Scotland Rugby

...Mike Blair, not so much.

Scotland’s patchwork Sevens squad did the nation proud and narrowly missed out on beating IRB series winners South Africa to a place in their first cup final. In front of a home crowd sunning its pasty white self beneath rare Scottish sunshine (tops off at the first opportunity as expected), the Scots gave another edge of the seat viewing experience typified by the physicality of Ally Hogg and Sean Lamont.

It seemed to be their extra muscle and experience that gave the more specialised skills of sevens regulars such as Colin Gregor, Roddy Grant, Greg Laidlaw and Jim Thompson room to flourish in victories over last week’s winners England, as well as Canada and Samoa.

A controversial group-stage loss to Kenya (with the winning try coming after Laidlaw being punished for “throwing the ball in to touch” while seemingly catching the ball when tackled in touch) might have given them an “easier” semi-final had the result gone differently, but as it was Scotland stood up to the possibility of annihilation by the champions bravely and the South Africans were only able to clinch victory in extra time.

Meanwhile in South Africa, the British and Irish Lions tour kicked off fairly quietly, with most of South Africa seemingly watching the Bulls destroy the Chiefs in the Super 14 final instead.

A half-full Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace (we should change our stadium to Murrayfield Sports Palace) nearly saw an upset with the touring side putting in a pretty ropey first performance against a fired up Royal XV.

Defeat to what was essentially a third-tier team was avoided thanks to Lee Byrne who single-handedly wrestled the match back under the control of the Lions with some expert kicking and a brilliant solo try.

Mike Blair had a fairly nervy start, and although eventually he settled into things with a chargedown, a good break (only halted by a tap tackle) and some good work under the high ball, his service was a bit slow and put under constant harrying pressure by his opposite number.

If it’s any consolation, Mike Phillips’ passing was not much better when he came on, and Ronan O’Gara coped well with the variety of strange passes he received throughout the match to haul in 22 points.

A good test of O’Connell’s leadership and he threw himself into the latter stages of the game to help the Lions seal victory. Full rundown of the match can be found here.

After punching above their weight in reaching the semi-final of the IRB World Sevens at Twickers last week, the Scotland Sevens squad move on to Murrayfield this week hoping for a repeat of the good performance on home turf.

Having watched Scotland throw away a winnable match against Kenya, I went out thinking “oh well, same old same old” only to return and find they had beaten Fiji and humped the USA setting up a quarter against Portugal.

They won through that (just) to face a semi with Auld Enemies England. The game was probably there for the winning at points, had Thom Evans not been ruled out, but in the end England were too strong—they went on to win the competition.

So with Thom Evans out with a foot problem for this weekend’s squad coach Stephen Gemmell has called in new Scarlets man Sean Lamont, who represents a different sort of winger but who will hopefully be more than up to the challenge.

Ally “played every game this season and still volunteering for Sevens” Hogg and Roddy “Ginger Warrior” Grant give them a good shout at the breakdown (such as it is in Sevens) so hopefully we can see some good results at Murrayfield.

First group game up is a chance for revenge against England. Tickets for both days still available, naturally. And for those of you outwith spitting distance of Edinburgh, full coverage is on Sky apart from when the Lions are on.

In other Murrayfield news, Edinburgh have signed Scotland A, ex Borders and Newcastle full back and sometime fly-half Steve Jones to swell their ranks with the departure of Hugo to France.

Meanwhile, reports of team spirit being forged in South Africa seem positive, with Donnacha O’C saying it already feels like a club side. Let’s hope they don’t play like one.

Big Nathan has been put in charge of rooming arrangements—good move putting Ross Ford with Paul O Connell. When is Nathan going to be roomed with O’Gara? And Warren Gatland has announced his intention not to publically slag anyone off (the Irish?) this time out.

First game up on Saturday against the Royal XV, team announcement on Thursday around 2:00.

Anyone getting excited yet?

PS If there are any Scottish fans going out to SA on tour, please get in touch (details on About Us page)—we’d love for you to do some reporting either out there or when you get back.

Well, this is a bit of welcome news in my inbox.

Opponents and ticket prices for the autumn internationals—our first under the new head coach, whoever that may be—have been announced. The SRU are finally pitching at the right level, and while the teams may not be such big box office draws, I think they may prove far more useful to our team development in the long term.

