David sole
Gregor Townsend will have slept well last night in Rome after his team secured their first victory of the 2020 Six Nations – but talk about winning ugly!
The 17-0 score flattered Scotland as this was a poor game of rugby with two ordinary looking teams, desperate to win.
Sometimes the pressure to succeed can create significant self-doubt. Some were suggesting that a Scottish defeat in Rome would cost the coach his job.
Whether this influenced selection or not, Townsend chose to drop one of Scotland’s most threatening attacking players from the squad of 23 – Huw Jones – replacing him with a solid defender in Chris Harris.
Before a ball was kicked, it felt like it wasn’t going to be a classic match with defences dominating, despite the sunshine. And so it turned out.
When Scotland found themselves in the so-called ‘red zone’, attacking the Italian line they could not score.
It took a piece of individual brilliance by Stuart Hogg to break the deadlock, demonstrating that he is one of the world’s most dangerous runners in broken play.
Thankfully, Scotland controlled some key areas of the game.
Zander Fagerson and Rory Sutherland dominated the Italian front row, so much so that the Italian tighthead was substituted early because he was under so much pressure from Sutherland.
‘ If winning ugly is acceptable, perhaps we should be grateful
And the dominance in the tight five meant that the Scottish back row had an absolute field day at the breakdown.
Man of the Match, Hamish Watson, and James Ritchie were all over the place and won bucketfuls of turnovers and penalties.
Granted, much of this was down to the ineptitude of the Italians and their inability to clear out the ruck effectively, but the Scottish breakaways were the key difference between the two teams.
On the downside, Adam Hastings had a game that he would probably not want to re-watch.
Much of Scotland’s kicking was aimless and they could never really get any momentum or pace on the ball to give them continuity and to allow gaps to open up.
Before theworld Cup campaign there was talk of Scotland playing the fastest rugby in the world.
There was no sign of that in Rome – in fact, the opposite was true. Much of the game was turgid and slow.
Yet the objective was achieved and if winning ugly is acceptable, then perhaps we should all be grateful.
The victory will have taken pressure off the Scottish coach and his team but the spotlight will remain on the dispute with his key playmaker, Finn Russell, who will doubtless have been watching the match in Paris.
After a hollow victory, Scottish fans will be grateful that they will not be picking up thewooden Spoon this Championship. But there is a lot more to do to avoid further embarrassment.