WE BLEW IT!
Captain Hogg believes Scots handed Wales Cardiff victory By
Calum Crowe
STUART HOGG last night admitted that Scotland blew a glorious chance of victory after their Six Nations campaign came crashing back down to earth in Cardiff.
Chasing a first win at the Principality Stadium since 2002, Scotland lost their nerve and were left to rue a woeful second-half display.
Star fly-half Finn Russell was controversially yellow-carded in the 68th minute, with Welsh captain Dan Biggar then slotting the winning drop-goal a couple of minutes later.
It was a reality check for Scotland, who had beaten England 20-17 on the opening weekend, before then losing by the same scoreline in Cardiff.
Gregor Townsend’s men were looking to build on that victory over England and win their opening two games in the championship for the first time in the Six Nations era. But
they must now lick their wounds ahead of a meeting with a France team who are chasing a Grand Slam after beating Ireland in Paris yesterday.
‘At times in the past, we’ve been in games and let them slip — unfortunately that’s another one today,’ admitted Scotland captain Hogg.
‘That’s why I’m sitting here bitterly disappointed and frustrated at what we’ve done. At times, we will be beaten by better sides when things don’t go our way. But I think we gave them too easy avenues into the game.
‘Cheap field position, cheap penalties, cheap knock-ons. Stuff that we didn’t quite work hard enough to get into good positions for. That’s the thing that bugs me most.
‘We are bitterly disappointed in the changing room and it’s so frustrating that we have to wait two weeks now to get another shot at it.
‘Wales didn’t really have to work hard to get good field position. We coughed it up too cheaply, giving away penalties and compounding error upon error. They are fine as individual (mistakes). You knock on, you give a penalty, that’s fine, that’s rugby.
‘But if you compound it, that’s when you start getting frustrated. It’s something we’ve looked at over the last few years.
‘Wales beat us last year by having four consecutive penalties and playing advantage. They did that twice and scored twice at Murrayfield, but that’s something we’ve managed to nip in the bud.
‘So it’s frustrating that we’ve managed to give them easy avenues into the game.’
Townsend lost back-rower Matt Fagerson and prop Rory Sutherland to injuries yesterday, although the extent of both are not yet known.
The Scotland head coach was as frustrated as Hogg after seeing his side squander the chance of an historic victory. ‘The obvious emotion is disappointment,’ said Townsend.
‘You only get five games in the Six Nations, so if you lose one of them it has a negative effect on your chances of winning the tournament.
‘Obviously our loss today wasn’t good enough. There’s a lot of disappointment in the changing room in our group.
‘I think there were big moments in the second half when we didn’t execute as we intended or the referee gave penalties to the opposition.
‘We didn’t control the second half. After we went ahead on the scoreboard we needed to kick on and we weren’t able to do that.
‘There wasn’t a huge number of differences between the two performances. We played better against England than we did today but we didn’t play at our best. Today’s game was really stop-start in the second half.
‘There was more rugby played in the first half than in the second half. But there was poor execution by our side. Penalties against us gave Wales momentum and they did really well when they had the ball.’