ONE WEEK TO GO
Build up to the Calcutta intensifies, Glasgow with impressive win in Ireland but Edinburgh finally slip to league defeat
WELCOME: Excited to the point of tears? Or full of existential dread? These are the only two proper emotions for Scotland fans on the eve of a Six Nations campaign, with no room for a rational middleground. As ever for the long suffering faithful, it is the hope that kills, and somewhat ominously there are reasons for real optimism ahead of next Saturday’s opener: recent victories over all of their upcoming opponents (barring the pesky Irish), including historic wins over England and France last year, the confidence gained from record representation on last summer’s Lions tour, and a clean bill of health for the playing squad. Things are coming together rather too nicely…In this week’s bumper issue newsletter we look ahead to the Six Nations and the mouth watering Calcutta Cup clash, pore over contrasting fortunes for the pro sides and as ever bring you the general good and bad of the week that was in the world of Scottish rugby. Enjoy!
MATCHPINT: we are delighted to announce that we are once again partnering with our good friends MatchPint for the upcoming Six Nations! For the chance to win FREE PINTS (and bragging rights with friends), make sure to join our league on the MatchPint app and get your predictions in for the first round of fixtures. Further details below:
SIX NATIONS PREVIEW: we are going to stick out our neck and say it: this is arguably the best prepared Scotland squad ahead of a Six Nations tournament for some time. Don’t worry reader, take a breath, think of the colour blue, and consider the following:
Scotland now have several genuinely world class players who would challenge for a place in any of the other Six Nations sides. Hogg and Finn Russell have shone for years, but they are now joined by the likes of Hamish Watson, Jonny Gray, Rory Sutherland, Chris Harris, Ali Price and Duhan van der Merwe (and while Zander Fagerson might not unseat a Tadhg Furlong, he is still a Lions tourist)
Record representation on the summer’s Lions tour, both from a playing and coaching perspective
Most members of this squad can call upon recent experience of beating England, France, Wales and Australia both home and away
Crucially, Scotland have no major injury worries for what seems an age, and depth in key positions, as shown by the initial omission from the squad of the likes of Fraser Brown, Adam Hastings, Sean Maitland, Oli Kebble and George Horne
Edinburgh and Glasgow sitting pretty at the top of the URC table, and the Scots abroad in the English Premiership in generally decent form
A favourable fixture list, namely the home matches against the big guns of England and France
Yet despite all these promising factors, there is still a very good chance that Scotland end up replicating last year’s 4th place finish, or even slip to a dreaded fifth place (as gratingly predicted by professional circus clown Stephen Jones in Sunday’s papers).
Despite our recent good record against the English, we are arguably the favourites coming into Saturday, a crown that historically sits uneasy on the heads of Scottish players. Wales are missing bags of experience and quality through injury, but our last victory at the Principality seems an eternity ago, and the Welsh are still the reigning champs. Our last win over Ireland was in 2017 (and at BT Murrayfield) and we have not beaten them in Dublin since 2010. Townsend seems to have figured out France’s number, but the French have shown that when they click not even the All Blacks can do much about it. At least Italy should be a banker (eek).
But now it feels like the time for Scotland to do the business. This is the most talented bunch of players we have had for what feels like a generation, and if we can’t push for greatness now then can we ever hope to? With Hogg and Russell directing matters on the pitch, and the canniness of Townsend, Tandy and co off the pitch, perhaps this Scotland squad can do something special this year. Typing these words, I am haunted by that well worn phrase, “it really is the hope that kills.”
CALCUTTA FOR STARTERS: Scotland’s campaign kicks off with Saturday’s Calcutta Cup clash, as BT Murrayfield plays host to our closest and dearest neighbours England. Townsend’s recent record in the fixture is near impeccable, losing only once since 2018 and defeating England at Twickenham for the first time in absolute donkeys. England come to town absent several notable players, their injury list including Owen Farrell, Manu Tuilagi, Jonny May and Anthony Watson, with Joe Marler and Courtney Lawes (a captaincy contender) also doubtful. Scotland, meanwhile, could feasibly name exactly the same starting XV that recorded last year’s famous victory at Twickenham.
If Scotland can gain parity up front and kick well, they should be confident of beating this England side. The breakdown will once again be crucial, so it is encouraging that the referee on the day will be a Kiwi (Ben O’Keefe), who tends to be more laissez faire at ruck time. Hamish Watson, who has been quiet since the Lions, needs to have a big game, while the Scottish props should target the scrum throughout. Selection at 12 may be crucial. I would plump for Cam Redpath, back to almost full fitness and a potential ‘test match animal’.
Build a lead and this England side struggles to chase the game, especially with a full again Sold Out BT Murrayfield™ on their backs. Scotland need to get comfortable with the favourites tag this year: Saturday presents the perfect opportunity.
JONES V TELFER: predictably, England coach Eddie Jones has used the weekend’s papers to up the ante ahead of next Saturday. This year he claims to welcome abuse from Scottish fans (be careful what you wish for son), while employing a tortured metaphor about Scotland being a “bike” that he wants to chase - no, us neither. Maybe it is just us, but Jones’ pre match ‘bantz’ is becoming a bit of a tiresome act. Remember last year when he claimed that Scotland “don’t have a mortgage on pride”? Oh well, time to break Jim Telfer out of ice.
GAL-AWAY WIN: Glasgow bounced back from their recent European woes with an impressive 45-20 victory over Connacht at the Sportsground on Saturday. Never an easy place to visit, Danny Wilson will be delighted with the result and performance, and with Leinster losing to Cardiff, the Warriors suddenly find themselves in second place in the URC table (albeit with games in hand for the Irish sides). Although Glasgow were shorn of several Scotland stars, this was still a strong side, with a spine of Brown, Gray, Dempsey, Horne, Tuipulotu and Steyn.
