posted Nov 9, 2008

This is by no means a knock on Scottish rugby, but as a Welsh boyo watching the Scottish team play can be so, so boring at times. Our problem in Wales is that the style of play is so volatile that a disciplined and clever side can exploit the risks we take (see the result yesterday). But Scotland to me seem to lack ambition. They put up a great show vs Wales in this year's 6N but other than that I can't think of a single time I've been excited as a neutral watching a Scotland match. I see Scotland as a team that should be excellent at set-piece play and solid around the field. You can't just learn the lairy "emotional" style of Wales, NZ and some French teams, but the solidity of England can be replicated, so maybe that's the way they should go.

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posted Nov 9, 2008

What? Scotlands worst game of the year was against Wales, absoloutely dreadful. I will be shocking if any NH side has had as many clean line breaks as Scotland had yesterday and not score atleast two tries. This team is quite good, we just need an early try in a big game and we will be able to challenge the bigger sides.

Mike Blair, well you cant say enough about him, total class, easily the best scrum half in the world at the moment.

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posted Nov 9, 2008

Yesterday was the 56th time I have seen Scotland play at Murrayfield and I was plesantly surprised at the attacking attitude of the Scots. However, what Scotland gained in ambition going forward they threw away by not getting the basics right.

For example: The All Blacks defence was up so quickly and flat that the Scots had no time to think and in their second of thought were getting smashed to the ground. Compare this with the Scottish defence which stood back 2 or 3 meters giving the All Blacks more time to think about what to and then executing it. The Scottish line needs to be up quick when the Boks come to Edinburgh next week.

I thought Godman was terrible- his drop kicks at the start were like he was wearing lead boots! He also failed to organise the back line which were constantly flat and rarely showed much promise. I personally feel with the defence of New Zealand up so quickly a few chips over the top could have kept the All Blacks back a few meters and given us some more time on the ball.

The scary thing is New Zealand were not really trying. They kept resetting the scrum for over 10 minutes because they could, and the referee was not strong enough to award Scotland penalties let alone penalty tries!

For next week if we work on our defence and depth then we could give a shaky looking South African team a good run.

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posted Nov 9, 2008

just to clarify..

for every one person in Scotland who plays rugby union...there are 30 in New Zealand.

To dominate possesion, make line breaks and compete is pretty positive. Did we look like scoring in the backs?...well no...but everyone commending an excellent Kiwi defence means that 9 line breaks are progress on the last couple of years.

What was Wayne Barnes on in the Scrum.

I'm a prop...and its not rocket science that when you have a second row in the bin and a series of scrums on the 5m line...you arent going to stay up and compete..

Not a single penalty givne however to encourage McIntosh to keep it up.

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posted Nov 9, 2008

"Di Srefano"

Was he not from Argentina?

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posted Nov 10, 2008

I think the media can take a bit of the blame for Rugby getting so little attention now. Even down to the good ole BBC who did not show the two Argentina tests when the Scotland side toured.
However I'd like to think we have reached the bottom and are on the way up again. It would be interesting to see what numbers of schools still have Rugby teams. I'd imagine not many and dwindling.
As like Scotlands performance in most things it's cyclical for a small country like ours, but hopefully we are on an upwards cycle.
However even at the peak of this cycle, are we likely to challenge for a 6 nations? Perhaps winning our home games is the best we can hope for.

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posted Nov 10, 2008

The thing that surprised me the most about Saturday was the fact that only 45,000 odd people were in Murrayfield, they are even struggling to sell all the tickets for next week against South Africa!!!
There wasn't even the air of excitment on the walk to the ground as there usually is on a 6 Nations weekend!
Considering they can't fill Murrayfield against the All Blacks when 20-30 years ago there would of been pushing 100,000 people cramming into Murrayfield to see them!

Something Drastic needs to happen to the Structure of Scottish Rugby.

1)If the SRU is insistant on Regional Districts there needs to be 4, no questions about it, the Irish have it for crying out loud!
I understand the SRU in debt but why cant they sell the Districts as Franchises such as Edinburgh were for a while!
There is a real opportunity being missed in the Highlands, the Caledonian Reds need to be reformed in Perth or Dundee and the Borders could be the equivalent of Connacht in terms of Structure.
The fact on Saturday they were having to give away tickets for the Boxing Day Derby shows the state of Regions popularity.

2)I feel Scotland is more like England, it needs to be based around the traditional Clubs. If they could be made professioanl it would be much better than the regions.

3) Rugby needs to take back its place in Schools, that is where young children are going to get introduced and fall in love with the game.

Whatever needs to be done, needs to be done soon or there will be no professional rugby in Scotland soon and things are only going to get worse!

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posted Nov 10, 2008

Speaking as a Kiwi I would love to see more tours downunder at the schoolboy level, which is where the sport is grown and developed. We have the same issues in NZ cricket where weather concerns limit our participation. Rugby is not just about winning but about putting up a good show and playing like men - Scotland has always done this and has won a great deal of respect for the manner in which they represent themselves. There seems to be a complete absence of showponies in the Scottish tradition - and perhaps this is something the Southern Hemisphere teams should take stock of.

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posted Nov 18, 2008

There are some good points, but a lot of rubbish has been posted on here. Scotland is experiencing an upturn in quality, an upturn in availability of players and a vast improvement in terms of facilities for Scotland Fans. The result against both NZ and SA were galling as in the first match the score flattered the All-Blacks. They were pinned on their try line for much of the second half and Scotlands cutting edge still needs work to gain points from those kind of situations. Scotland outplayed SA for 70 minutes and had it not been for goal kicking issues, would have won it comfortably. We must also look at the leeway teams like NZ, SA, Australia, England and France get in tight play, slowing the ball down, dropping scrums deliberately in front of their own tryline, high tackles and so on that teams like Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Tonga Fiji, Samoa etc get players sin-binned for or penalty tries awarded against them for. It's high time the IRB took these teams to task. In the SA match Berger committed the same professional foul four times and yet stayed on the pitch? Far from being a poor team Scotland demonstrated an ongoing development from where they were 2-3 years ago.

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posted Nov 30, 2008

hi

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