Scots must go Full Monty to strip Wales down in Cardiff
Brendan Gallgher looks back on the Six Nations matches between Wales-Scotland in Cardiff
“If ever a side have been lashioned in the image of their architect it is Townsend's Scotland”
SCOTLAND will sweep into Cardiff later this week on a wave of optimism and expectation, and why not, after putting Australia to the sword last time out and nearly beating New Zealand a week earlier? But will they go on playing the fearless, front foot, all court attacking rugby that has already marked Gregor Townsend’s short reign as national coach?
Thus far it has garnered two superb wins over the Aussies in five months, including a victory in Sydney that did not get the praise it deserved while all eyes were on the Lions in New Zealand, and the sniff of an historic victory in New Zealand. Equally it has also seen them slip to a defeat in Fiji and nearly clutch defeat from the jaws of victory first up last autumn against Samoa.
Scotland’s eyeballs-out approach does not come without risks and occasionally you wonder should they not rein it in just a tad, but to compromise by even 5-10 per cent would undermine their entire game plan. With this Scotland it’s the Full Monty or nothing and praise be for that. They are packing Murrayfield again, scaring the living daylights out of big name opponents and getting people talking.
Skipper John Barlcay, who also revels in a like minded Scarlets team at present, makes no apologies for his side’s approach.
“The template is there. You don’t sit back, if you sit back against good teams you are dead. We knew that against New Zealand and Australia. We showed that if we are the aggressors if we ‘come out swinging’ and leave it all out there we can put ourselves in a good position.
We did that in the autumn and we are not going to change. We will go out there and attack – in both defence and attack if that makes sense.”
Perfect sense. If ever a side have been fashioned in the image of their architect it is Townsend’s Scotland. A gifted, electric – he was the quickest schoolboy cap I ever saw even if he played fly-half not wing – and occasionally errorprone attacking force himself, he has given his side a licence to thrill.
And here’s the clever bit. That process effectively started during his five-year stint at Glasgow Warriors where so many of the Scotland team became disciples. He is now preaching mainly to the converted within the Scotland squad with the Edinburgh contingent also very quick on the uptake.
It’s a joy to watch when everything and everybody clicks. In the backs Ali Price sets the tone at scrum-half and former skipper Greig Laidlaw will do well to reclaim his place after his injury interrupted season at Claremont while Finn Russell is the conductor with those fizzing long miss passes and sharp eye for the break. Russell is also developing into a reliable high percentage goal kicker which is another reason why Laidlaw might be used mainly off the bench. Scotland have injuries at centre – Alex Dunbar was struggling in the week – but they have strength in depth these days with class players queuing up to partner Huw Jones. Mark Bennett is fit again and there is Duncan Taylor – their star player two seasons ago – Nick Grigg and Chris Harris from Newcastle. And all that is before you start waxing lyrical about Stuart Hogg, the Six Nations player of the tournament for the last two years, and his chief partner in crime out wide Tommy Seymour, left, who reads the mind of Scotland’s playmaking maestro perfectly and is invariably in the right place at the right time to collect one of Hogg’s grubbers down the tramline or to pluck a hastily flung hallmark pass out of the air.
When they put their foot down Scotland can come at you from all angles and a mobile back row – who comfortably outplayed the highly-touted Wales back row last year – compliment that perfectly. Their Achilles heel, if there is to be one this season, could come in the front row where they have injury and suspension problems. Somehow they need to cobble together a unit that can hold its own because Scotland can be sure teams will targeting them there.
The Principality Stadium has not been a particularly happy hunting ground with just one Scotland win there since it was opened in 1998 but Townsend sees no reason to downplay his hopes and expectations. Again to do that would be to undermine their all-or-nothing approach.
“We are ambitious, and we believe we can take on any team in the world. In November we played the numbers one and three teams in the world (New Zealand and Australia) and now in the Six Nations we will be playing the current numbers two and three (England and Ireland) while Wales are recent champions and beat South Africa in the autumn. We know we will have to be very good to beat them but that’s a given.”
Except for last year, when they roared out of the blocks to build a match winning 21-5 lead over Ireland, the Scots have been notoriously slow starters in the Six Nations and Townsend is fully aware that they must hit the
ground running against the Welsh – presumably under a closed roof and on the fastest of tacks
“Energy’s really important. It’s a word we use a lot and it must be there in everything we do. We want to bring energy to our team meetings, energy to how we train and, of course, we need to make sure our players have maximum energy levels when we start in Cardiff.
“It’s great that we will have had a full two weeks with our players and
we do understand that they have had some tough games recently so we have needed to manage the physical side, but we also need to get them up to speed on how we want them to play and how we believe that will bring us success. That has meant a lot hard work for John (Barclay) and the other guys but we need that in a place like the Principality against a very good and experienced Welsh team.”
Townsend, along with the other five national coaches, spent an afternoon with the referees following the tournament launch in midweek and, unlike some, didn’t have a shopping list of concerns.
“I think we all want the same thing, we want the game speeded up and for it to be clean and easy for referees to referee. The good thing at international level is that you get the best referee so if you give them the best pictures and show that you want to play positive rugby they should reward you for that.
“The laws were tweaked at the start of the season and the biggest tweak is the tackler having to roll away and not being able to compete which has allowed for cleaner ball so we have got to make it easy for refs to let that happen.”
Townsend may be on debut as a Six Nations coach but he is a veteran campaigner as a player making 43 appearances in the competition and knows all about the pressures, the need for momentum and the ever present possibility of an unlikely upset. He loved his time as a player but is not overly sentimental and considers the modern day 2018 competition a superior version to the one he played in.
“It’s bigger and there’s much more interest now. I’ve watched it as a supporter for the last few years and its huge. It’s a world sport event, the best yearly tournament we have in our sport.
“It’s always had the great travelling support, the great atmosphere, the great weekends but now you can also add to that the quality of play. In the history of the game, definitely in the professional era anyway, I can’t remember a time when all the Home Unions have been picking off wins against the Southern Hemisphere teams at the same time. It’s going to be some tournament.”