TWO DOWN, THREE TO GO
Taking stock after the Six Nations fallow week, as Operation Grand Slam continues
WELCOME: in recent years the mid-Six Nations break has offered welcome respite for long-suffering Scottish rugby fans, inevitably cursing a second round defeat, forlorn hopes of a Grand Slam dashed once again. Yet it seems as if this time is different. Fresh off the back of consecutive victories in rounds one and two for the first time in the tournament since 1996, many would have been more than happy to see Scotland face off against France, still licking their wounds after a defeat against the Irish that suggested Dupont and co may in fact be human, at the weekend. Bit of a shame we have to wait a whole two weeks to continue our Grand Slam quest.
Still, the ultras had the return of domestic rugby to look forward to, as the pro sides looked to continue the recent, uncharted, good vibes Scottish rugby has experienced in the last few weeks, and there was plenty of Scots abroad action to look forward to / ample time to pray Finn went no further than bench duty for Racing. This week we look back at all the action on the pitch over the weekend, and as an additional treat, provide a breakdown of all the key Scotland stats in the Six Nations so far. Enjoy!
SIX NATIONS MID-POINT: as part of his never ending quest to avoid childcare duties, Alan spent his Sunday compiling some great stats to illustrate the story of Scotland’s Six Nations so far. We are far from stats gurus, so feel free to write in with your theories/explanations of the data presented below.
Attack - Meters Made & Carries
From an attacking perspective, Scotland’s tournament so far has been a tale of two cities between the forwards and backs. While the first chart shows that Scotland have made the lowest total carries but 2nd highest metres per carry (only behind France) across all players in the competition so far, this is skewed by the successes of the Scottish back line. So far Finn and co have generated the highest number of metres per carry out of their rivals, while also carrying far more in total than the Scottish forwards.
At first glance the second chart would suggest that across the first two rounds the Scottish pack have seemed fairly ineffective in the carry. However, this perhaps reveals Townsend’s overall attacking strategy so far, with far more responsibility placed on those in the wider channels and the forwards focusing more on their bread and butter (set piece, breakdown and tackles). For instance, while Matt Fagerson gained half the metres with ball in hand of Irish counterpart Caelan Doris in round two, he made more tackles than the entire Irish back row combined.
The data is skewed even further by the fact that Scotland boast 3 of the top 6 players for average metres made per carry (minimum 5 carries) in the tournament so far, as the charts below demonstrate. Once again, this is perhaps further evidence of Townsend’s plan to attack away from the breakdown, playing to Scotland’s undoubted strengths out wide. And with players like Duhan, Kinghorn and Jones at your disposal, why wouldn’t you?
Defence - Tackles Made and Missed Tackles
Scotland’s defence has been exemplary so far, with Steve Tandy able to boast the lowest missed tackle rate (c.7%) in the tournament, alongside the second highest amount of total tackles made.
Within this, the pack have been absolutely crushing it, with by far the lowest missed tackle percentage at a staggeringly low 4%. At the individual player level, Scotland have produced 5 forwards who have started a match and not missed a single tackle across the opening two rounds - truly remarkable.
TOO VIBEY: Glasgow’s unbeaten run - now stretching a club record 10 games (H/T to stats guru Kevin Millar) - continued on Friday night at Scotstoun, as Franco Smith’s men prevailed 17-11 against a stuffy Ulster side.
The home side were bolstered by the return of several current Scotland squad members, most notably Jack Dempsey, Fraser Brown and Ali Price, and it was this quality that perhaps saw them through on the day. At the other end of the age spectrum, Jamie Dobie impressed in a rare starting berth, while youngling forwards Euan Ferrie and Alex Samuel (the latter fresh off signing a full contract this week) look full of promise. It was also pleasing to see Scott Cummings make his long-awaited return from injury, just in time for the resumption of the Six Nations next weekend.
