We really could kick ourselves — Visser
TIM VISSER last night admitted Scotland’s players were left kicking themselves for showing Ireland too much respect and allowing star man Jonathan Sexton to lay the foundations for a 35-25 home victory in Dublin.
The winger admitted his side were caught cold by the fast start made by the home team, and only really came alive in the second half, by which time it was too late.
‘It was hugely disappointing that we gave them too much respect in the first half,’ said Visser. ‘We sat off them too much and let Sexton dictate play, which didn’t help our cause.
‘We should have dealt with him better early on, and it was only in the second half when we flew up at them a bit more that things changed.
‘In the dressing room afterwards we were really kicking ourselves as we showed Ireland too much respect and, if we hadn’t, that
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is a game that could have been won.’
Visser didn’t hide his frustration at how his team had to play with 14 men — once in the first half and again in the second when first John Barclay and then Alex Dunbar — were sin-binned. Both yellow cards came at a heavy price for Scotland, with their hosts scoring two tries in Barclay’s absence and one when Dunbar was off the field.
‘We did play well at times but the yellow cards cost us badly,’ said the Scotland winger. ‘To play with 14 men twice in a game at this level is always incredibly hard. We got a lot of points against us too, especially after the first yellow card, and we were left chasing the game.’
Despite the defeat, however, Visser insisted there had still been a huge improvement in this Six Nations compared to last year.
‘We got the wooden spoon last time out but that was like the start of our improvement and we have constantly got better ever since then,’ said the Dutchborn player. ‘We have been building through the World Cup and we kept that going through the Six Nations.
‘We never lost faith in our ability to turn things around. It was always easy for people to write us off after we lost our first two games but we knew we were better than that, and I think by the end of this Six Nations most people will be saying that we are a good team, although we can still get better.’
Scotland have scored 11 tries — with Stuart Hogg, Richie Gray and Dunbar scoring yesterday — in the tournament, and Visser believes Scotland no longer suffer from white-line fever.
‘As a backline I think we have got our form back,’ he said. ‘Hoggy scored a great try, Duncan Taylor got a couple in previous games and Alex Dunbar got on the scoresheet against Ireland.’
Next up is the two-Test series in Japan in June, with the winger making it clear the current attack-minded Scotland team can go there and win again.
‘The next time we pull on this jersey it will be against Japan and we’ll all be fighting to get selected for that tour, go over there and, hopefully, build on what we’ve done,’ added the 25-year-old.
‘Of course we come away from Dublin disappointed. If it hadn’t been for the yellow cards and our slow start, we could have been looking at a Scotland win to end the Six Nations.’