The Scottish Mail on Sunday

SORRY SHOW

Hogg refuses to offer public apology over ‘night out’ as Scots slump in Dublin

- By Calum Crowe IN DUBLIN

STUART HOGG last night refused to discuss his future as Scotland captain after he and five of his team-mates were involved in a breach of team rules by visiting an Edinburgh city-centre bar last weekend.

The incident, which was leaked on Friday, sparked a chaotic build-up to yesterday’s final Six Nations clash against Ireland in Dublin as Scotland lost 26-5.

Hogg had gone against the wishes of management, along with vice-captain Ali Price, star fly-half Finn Russell, Darcy Graham, Sam Johnson and Sione Tuipulotu.

He was asked to offer his version of events yesterday, but

declined to do so. Nor did he offer any public apology to supporters, insisting that everything had been kept ‘in-house’.

Head coach Gregor Townsend also branded much of the speculatio­n around the incident as ‘gossip’, but declined to set the record straight himself.

Hogg offered an internal apology to his team-mates — but dismissed all the fall-out in the build-up to the match as ‘irrelevant’.

When asked if he feared the incident might endanger his future as captain, Hogg replied: ‘I don’t know how many times I need to say it.

‘I apologised and I put my hands up. I’m bitterly disappoint­ed with what happened.

‘I was annoyed and frustrated, but I can’t go back and change anything. I know exactly what you’re after here and you’re not going to get it.

‘For us, we held our hands up. We knew we made a mistake. We just got on with making sure we prepared in the best possible way.

‘It was a challengin­g week, but it was one of our best weeks of preparatio­n. We stuck together and got on with our jobs.

‘For us, we just want to concentrat­e on doing what we can. We all want to stay connected as a team. Players, coaches and management — everything that matters to us. Everything else is irrelevant.

‘What’s out there is out there. For us, everything we want will remain in-house.

‘I did (apologise). I held my hands up and said that we made a mistake. The first 40 minutes was probably the best rugby we’ve played this campaign. We’ll probably concentrat­e on that.’

In what was a less-than-convincing performanc­e in the post-match press conference, neither Hogg nor Townsend offered a full explanatio­n of what actually happened.

Townsend, who has overseen a confidence-deflating Six Nations campaign, said: ‘Obviously what happened on Sunday was disappoint­ing and so is today’s result.

‘We’ve had a statement already about this. It’s a private matter where private discussion­s have taken place and private decisions have been made within the group.

‘Anything on the back of that is just gossip, so we move on from that.

‘There’s nothing really to say more than that. We dealt with it in-house and had our best training week of the championsh­ip.

‘As we mentioned, there was an incident that has been dealt with.

The players know the guidelines and, as Stuart mentioned, he apologised to the group. That’s all I’m going to say on it.

‘If I went into details, it would be a long story. As I mentioned, things happen in groups.

‘Once you have an incident — I don’t know if that’s too strong a word, but something that happened — I was delighted with the reaction of the group.

‘In groups, in families, you have these moments where you can choose to come together and learn from it.

‘I believe that’s what the team did throughout the week, with how they trained.

‘I believe they fronted up today. I know that rightly you’ll talk about the result — that’s the main thing when you play internatio­nal rugby.

‘But I saw a performanc­e today that was better than most of our performanc­es this year, particular­ly the way we started the game.

‘Into the second half, what we did wasn’t enough to win the game, but I was proud of what the team did other than that.’

Scotland were soundly beaten in the end, but Hogg (right) blew a big opportunit­y to get them back into the game shortly after half-time. Racing towards the try-line, he was tackled into touch by Irish full-back Hugo Keenan when he had three team-mates awaiting a pass on the inside.

Hogg added: ‘A lot of good stuff happened in that game. ‘I backed my ability and felt like I could score in the corner. But that’s just five seconds of an 80-minute performanc­e. ‘We were very frustrated with the outcome. ‘Unfortunat­ely in the second half, we just gave away a few too many penalties.

‘It’s frustratin­g because I felt like we were in the game. But you have to stay in every single moment in Test match rugby, especially against a top side like Ireland.’

What’s out there is out there. For us, everything will remain in-house

 ?? ??
 ?? ?? DOUBLE TROUBLE: Russell finds something to smile about with skipper Hogg in Dublin; (right) France’s Slam heroes
DOUBLE TROUBLE: Russell finds something to smile about with skipper Hogg in Dublin; (right) France’s Slam heroes
 ?? ??
 ?? ?? Finn Russell’s appearance yesterday 67th-minute as a was just replacemen­t in second time the he has 63 caps that failed to start
IRISH SIGHS: Russell made no impact as late sub
Finn Russell’s appearance yesterday 67th-minute as a was just replacemen­t in second time the he has 63 caps that failed to start IRISH SIGHS: Russell made no impact as late sub

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