Six Nations Special
THERE has been huge progress from Scotland in this Six Nations and I am excited about the future of this group of international players. We now have real strength in most positions, which is encouraging. Historic victories over England at Twickenham and now France in Paris, two narrow home losses against Ireland and Wales — the Wales match is one that got away, in my opinion — and a commanding win over Italy is a decent tournament return.
Of course, I would love to be writing this morning about a Scotland Grand Slam but that capitulation from 17-3 up against Wales and Zander Fagerson’s red card in that game — plus our poor line-out play that influenced the loss to Ireland — meant that was not meant to be.
I still feel frustrated it is not a clean sweep as it could have been our year to win the championship.
The boys were fantastic, Stuart Hogg was leading them well as captain and their desire to play for the jersey was outstanding.
Everything was in place for a championship challenge, but we came up just short. If I had one criticism of the team it is that they didn’t manage to close out the Welsh game and, when it came to trying to sort out the line-out on the hoof against Ireland, they couldn’t manage to do it themselves on the park as a unit.
In saying all that, this team, as Gregor Townsend himself has said, is now in a position to challenge for the next Six Nations. They have the players, some of whom are worldclass on their day, to make it happen.
For instance, Hamish Watson has for me been the player of the championship for Scotland. He has been nine out of ten in my ratings in every match he has played.
The back rows in every Six Nations team are stacked with top class players but he is a little bit different. He is like a human pinball the way he bounces away from players in the tackle. He grafts hard, carries, makes the tackles and he has been the stand-out forward in any international side in the tournament.
Centre Chris Harris is another stand-out, a bit of an unsung hero for Scotland, if you like. He doesn’t have Huw Jones’ stepping ability but he is a good attacker, an intelligent player and his defensive work has been outstanding.
Fair play to Townsend. He dropped Harris for the Italian game which would have given him motivation to come back firing on all cylinders against France, which is exactly what he did. You could not have asked any more from him.
And as for Duhan van der Merwe, well, that winning try of his will live in the memory for a long time. Well done Scotland to show such composure in the build-up and for Adam Hastings to throw that long pass out to him.
It was a superb, disciplined team move that deserved to come off in the way that it did. Van der Merwe beat 31 defenders in the Six Nations, the most ever in tournament history, which shows how strong he is in attack and just why he is such a vital player for Scotland. He is a gem and one of our X factor players along with the likes of Finn Russell and Hogg.
Hoggy may not have done the super-special things you expect him to do in the Six Nations but his captaincy has been superb. Jamie Ritchie, George Turner, Jonny Gray and Scott Cummings were great at the start of the Six Nations and all contributed in their own way to what I consider a very successful tournament for Scotland.
Warren Gatland hasn’t picked many Scots for his British and Irish Lions squads on the past two tours and I hear it was because he didn’t think Scotland could win on the road. Well, that isn’t the case any more with wins over England and France away in this Six Nations, plus a win over Wales at the end of the last tournament, under their belts.
I would love to see and would like to think Watson, van der Merwe, Gray, Russell, Hogg and Rory
Sutherland, if the pair are fit, will be all be in the Lions squad. Harris also has a chance of being selected.
Many have Russell as their starting ten for the Lions against South Africa but, from what I have seen in the Six Nations, I don’t see that happening. He will be banned for being sent off against France and when he returns, he needs to push on a bit more with Racing 92.
He has been fantastic for Scotland but we had the yellow card against England, a concussion that kept him out of the Italy game and now the red card against France.
That sending-off took the gloss off his performance in Paris. I would imagine the Lions head coach will pick the two dependable tens in Dan Biggar and Jonny Sexton and then Russell as the magician who comes on and spreads his gold dust off the bench when required.
Other Scots still have a chance of making a late run for selection. Remember, a lot of our players play in the English Premiership and a few decent performances from the likes of Sam Skinner for Exeter and he might make the cut as well.
Looking to the future, the age profile of the squad is good and we still have Fraser Brown and Stuart McInally, both of whom missed the entire Six Nations through injury, to come back in to strengthen the hooker position.
There is also Pierre Schoeman to come in when he qualifies through residency to add depth at loosehead prop. Also fly-half Hastings, who played that great pass to play in van der Merwe, is back fit and is good cover for Russell.
It is good to see scrum-half George Horne back playing after injury for Glasgow against Benetton as he will put more pressure on Ali Price for the Scotland No9 jersey.
Overall, England are struggling, Ireland are going to lose their influential fly-half Sexton soon to retirement, while the age-profile, strength in depth and overall talent in this Scotland squad is looking really good.
Our boys are just as good as anybody else and have the potential to be even better than them based on what we have all seen in this Six Nations.