Torrential rain throughout the match put paid to any ambitions of running rugby (a shame given the Glasgow back three of Smith, Forbes and Mackay), meaning control in the tight and territorial gains via the boot were the order of the day. Thus the try scorers read Vailanu - what a surprisingly good signing he has been - Dempsey and Brown, all of whom dotted down at the back of driving mauls. In truth Ulster looked in control for large parts of the match, yet Glasgow will be pleased with how they dug this one out. The victory takes the Warriors into the URC top 4, just behind Ulster but with Munster and Bulls chasing hard behind.
It wasn’t that long ago that many Scotland fans were calling for the return of current Ulster coach Dan McFarland to these shores - but with Franco Smith so close to home, is there any real need?
Full highlights below:
U OK STEVIE? A quick mention for former Ulsterman and current URC pundit Stephen Ferris, perhaps the most one-eyed of Irish rugby commentators (which is really saying something) - hopefully you were still able to enjoy the rest of your weekend Stevie boy…
VIBE KILLERS: meanwhile in Wales on Saturday evening, Edinburgh were unable to continue the recent good vibes in Scottish rugby, falling 42-14 to a Scarlets side they would have perhaps expected to beat. Although Mike Blair could not call upon as many Scotland squad members as Glasgow, his starting XV contained no fewer than 9 capped internationals, while the presence of Hamish Watson and Bill Mata surely would have bolstered confidence amongst the ranks prior to kick off.
However, the capital side were two tries down within 15 minutes, and failed to recover from this poor start, shipping six tries to a team floating around the bottom of the URC. The young half backs Shiel and Savala struggled throughout as the visitors comfortably lost the battle up front, with Blair admitting post match that his charges “were not even at the races” on the day. Murray McCallum and Boan Venter got on the scoresheet to restore some level of pride.
The defeat sees Edinburgh drop to the lowly position of 11th in the league, and while the playoff chasing mid-table pack is a crowded field (just 7 points between 11th and 7th place), knock out rugby looks a fairly distant possibility right now.
At least there is still Europe to play for, and while Leicester away is a big ask, they have been struggling in the English Premiership this year. Blair will hope the return of his international big guns is enough to spark the season back into life.
Full (extremely shan) highlights below:
URC STANDINGS: just in case Edinburgh fans needed reminding of the contrasting domestic fortunes of the two pro teams this season…
SCOTS ABROAD: despite the Six Nations break there were plenty of Scots on show at the weekend (both from within the national camp and further beyond).
English Premiership
Bristol v Newcastle: Magnus Bradbury (8) v Gary Graham (6)
Gloucester v Harlequins: Chris Harris (13) v Scott Steele (21)
Bath v London Irish: D’Arcy Rae (3), Josh Bayliss (8), Ruaridh McConnochie (11) and Cam Redpath (12) v Ben White (21) - defeat for the home side takes them to the bottom of the table. Will Finn be looking over the channel nervously? At least there are plenty of fellow Scots to drown his sorrows with
Northampton v Sale: Robbie Smith (2), Fin Smith (10), Fraser Dingwall (12) and Rory Hutchinson (22) v Ewan Ashman (2), Gus Warr (9) and Tom Roebuck (23) - the most interesting development coming out of this one was the news on Sunday that George Ford has replaced Fin Smith in the England squad (albeit Fraser Dingwall also received a call up). Still, neither Smith or Dingwall have yet been captured by the Sassenachs
Leicester v Saracens: Cammy Henderson (5) and Matt Scott (13) v Andy Christie (6), Sean Maitland (15) and Robin Hislop (17) - Henderson scoring for the home side. Might we see his international bow versus Italy at the end of the Six Nations? It was also confirmed this week that Hislop will return home to Edinburgh at the end of the season - tidy.
Top 14
Meanwhile over in France, Racing 92 owner Jackie Lorenzetti has clearly been treated to one or two Dodson sauna sessions during the week, with Finn limited to bench duties in his side’s victory over Brive. We can all now breathe a collective sigh of relief…
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Massive win for the Monument Men as well ^_^