The Test opponents are Fiji (Nov. 14), Australia (Nov. 21), and Argentina (Nov. 28), and we should have a decent (but not easy) chance to beat all three if we are on form (and the Aussies are not) despite the sides sitting at eighth, third, and fifth in the IRB rankings respectively. Scotland currently sit in 10th, so we get points if we beat any of them.

So far, so sensible, and not an All Black whipping in sight.

Furthermore, ticket prices for all three start from £10 for adults. There’s not even a price hike for the Aussie game, and if you buy a seat for £20, seat you will also get a free ticket for the Edinburgh leg of the pro-team derby, in a repeat of last year’s deal.

So there’s no reason for us all not to get along and try and get decent crowds for all three—at £30 the lot, that’s the same as a cheap Six Nations ticket.

Is the SRU finally helping Scottish Rugby fans to beat those credit crunch blues?

Sean Lineen has ruled himself out of contention for the Scotland Rugby head coach’s position. Wise enough to mastermind a famous away victory in Toulouse, the original kilted Kiwi is also wise enough to know that he has unfinished business with Glasgow.

He talks a lot of sense about where he is as a coach, realising his own strengths and weaknesses and he’ll probably be a great Scotland coach, just not this time round. This leaves Andy Robinson as pretty overwhelming favourite now.

Will he take a similar step out of the spotlight, clearing the way for a worldwide headhunt, or is he actually far more anxious to prove himself once again on the biggest stage? One overwhelming thing in his favour is that he doesn’t get on with Brian Moore. We should know if he throws in the hat or the towel in the next week or two.

While rumours abound that Sean Lamont is Edinburgh bound—he certainly seems to be MIA at Saints although that may be more to do with the form of Paul Diggin—one thing for sure is that Robinson has also just completed the signing of Sevens captain Roddy Grant to a full-time contract at Edinburgh.

Grant, who plays as flanker in the fifteens game, should be afforded an ideal opportunity to learn his trade first hand from a coach with a pretty large knowledge base in that area. Unless of course he moves upstairs...

Meanwhile Lineen, with an even stronger Glasgow squad for next year including Chris Cusiter and Rob Dewey, wants to give himself a chance for success there first, realising that one good Heineken Cup result does not a good Scotland coach make.

Oh, wait...

Another year, another pretty miserable Six Nations for Scotland. Our Celtic cousins over the sea celebrate their shiny new Grand Slam—created out of gritty Munster-like determination (and a missed penalty) rather than any sort of fantastic rugby—and those in Wales cry into their Brains after slumping to fourth in the table, despite being in with a shout at the end of a fantastic deciding match. France were their usual schizophrenic selves, Italy looks like it may be going backwards and England seems to be starting to develop a little unit cohesion and some decent backs, whilst maintaining that undisciplined streak that lets other teams back into matches.

And so it was for Scotland in the Calcutta Cup, where Paterson and Godman kept us just about within touching distance, and a little bit more vision/ruthlessness/Ugo Monye having one leg might have seen us snatch an unlikely victory. Once again, Al Strokosch put in a powerful performance, but it’s about time someone else stepped up to his intensity levels. Euan Murray gave England a tough time in the scrums, but was not totally dominant, even once Vickery went off. He started to show up loose again too, which is good. Mike Blair had probably his best game of the tournament, but that’s not saying much, and it's sad to say that may not be enough to put him on the plane to South Africa, where in the autumn he was a certainty. Thom Evans once again set a stadium alight with a try that almost was, but he has now become the Shane Williams of Scotland— marked heavily wherever he goes. World-class Phil Godman seems to have put the “who should play 10 for Scotland” debate to bed, but the Scottish attack is still not setting the heather on fire, let alone the sunny turf of Twickenham. Credit must also go to England, which finally looks to be adding the ruthlessness to their game which has been missing for a while. No sense in dwelling too much on the past, so here’s what I would like to see in the future, Six Nations-wise.

Let’s Have More of:

Scotland’s Defence, for the most part. In the first half against Ireland, much of the French game and all of the Italy game, the defence was solid and convincing. Al Strokosch may not put in the crowd-pleasing big hits that Jason White did, but his work rate is phenomenal— it’s the little hits, all the time, phase after phase, that help us. We turned over a lot of balls with Scott Gray at 7, too. Barclay is undoubtedly the future in the position, but Gray was probably the standout man in blue during the Calcutta Cup match and it’s good to have competition for places.