Glasgow fans would have been pleased to see braces for both Steyn and Rufus McLean, lethal finishers who have been criminally underused in recent weeks, while George Horne provided some welcome zip from the ruck. In the pack, Dempsey once again took the game to the opponents, while Brown, Kebble and Thomas Gordon (who until the arrival of Rory Darge was sniffing around the Scotland squad) all impressed. Munster come a calling to Scotstoun on the 11th of Feb, in what is a must win for the Warriors.
Highlights of the match below:
EDINBURGH DEFEATED: Edinburgh slipped to a 19-23 loss to the Ospreys on Saturday, despite a hat trick from tighthead Boan Venter. It was Edinburgh’s first defeat in the league since the start of October, while they remain winless in Swansea since 2009 (!). Like Glasgow, Edinburgh were doubtless weakened by international call ups, but were still able to field the likes of Bradbury, Boffelli, Graham, Vellacott and Bennett. Mike Blair was disappointed with what was an error-strewn performance, characterised by handling mistakes and poor decision making in attack, and ill discipline when without the ball. The fact Edinburgh were comfortably ahead at half time makes the end result even more frustrating. Still, the capital side remain top of the URC pile, 3rd in points against and 4th in points for, and have amassed the highest number of bonus points so far. Take that. All. Day. Long.
Highlights are below:
SPANISH SEVENS: the Scotland Sevens team had a mixed bag of results in the Seville leg of the World Sevens Series over the weekend. Ciaran Beattie’s relatively green squad recorded good wins over Canada and Kenya, before narrow losses to Australia and South Africa saw them drop into the 5th place semi-final, which they eventually lost to England . Perhaps the highlight of the weekend was this absolute worldie of a try against the auld enemy. Loving the look of powerhouse Jordan Edmunds, a physical beast but with surprisingly deft hands.
U20s SQUAD NAMED: Scotland U20s coach Kenny Murray - recently moved on from Glasgow assistant duties - has named a 30-man squad for the upcoming Six Nations. 14 players come into the camp with prior U20s experience (albeit the less said about last year’s showing, the better), while there is good representation from the Super 6 (Christian Townsend, Duncan Munn, Euan Cunningham and captain Rhys Tait) and, somewhat surprisingly the Ealing Trailfinders, who supply four of the squad. And always nice to see another Redpath (Murray, the younger brother of Cam, and a scrum half like his old man) enter the Scottish rugby fray. They open their tournament against England on Friday night at the DAM Health Stadium (8pm KO, live on BBC iPlayer).
REID RETIRES: there was some sad news in the world of Scottish rugby this week, former Scotland, Glasgow, Ayrshire, London Irish and Marr loosehead Gordon Reid announcing his retirement from the pro game. Reid was a real servant for both Glasgow and Scotland, and rode to the rescue in multiple prop crises for club and country. Ayr’s favourite son learnt his trade the hard way, starring for his home club in the Scottish Premiership before moving onto an apprentice contract with the Warriors. He made his Scotland debut in 2014, and amassed 41 caps. He was also a refreshing character in the media, famously referring to Scotland as the 2015 RWC’s answer to the Mighty Ducks. And let us not forget the time he literally saved his neighbour from a burning building. Enjoy your retirement Gordi!
SCOTS ABROAD
As ever quite a few Scots featured across the English Premiership across Saturday and Sunday: either a good chance to sharpen up for next week or a recipe for injury-related disaster, depending on your perspective. Meanwhile, Finn sounded a bit shakey yet still led Racing to a good victory away at Toulouse. So far there appear to have been no Scottish casualties from the weekend (touch wood).
English Premiership
Bath v Harlequins: D’arcy Rae (3) and Cam Redpath (12) v Huw Jones (13) - our man on the ground at the Rec reporting back that Redpath looked sharp once again, as the clip below highlights, while D’arcy Rae put in a full 80 as Bath secured their first win of the season. Jones set up a nice try for Quins, reminding Townsend he is not quite ready for the international wilderness yet.
London Irish v Exeter: Kyle Rowe (23) v Jonny Gray (4), Sam Skinner (5) and Stuart Hogg (15) - Hogg departed the action at 60 but it doesn’t look to have been injury-related.
Worcester v Northampton: Rory Sutherland (1), Finn Smith (10) and Duhan van der Merwe (11) v Rory Hutchinson (12) and Fraser Dingwall (13) - both Sutherland and Hutchinson got on the scoreboards for their respective sides, but most pleasingly all involved escaped the contest injury-free.
Highlights, including both Scottish scores, below:
Newcastle v Gloucester: Gary Graham (19) v Jack Singleton (2), Charlie Chapman (9), Adam Hastings (10), Chris Harris (13) and Andrew Davidson (19) - Hastings, whose omission from the Six Nations squad continues to baffle, guiding Gloucester towards yet another league win, while Chapman can’t be too far away from Ben White in the Scotland scrum half pecking order.
Sale v Leicester: Ewan Ashman (2), Byron McGuigan (11), Tom Roebuck (14) and Gus Warr (21) v Matt Scott (13) - Ashman getting good game time under his belt and showing enough form to suggest he will be pushing hard for a place in the Scotland 23 next week. We have also been recently alerted that Sale wing Tom Roebuck is Scots-qualified, despite his dulcet Mancunian tones, having been born in Inverness.
Wasps v Saracens: Robin Hislop (17) and Elliot Millar Mills (18) v Calum Hunter-Hill (4), Tim Swinson (5), Andy Christie (20) and Sean Maitland (23).
Javan Sebastian was also on the bench for the Scarlets in Friday night’s clash with Ulster.
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