The heavy price of victory
WELCOME BACK: After a long night of refreshing twitter to check on results, suspicion over dubious polls, and growing concern over the state of democracy, Mark Bennett has rightly been named as Edinburgh’s try scorer of the month. This week’s newsletter looks back at the big win in Llanelli, the small win in Llanelli and the big loss in Glasgow.
SCOTLAND v WALES: Scotland finally managed to break an 18-year losing streak in Wales, finishing their Six Nations campaign with a deserved 14-10 victory over their Celtic cousins. The match was historic on a number of levels: it was the first time Scotland have managed 3 successive tournament victories since 1996, and the national side’s best winning sequence since a 5-match streak in 2011. It truly was the perfect way to celebrate the Thistle’s 4th birthday: we have it on good authority that the milestone was a key motivating factor for Gregor Townsend’s men…
While the match was far from a classic - the blustery conditions and lack of crowd doubtless playing their part - Scotland were able to grind out the much-needed victory in a match they could have easily lost. Despite dominating possession and territory in the first half, with back rows Hamish Watson and Jamie Ritchie bossing the breakdown, Scotland ended the second half 6-7 down, an overthrown line out leading to Wales crashing over through Rhys Carre. By the 60th minute Scotland were two fly halves down, with both Finn Russell and Adam Hastings leaving the field injured. However, they kept themselves in the fight and were rewarded when replacement hooker Stuart McInally crossed following an unstoppable driving maul. Wales narrowed the lead through a Halfpenny penalty, making for a nervous final 10 minutes. It was fitting that eventual man of the match Jamie Ritchie secured the match-winning turnover penalty, which Stuart Hogg dutifully converted with the final play of the game.
Far from pretty, yet this was all about securing the victory by hook or by crook. The manner in which Scotland controlled the majority of the play and were able to outmuscle the Welsh pack was particularly encouraging. Pivac’s side are doubtless going through a transitional period, but the Welsh could still call upon the likes of Wyn Jones, Faletau, Gareth Davies, Biggar, Jonathan Davies, Liam Williams and Leigh Halfpenny - individuals who are used to beating Scotland. An away victory in the Six Nations (aside from Italy) should always be treasured.
But most importantly, at the end of the day:
BUT BUT BUT: Both Finn Russell and Adam Hastings have now been ruled out for the rest of the Autumn. Hastings is also set to miss the 2021 Six Nations.
COMETH THE PUDDING: Surely this means a return to the Scotland no.10 jersey for everyone’s favourite Duncan Weir. While he offers something different to the all court game of Russell and Hastings, his form for Worcester has been good and his hair magnificent. A beacon has been seen over Murrayfield (courtesy of meme lord Graham Love).
SIX NATIONS SCORECARD: Ultimately Scotland fans would have bitten your hand off if offered 3 victories in this year’s tournament, particularly after the ignominy of last year’s World Cup. That Townsend managed to deliver such success is made even more remarkable by the fact it was achieved without (for the most part) Finn Russell, who threw the camp into disarray before a ball had even been kicked. While some of the rugby that Scotland produced was far from pretty on the eye, the coaching team seems to have imbued a new found steel in the national side, with the initial promise showed in Dublin followed through with the victory against the Welsh.
The tournament felt like a coming of age for younger guys like Jamie Ritchie, Zander Fagerson and Scott Cummings, all of whom had impressive campaigns. Rory Sutherland came from nowhere to (according to our sources) being lined up by Gatland for the Lions’ loosehead spot. Ali Price has his detractors yet has likely secured the 9 shirt for the foreseeable future, and the control he exerted towards the end of the Wales match showed reassuring maturity (his halfback partner Adam Hastings also deserves praise for stepping into the 10 shirt in difficult circumstances and performing well). Watson once again confirmed that he is firmly in the ‘world class’ category. Adding Kebble and Van der Merwe to the mix is a rare luxury.
Stuart Hogg recovered from his opening day blunder against Ireland and demonstrated growing leadership skills, particularly after being placed in the middle of the Finn-Toonie saga. While there were perhaps less of his trademark breaks to savour, his decision-making looks to have improved and there is a less of a sense of him trying to force the play. On current form he must start for the Lions.