Scotland Scoring Tries. Well, for a while at least. It was good to see Simon Danielli coming on to some form after some pretty cruel luck in the past, and you fancy in the autumn there will be real competition for back three places from the Lamont boys, Evans boys, Malkovich, Mossy, etc. The A-Team tour to Romania in the summer should be interesting, too. Unlikely you’ll find it on TV, though.

Chris Cusiter. I hope he has a couple of blinders for Perpignan to round off the season, and I hope Geech is watching.

Euan Murray Destroying Opposition Scrums. Yeah, something to cheer about!

Andrew Cotter. Is he the new Bill McLaren? Maybe even some more of Lawrence Dallaglio, who was balanced and fair in his assessments. Rob Henderson, Andy Nicol and Philip Matthews were also pretty good. The rest, s

The first five minutes were played at incredible pace with lots of open continuity play from both teams. The stage was set for a great Calcutta Cup confrontation.

Soon, though, it seems England's ill-discipline might creep in. With their first attacking platform inside Scotland's half, a penalty is awarded to the Blues for a front-row infringement.

A second penalty puts Scotland ahead. 3-0.

Then Harry Ellis is knocked out putting in a good tackle. Danny Care replaces.

And soon Scotland have an opportunity. Thom Evans breaks clean through and is only stopped by a tremendous chase and tackle by Ugo Monye putting him into touch right by the corner flag.

Yet England are fighting hard and attacking from positions across the field. Soon a well-worked attack sees Ugo Monye in over the corner. 5-3.

A second try follows on soon after by man of the match Riki Flutey, converted by Flood. 12-3.

England are showing real attacking flair.

Scotland are unbowed. Blair breaks clean through the midfield. He's looking left and right to offload, but Danielli arrives too late to help him out. He goes to ground. The ball gets kicked on too far and England remain out of trouble.

With five minutes left on the clock, English forwards' attacking pressure sees Julian White go over for a third try, but Chris Patterson manages to get his leg between ball and turf. Held up.

Still England keeps coming. Playing penalty advantage, England attack the try line but Monye knocks on five metres out. Flood kicks the penalty. 15-3 at half time.

England have had two thirds of the possession and two thirds of the territory. Scotland have had two chances but have not been able to finish. A perennial problem.

England, meanwhile, are showing what they can do, although they could be further ahead. Indiscipline is still affecting their game.

And even though they're attacking and linking well, some opportunities peter out when support is slow to get to the breakdown, notably when Worsley takes the ball on, perhaps a little too far.

The second half begins in typical fashion for both England and Scotland. Scotland is doing nothing useful while England begins to give away stupid penalties in good attacking positions. A third penalty in a row and Phil Godman comes in for the kick from 50m. 18-9.

With 20 minutes to go, the England backs and forwards are linking up well. Great attacking lines from Cueto, Flutey, Flood and Armitage look dangerous.

Still indiscipline threatens to upset the English game. Phil Godman misses a second opportunity and the score stays at 18-9.

It's not long before England give Scotland another chance. Easter holds on to the ball on the ground and gives away an opportunity to kick from 25m out. 18-12.

So now it's looking like Scotland could keep plodding away and just let England make all the mistakes, give away penalties and cut down the deficit.

England's forwards work the ball up the field. Danny Care, seeing nothing on, goes for the drop goal. 21-12.

Eight minutes to go and it's slipping away from Scotland.

And then we're down to 14 men apiece, as White, a replacement for Vickery, has to go off injured. A disappointing way to finish the championship.

There is time for one last try for England. The ball goes wide from an uncontested scrum, eventually reaching Tait who touches down unopposed in the corner.

Final score 26-12.

Scotland continue to disappoint. England's indiscipline is the only thing keeping the Scots in the game. All 12 of their points come from England's erratic behaviour.

England can be pleased with their game. Fine, flowing rugby. A mixture of forward grunt and cutting lines from the backs. Yet they must come out at halftime more switched on or better sides will put ten points on them before they know what's happening.

