach, said. “It showed a lot of qualities.
“Finn will run through a protocol. With a six-day turnaround it’s possible he could make it against Ireland. We’ll wait and see.
“There was a lot of energy on the park and a lot of it came from the supporters as well. It’s been a few years. But the players worked hard and they were focused all the way through. There was a lot of good things: it wasn’t perfect, but there was a lot of good character as well.
“We can be better [in defence],” Cotter continued. “We managed to get what we wanted. There’s things we can improve on. There were pleasing aspects. We have areas where we need to work on, you can see that. It wasn’t perfect.”
Scotland again played the attacking game that served them so well against Italy, and ran in three tries to France’s two. Stuart Hogg, Duncan Taylor and Tim Visser were the try-scorers, while Hogg added a long-range penalty and Greig Laidlaw contributed 11 points with the boot.
It was a day to remember for Laidlaw, who was winning his 50th cap and equalling David Sole’s record of 25 appearances as skipper, but he preferred to emphasise the team spirit that produced the win rather than dwelling on that dual personal achievement.
“When I look back one day it’ll be special,” he said. “But now it’s all about the team and I’m more happy we won the game than it’s my 50th cap.
“They tried to steamroller us, as we
IT might be going a bit too far to describe this as a great Scotland performance but it was a good one as they showed their capacity to make opportunities and take them.
In saying that, while France have some quality individual players, it was Stuart Hogg who brought that touch of class to this game at times and not just when scoring his try or with that lovely little flick on to set up Tim Visser’s match clinching one. He genuinely looks to be developing into a world class player.
Beyond that it was a workmanlike effort by most of the rest of the team, but Josh Strauss carried the ball well in putting in what I felt was his best game in a Scotland jersey, while the Gray brothers ground away really effectively too.
I have to admit that I was a bit worried when Finn Russell went off as early as he did, but Peter Horne took his chance really well. The one thing he still has to improve on is his kicking game, but his attacking play was excellent and he played a major part in setting up that first try. I love the way that he hits the line.
On his return Alex Dunbar had a pretty quiet game in midfield but Duncan Taylor really showed the benefit of the experience he is getting playing week-in, week-out for Saracens.
I remember first seeing him when he was a youngster at Bedford and I didn’t even know he was Scottish. He didn’t really make it onto the radar for the under-20s, but I remember being very impressed as that time and I felt that he had a good game all round and took his try superbly well.
For all the encouraging attacking play, though, I think the turning point came with our defensive effort when they went for the lineout drive during the third quarter and we kept them out. If they had scored then and got in front it might have been a different outcome because we had to weather a bit of a storm in the 15 to 20 minutes after halftime. However the bench did well when they came on too and we came pretty strong again towards the end.
Overall I am just delighted for the players. They have suffered a lot of narrow defeats so to claim this, just a second win over France in the Six Nations will be a massive fillip for them and should give them the confidence to believe in what they are trying to do.
It certainly sets things up nicely for next week’s visit to Dublin as well. We saw the way the Irish threw the ball about in their defeat of Italy so while I am sure it will be a tighter game than this one that is set up to be a great game of rugby in a battle to finish in the top half of the table.
Admittedly it’s not going to be like last year’s final day with all the excitement that was generated by something being at stake in every match as teams went after points as well as wins in pursuit of the title because we know that England have now won the Championship this time around. So it’s all done and dusted from that point of view but to finish third having won more matches than they have lost would be a very good performance from Scotland.
What it does already seem fair to say is that we have definitely seen them taking steps in the right direction after last year when we were whitewashed in the Six Nations and then went on to suffer the disappointment of the World Cup, but knowing a lot of them reasonably well having coached a them at under-20s level it is just great to see them with smiles on their faces at the end of a match.
They were smiling with good reason, too, because this now has the look of a well set-up team who are going to be together for a number of years so have a great deal to look forward to if they keep looking to develop as they have been doing.