While we never thought the last word should go to Chris Harris, here is a stat that will leave plenty food for thought…
How do readers rate the campaign? Leave us your thoughts on your favourite moments, which players stood out and where improvements need to be made:
TAND-TRIC DEFENCE
When the appointment of Steve Tandy as Scotland assistant coach was announced, there were some murmurs of discontent (us included - we’re sadly far from perfect) among fans. However, he has been credited with the notable improvement in the national team’s defensive performances over the last 12 months. Scotland conceded just 59 points and 5 tries during the Six Nations, an incredible return given how leaky their defence has been in recent campaigns, as Jamie Lyall demonstrated with these incredible figures:
The beady-eyed amongst you will have noticed former Scotland defence coach Matt Taylor next to Dave Rennie in the Australian coaching box during their Bledisloe Cup match at the weekend. At least Taylor is consistent - New Zealand racked up 43 points in their largest ever victory over the Wallabies.
Interestingly Scotland only managed to cross the whitewash on just 7 occasions during the Six Nations. Only Italy, with 6 tries to their name, were lower in the try-scoring stakes.
It would therefore appear that Townsend’s “fastest brand of rugby in the world” has quietly been consigned to history. Although with 3 wins to his name and the 18-year duck in Wales broken, who really cares right now?
WORLD RANKINGS: following the weekend Scotland have leapfrogged Wales into 7th in the world rankings, with the chance to overtake Australia should they (likely) lose to the All Blacks this weekend. With a further game against in form France coming up, Scotland could (emphasis on the could) keep climbing through the Autumn if the winning streak continues. This obviously means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things - the RWC 2023 draw has already taken place - but still, nice.
A PRO TEAM WIN!
Edinburgh managed to break their 6 match losing streak, defeating Scarlets away in a 6-3 (double-checks notes, yep, the actual score) thriller. The less said about that the better really but the events of the weekend may well have Scottish rugby fans asking can our teams play at Parc y Scarlets every week?
Edinburgh’s twitter feed paid tribute to the dominant scrum with this lovely montage of WP Nel won scrum penalties. Filthy.
BUT ANOTHER GLASGOW LOSS: there was no way the rugby gods were going to witness 3 successive victories over the weekend, and the Warriors duly obliged, going down 19-32 to the reigning Champions Leinster (who racked up their 23rd consecutive Pro 14 victory). While it was always going to be a difficult ask for Danny Wilson’s side, there was enough quality in the team - particularly in the backline - to make fans think the contest would have been slightly closer. The new Glasgow coach hasn’t enjoyed the best start to life in Scotstoun, although this should be caveated by the reality that he has been hamstrung in his ability to strengthen a squad in desperate need of additional quality.
With Adam Hastings now ruled out beyond the six nations, things are looking a little bleak for the West Coasters.
Perhaps the main positives from Glasgow so far has been a return in form for Huw Jones, yet there is still a sense his talents being slightly wasted at fullback.
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AND NOW FOR SOMETHING A BIT DIFFERENT:
Last week Bermuda played host to the relatively under the radar World Tens tournament. The brainchild of US rugby administrators, the event saw 8 privately-owned teams, mainly sourced from Major League Rugby and current sevens players, compete in a new form of the game that included laws such as “conversion jeopardy” - awarding between 1 and 5 points for a successful kick depending on the difficult of the angle. There was various Scottish involvement, notably current Nottingham attack coach and former St Andrews University and GHK coach David Ross overseeing a Miami-based team that included DTH Van der Merwe. Elsewhere former Scotland U-20 cap and recent Northampton leaver Devanate Onojaife lined up for a strong-looking London Royals team, and current Watsonians Super 6 player Lewis Berg featured for Phoenix Rugby. We have heard on the grapevine that there was little appetite from the SRU to allow Scotland Sevens players to compete in the tournament, which seems potentially short-sighted…
This cracking moment from a recent Peebles v Kirkcaldy fixture went viral in rugby circles:
Scotland’s favourite beer Tennents (not a plug for sponsorship, honest) continue to innovate, as shown by their most recent take on the ‘tinny of joy’ (Thistle trademark):
Thistle HQ had a look on Google Trends to see when exactly Scotland fans have historically got over excited and searched for ‘Scotland Grand Slam’ on Google. What the info shows is a growing excitement throughout 2017 and 2018 with a peak w/c 10th March 2019
w/c 10th March was the last week of the 2019 Six Nations and covered our glorious/devastating draw against England at Twickenham. Given this was our last game of the Six Nations, we only drew the match and we’d previously lost to France, Ireland and Wales, our only conclusion from this analysis is the majority of Scotland fans searching ‘Scotland Grand Slam’ don’t know what a Grand Slam is
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