And, of course, they've got to cut out the indiscipline. You cannot give away 13 penalties when you're not even under real pressure.

The author watched the game online thanks to Zattoo.

By Al Kerr

“And now the end is near…”

I ain’t no Las Vegas crooner, able to sweat talk the ladies and the local Mob in equal measure, but just like Ol’ Blue Eyes even I can see that the end is near for Frank Hadden. 

After another frustrating afternoon at ‘Fortress’ (more like a soggy cardboard box crumbling under the elements) Murrayfield the pressure on Frank Hadden has risen to such a level that even Frank himself has noted that his time may well be up.

Saturday was the typical game of two halves.  Scotland dominated the first half, should have been a lot further in front and gave hope that we had an idea of what we were actually trying to do. 

The second half…..aaaaargh!  What a stinker.  Lineout fell to pieces, holes large enough to drive the a fleet of tanks through it appeared in the defence (the fact it was the bastard love child of Mini-Me and an Oompa Loompa that capitalised made it look even worse) and we had all the attacking penetration of Pele before he started advertising Viagra.  

We were never more than a converted try behind yet never looked like getting anything out the game and that makes me want to weep for Scottish Rugby. 

Whatever was said at half time should never, ever, be uttered again because it had the effect of killing all the momentum and enthusiasm that had been built up in a good first half display. 

I could go on and on about different aspects of the game but others elsewhere have written far more erudite and accurate analysis than I can…and it just makes me angry!

As for Ireland, well fair play on keeping on track for the much elusive Grand Slam.  They came to a ground they traditionally struggle on and got the win they needed. 

If they do win in Wales and get the Grand Slam I ask only one favour…no bugger buys me the commemorative DVD for Xmas, it’ll be a horror show. 

The game against England made my eye’s bleed and to be honest the BBC should be given a kicking for putting that game on before the watershed…the children, for the love of God would someone please think of the children! 

The Scotland game was only a fraction better.  Fair play the France game was good.  If, and it’s still a big IF, they do win the Grand Slam Ireland deserve all the plaudits but it still doesn’t take away from the fact that they will have been one of the poorest Grand Slam winning teams in living memory.

As for Scotland, well we look towards trying to get a first win in 26 years on English soil.  Of course, life being what it is, the toffs across the Border have seemingly stopped trying to play with 14 or 13 men and as a result find the 15-man game a damn site easier!  Beyond that who knows. 

I think Hadden will go, he may even do the decent thing and full upon his own sword.  

Cast your mind back four years and think of the walking Satan in charge of Scotland at that time…he that shalt not be named but is the coach of  Ulster and should be burned the next time he places his over inflated sense of worth back on Scottish soil… and you’ll remember just how bad Scotland were at that time. 

Hadden at least came in, settled the ship and looking at the squad at least their appears to be some talent within the ranks. 

However, he (Hadden) has taken this team as far as he can and the challenge of taking the raw ability and turning it into an end product should be passed on to a new head coach. 

Who that new head coach should be is the big unknown but maybe the SRU should show some ambition for once…this is a Scotland side with the raw talents to be a winning side, maybe a coach with ambition and steel will be able to actually get the end product?

“Back” when Scotland and Edinburgh were one-dimensional in attack and never got the ball past 12, at least you could count on Rob Dewey.

When within 10 meters of the line, it would be “Rob Dewey time.” Chuck him the ball and let him have a batter—at close range he was tricky to stop and you stood a good chance of crossing the line.

Soon, fame and injury beckoned at Ulster and by then Scotland’s opponents had him well marshaled. Briefly last year he appeared in the Churchill Cup A Team looking like an almost different player, displaying the “worrying” trait of varying his lines of running and offloading with fairly decent results.

With Scotland having a few problems getting the ball past the No. 12 shirt at times on Saturday (so much so that BBC pundit and former Ireland center Rob Henderson had worked out most of Scotland’s Morrison-centric game plan by half time), could now be the time to announce Rob Dewey’s return to Scotland to team up with former central-belt foes the Glasgow Warriors?

Yes it could.

Having been shunted into a club team by lovable Aussie Matt Williams, Dewey is ready to return to this fair country and stake his claim in a Glasgow back line which next year will already have the likes of Chris Cusiter, Mark McMillan, Ruaridh Jackson, Andy Henderson, Graeme Morrison, and of course both Evans brothers competing for places.

