When will we see your likes again?
Another year, another bunch of Scottish defeats. Will it ever change?
Oh Flower of Scotland, will we ever see your likes again?
Every year without fail, I feel myself get excited for the 6 Nations. Every year. I can’t stop a naïve and innocent part of me from thinking: 'Could this be Scotland's year?'
Invariably, by about game three or four, that part of me is well and truly dead.
Killed off by a mixture of good performances in matches we lose, bad performances in matches we win or just plain old bad performances. My cynical side will then resume control, and proceeds to pour scorn over my hopes and dreams of a glorious Scottish Grand Slam.
For 2015, it has been no different. Despite the new coach and relatively decent performances in the Autumn Internationals and despite the good form of our two professional teams, it has been the same ol’ Scotland. We still just can’t get it together and play well in this competition.
I am convinced that we actually do have the talent to win some games. In our forwards, we have the Gray brothers, with Jonny impressing in particular. Dominating in all facets of a modern lock forward’s game, from lineouts, to carries, to tackles, Jonny Gray has even begun to outshine his more highlighted brother. And it’s not just those two either; our front row has been strong, with Ross Ford playing as well as I’ve ever seen him.
Our backs are pretty good too, with the Glasgow Warrior quartet of Finn Russell, Alex Dunbar, Martin Bennett and Stuart Hogg all impressing. Indeed, I am struggling to think of time when Scotland’s back line has ever created as many opportunities as it does at the moment.
The problem of course, is still the same. We still aren’t winning games.
This year, we have had good performances against the ‘stronger’ teams, France and Wales. Both times, we were arguably the more creative team only to be undone by a combination of ill discipline and poor finishing.
Then came Italy, the game that we were of course going to win easily, the game that the new Scotland team would finally show everyone what it was made of…
I can tell you now that it was around about the time when the Italian winger collected the ball off a rebound of the post and touched down for the try that my optimism died completely. Obviously, the Grand Slam dream was long gone, but I had still hoped that we could perform well in our final three games and force people to take notice. That clearly didn’t happen.
And then came the Auld Enemy, perhaps then we could do something extraordinary? Nope.
There were flashes of a good performance in the first half and we were probably justifiably in the lead at half time (only because England seemed to enjoy butchering try scoring opportunities). Then came the second half, where England decided to win the game and we could do nothing about it.
So, what do we do? I don’t really have an answer. I do believe that Vern Cotter is as good a coach as we will ever get, so I can say that a change in coach wouldn’t do any good. Perhaps a change in leadership on the pitch might have an effect, but Laidlaw is the clearly best scrumhalf we have at the moment.
We have one game left in this championship, against arguably the strongest team. I must admit that I personally do not believe we can win it. Laidlaw has said that he wants to “avoid the embarrassment of the wooden spoon”, but I imagine the players are all pretty embarrassed by the results so far.
EDIT: Big surpise, Scotland got hammered by Ireland. This is too much for me...
Filed under:
Six Nations, Scotland
Written by: Calum McConnachie
Follow: @ · @therugbymag
