Let’s be blunt. Our execution was just not sharp enough
SCOTLAND will now travel to Twickenham next weekend staring at the prospect of winning just one game in this year’s Six Nations. That feels like a huge anticlimax after we won three matches last year. The players will be asking questions of themselves and rightly so.
It won’t come as much of a consolation to Gregor Townsend, but the performance against Wales yesterday was our best of the Championship so far this year.
Even despite the defeat, we played better than we did in the victory over Italy on the opening weekend.
Townsend won’t look for an excuse but, good grief, the amount of injuries he’s having to cope with just now is incredible.
It was purely through necessity that he had Greig Laidlaw, Ali Price, Adam Hastings and Finn Russell on the pitch together yesterday.
I can’t ever recall seeing four half-backs playing together at the same time. You then had the likes of Tommy Seymour and Blair Kinghorn also hobbling off with injuries.
At this rate, Townsend might have to dig out his boots for the trip to face England next weekend. Things are becoming pretty desperate.
The disappointing thing for Scotland against Wales was that we just couldn’t quite break through their defence often enough.
There were some striking similarities with the Ireland game a few weeks ago.
The crux of yesterday’s game was summed up in the second half when Scotland had the Welsh pinned back inside their own 22.
There was a multi-phase move that led to a Scotland penalty. Rather than taking the points, the decision was made to keep chasing the try.
If we had kicked for the posts, it would have brought us to within a point of Wales at 15-14 in their favour.
It wasn’t necessarily the wrong call. It’s just that our execution wasn’t as sharp as it needed to be.
Finn Russell, Darcy Graham and Adam Hastings were excellent, while Hamish Watson was also outstanding.
Watson was like a human wrecking ball when he came off the bench. In a remarkable 20-minute cameo, he made 36 metres and beat 10 defenders.
Scotland were slightly blunt in attack, but you also have to pay tribute to some magnificent Welsh defence.
Warren Gatland’s men are so welldrilled in what they do. It’s not overly technical, they just set up and hit you hard.
It’s simple but effective. It is also a key part of why they are now just one game away from a Grand Slam.
They were hardly in the game during the second half. But, that said, did you ever really feel like they were going to lose it?
In Alun Wyn Jones, they had the game’s outstanding performer. He has matured into the best lock in the northern hemisphere.
The baton has been passed from Martin Johnson, to Paul O’Connell and now to the big Welsh captain.
There may be better athletes in the second row, like Maro Itoje. But, in terms of the complete package, Jones is head and shoulders above his rivals.
As a man who has captained the Lions in the past, he is a true leader of men and has certainly softened the blow of Sam Warburton’s retirement.
He typifies everything good about the Welsh defence; a big, snarling b **** er who hits hard and never lets his team down. Scotland’s defence, on the other hand, has room for improvement. In fact, if we’re being honest, it’s been a major weakness for us in this Six Nations. One-on-one defending doesn’t seem to be Blair Kinghorn’s natural strength and that’s something that he’ll need to work on.
In this respect, we can learn from Wales. Our defence can be porous at times, whereas theirs is watertight.
It has been the Ireland game that has really killed Scotland this year. If we had won that, then we would have gone to Paris with huge momentum.
It’s all ifs, buts and maybes. But these are the fine margins that separate the good teams from the great teams who compete to win silverware.
Wales are now on a 13-match winning streak. The Irish have beaten the All Blacks over the past year, while England are coming strong again.
There will be no expectation from anyone other than the players themselves of a Scotland win next week.
Nobody will give us a prayer and, in a way, that might actually be a good thing. We started talking ourselves up for the game down there in 2017 and came unstuck in spectacular fashion.
The Grand Slam might be out of reach, but England will still believe they can win the title and will be looking to steamroller us.
They’ll smell blood and will want to wipe the floor with us. The challenge for Townsend is to rouse his depleted troops and produce a performance that ensures that doesn’t happen.