Exciting times are ahead for Sean Lineen’s Glasgow. If you were him, you’d want to stick around there for a while rather than get involved with the muck, higher up...

Speaking of which, after a considerable session in the Irish-mobbed Roseburn Bar on Saturday, your fearless Scottish Rugby Blog correspondents witnessed the second half debacle at Murrayfield first hand.

Hopefully Al will be here with his near-patented Big Rant later. Watch out, Frank.

Here are the dates of Scotland’s World Cup games and locations for 2011. At least it allows us time to start planning already!

It looks like we get to go all over; to Invercargill, Dunedin, Christchurch, and then Auckland for the biggie...and perhaps beyond? Although it means back-to-back matches with the two top seeds, it’s nice of them to put that one last—it could become an all-or-nothing encounter at the Cake Tin.

Imagine the intense craziness of the St. Etienne game...versus England? I’m having a panic attack just thinking about it.

Sep. 10, 2011

Scotland vs. Play-off winner, Rugby Park Stadium, Invercargill

Sep. 14, 2011

Scotland vs. Europe 1, Carisbrook, Dunedin

Sep. 24, 2011

Argentina vs. Scotland, Christchurch Stadium

Oct. 1, 2011

England vs. Scotland, Eden Park, Auckland

Quarterfinal Two: Oct. 3, 2011

Winner Pool B vs. Runner-up Pool A
(Christchurch Stadium)

Quarterfinal Four: Oct. 9, 2011

Winner Pool A vs. Runner-up Pool B
(Christchurch Stadium)

In other news, the Evans boys and Euan Murray have just announced the signing of new contracts with Glasgow and Northampton respectively.

A losing weekend for our pro-teams was hardly inspiring, but it’s not all doom and gloom.

Glasgow were beaten by a strong Ulster team with Simon Danielli having a hand in both tries. Glasgow will however have been buoyed by the news that the Evans brothers Thom and Max are to stay at Glasgow until after the Rugby World Cup in 2011, despite being courted by English and French clubs.

Edinburgh lost to Scott MacLeod’s old team Llanelli in a pretty dire game that was there for the taking.

MacLeod had a reasonable 60 minutes before being warmly applauded from the pitch. In the battle of the full backs, Mossy was the resounding winner simply by virtue of the fact that he ran more than he kicked and, when he did kick, it wasn’t rubbish.

Sorry Hugo, but you screwed the pooch there.

Whether or not Southwell was hampered by a different set of tactics in the first half is open to debate, but there was some pretty dire ping-pong and Hugo and Blair Jr. did not show themselves in the best light.

Worryingly, Cairns and De Luca also did not seem able to string much together in the centre, although De Luca forced himself into the match as it went on. Apart from Paterson and perhaps Malkovich Webster, no one really stepped up to say, “Hoy Frank, I should be in the team.”

Edinburgh were still in it at the end, and a lack of passion/commitment/skill in the first half prevented them from nicking the away result they probably deserved on the basis of the second.

Scott Gray, Sean Lamont, and Euan Murray all played for Northampton in their win over Worcester, with Gray picking up both a try and a yellow card.

Al Strokosch got on for the last 20 in Gloucester’s loss to Leicester, while Rory Lawson picked up a yellow card too.

Big Jason White had a pretty good game for Sale in their brilliant match with Newcastle, which saw former Borders men Steve Bates and Alan Tait’s resurgent Falcons team eke out a win.

That game also illustrated what a team can do with a solid scrum platform led by a class tighthead, and while our Euan is no Carl Hayman, he’s still vital to Scotland’s set piece efforts.

After doing some digging online, it looks like Chris Cusiter and Simon Taylor were also rested by their French teams at the weekend.

Also major plaudits should go to Ayr, who secured their first Premiership Division 1 title in 112 years of trying at the weekend, and the Scotland Sevens Squad who managed to see off Australia in final of the Plate (middle level runners up competition).

The Dubai World Cup event also saw a number of upsets including Kenya beating Fiji and (eventual winners) Wales reaching the main final against Argentina.

Between them, the finalists had seen off New Zealand and South Africa. Wales, World Cup Winners, eh?