Welsh wake-up for Townsend’s misfiring team
IHOPED that by 4.15pm yesterday I was going to have got rid of my record of being a part of the last Scotland squad to win in Cardiff, but alas I still have it. It has always been such a tough place for an away team to go — and Scottish ones in particular, having not been successful there since 2002 — but I really thought, like many supporters, that this would be the year.
We knew that Wales were going to react after last week’s humbling by Ireland. That result clearly hurt captain Dan Biggar and his players because in this Principality Stadium contest they just had that little bit more in defence and attack, than the Scots.
I am gutted with this result. Credit to Wales, they showed great desire and were so much better than in round one, but I think a lot of Scots thought we were going to go down there and dominate.
I never thought that was going to be the case. I thought it would be tight, but I thought with Scotland’s growing maturity and squad depth they would be able to get the win.
To win any game of rugby you need your big players to step up to the mark and, sadly, that did not really happen for Scotland.
Finn Russell had quite a mixed game which culminated in his yellow card late on while Duhan van der Merwe had one of his quietest displays yet in a Scotland shirt and we didn’t really get our ball carriers into the game as well as Wales managed to do.
In the nicest possible way, Wales pulled us down to their level and we could just never really get anything going in attack. In simple terms, we made too many mistakes to win a Test match. Whether that was to do with the wet weather in Cardiff I am not too sure, but there were a lot of knock-ons and going forward we did not look as fluid as we have in the last year.
In the last 10 minutes or so there were also a couple of spilled balls when we had a chance to get back into proceedings and that left us chasing things after the clock had gone into the red.
Having said all of that, we actually started the game pretty well and Darcy Graham’s try in the first half shows what Scotland are all about when they get it right.
The pass from Russell to Graham was sublime and stretched Wales’ defence, and Graham is playing with such confidence just now that he made the finish in the corner look a lot easier than it was, even beating British & Irish Lion Louis Rees-Zammit for good measure.
Sadly, rather that being the catalyst for Scotland to go on and control the game it was the high point of the afternoon as things became more and more frustrating to watch.
Matt Fagerson had a great carry right at the start of the match and when he went off injured Scotland missed his ‘go forward’, but his replacement Magnus Bradbury did pretty well.
Seeing Matt and later in the game Rory Sutherland going off with issues is a worry because the duo have been mainstays of the Scottish pack since the start of 2020 really.
Hopefully the injuries aren’t as bad as they looked and they can get back for the France game, and the one saving grace is that there is now a week off before they come to Edinburgh on February 26.
Regarding Russell’s yellow card as the last 10 minutes approached, by the letter of the law it was the correct call by the referee Nic Berry.
I have seen Russell intercept a number of times when he is playing for his French club Racing, and when he was going for this ball it looked like Wales’ replacement tighthead Dillon Lewis got in his way as he tried to catch it at the second attempt.
His one arm coming out in the first instance was the issue though, and that put Scotland on the back foot, especially after Biggar kicked a drop goal to make it 20-17.
So, what do Scotland have to do now to make sure they can get back on the horse against that very good French outfit in 13 days’ time?
Well, the big thing is not to panic. Yes, Gregor Townsend, the rest of his coaching staff and the players will be hurting this morning because they have seen their chances of putting the Cardiff hex to bed and their chances of a Grand Slam gone.
However, we still have a win on the board and when the tournament resumes in round three there is still a title to be played for.
I am not sure any team is going to win all five of their matches this year, so if Scotland can beat France then, suddenly, we will be right back in the running again.
One good result doesn’t make you a good team and one bad result doesn’t make you a bad team but, as I say, this will really have hurt everyone in the camp and it will be fascinating to see how they recover and what sort of Scotland comes out against France.
Now is the time for this group of players to show us their character.