Scotland 17-23 France
Sunday 26th February 2012
Brave. Proud. Valiant. Courageous.
Personally, I hate these words, but they have unfortunately become synonomous with the Scotland Rugby team. Worse still, a Scotland team that loses. Never will you hear them used in the throes of victory. Once again, they have been applied to Scotland's latest performance, this time against France at Murrayfield in a 17-23 loss.
Let's look at the positives, and there are many from a game that Scotland arguably should have won.
Scotland dominated in all the key areas including possession, offloads, completed passes and turnovers. The difference in this game to the previous four test match losses was the much anticipated execution.
Stuart Hogg on his first start and Lee Jones on his third both scored tries at crucial times to open their accounts and take Scotland into 7 and 4 point leads at the start of each half. Both players provided plenty for the Scottish faithful to look forward to.
Stuart Hogg scores his first try for Scotland
The back row of Barclay, Rennie and Denton were again outstanding. Rennie in particular was all over the place, often the second man into the tackle to rip possession from the French. Barclay too, was excellent at the breakdown, making the tackle and retrieving the ball to set up Jones' try.
After a torrid couple of weeks, Nick De Luca had an earlier than expected introduction to the game following Rory Lamont's horrific leg break injury. Whether or not he felt he had something to prove, de Luca played out of his skin for 50 minutes of the game, producing his finest display in a Scotland shirt in my opinion.
To the game and Scotland’s fortnight of work on patience in possession was clear to see. France did very well to slow ball down and frustrate Mike Blair and later Chris Cusiter, but the first try came after a long period of phase play that hadn’t seen Scotland move very far other than across the field, the slow ball allowing France to reset their defence all too comfortably. Ultimately though, Scotland didn’t force the issue and waited for the opportunity when Laidlaw collected a loose ball, switched direction and targeted the French prop Poux, offloading to Lee Jones who then dispatched Stuart Hogg into the corner for the first try with Julien Malzieu having gone AWOL from his wing.
Excellent defence and continuous Scottish pressure resulted in a Laidlaw penalty to see the Scots go 10-0 up after 25 minutes. An excellent opening to the game.
The thing about the French is they don’t panic, and sure enough they took the ball to the Scottish 22 for the first time, recycling quickly. With a split defence, Parra spread the ball left to Trinh-Duc who bowled over Laidlaw, sucking in an extra defender before offloading to Clerc who then passed to Wesley Fofana who came in like a train and at an angle that couldn’t see 4 men take him down as he crashed over.
The ensuing conversion and a further penalty from Parra saw the scores tied at 10-10 at halftime. Scotland could maybe count themselves a little unlucky to only be drawing at that stage, but following the departure of the injured Lamont and Mike Blair, the game turned somewhat in favour of the French at the end of the first half.
Into the second half, and it was Scotland again who were taking the initiative. After some toing and froing in the middle third of the pitch, it was John Barclay who made the difference, tackling a French forward, getting straight on his feet and stealing the ball from under their noses. The offload to de Luca set up a three on two overlap seeing the ball pass through substitute Richie Vernon to Lee Jones outside to finish off a clinical piece of finishing that has been so absent from previous games.
Scotland again held the advantage with Duncan Weir effortlessly converting on his debut from near the touchline, looking as composed as though it was his 50th cap. Scotland 17, France 13.
The French came back though, and with broken play in the midfield, the ball came loose on the French side releasing the backs. Julien Malzieu, who saw precious little of the ball throughout the game, took off down his left wing. Lee Jones missed the tackle, meaning Hogg had to cover across allowing the excellent Maxime Medard the space to finish off a ruthless and typically French attack.
With 15 or so minutes to go and the French holding a slender 3 point lead, there was still all to play for. Scotland were looking for a try, something they now had the belief they could get against the French and something the crowd almost expected now they had seen two already.
Referee Wayne Barnes did little to help Scotland's cause. Much like Steve Walsh in the England v Wales game the previous day, there were quite a few ruck infringements from the French that were either unseen or not penalised. Worst of all was the lack of penalty awarded for a clear and obvious high tackle on Duncan Weir. Had it been given, Scotland could have tied the game 20-20 at that stage and who knows what might have happened?
The French had other ideas and were defiant and controlling with the ball, their forwards keeping it tight and starving the Scots of possession and territory. With Morgan Parra marshalling his forwards with precision and effortless momentum, they set up stand in fly half Lionel Beauxis for the drop goal that saw the French extend their lead to an unassailable 6 points.
Final score: Scotland 17, France 23.
Despite a fifth test defeat in a row (the first time since 2004), Scotland have shown that they are making progress. It is surely only a matter of time before it clicks into place to get what every player, coach and fan is waiting for; the big W.
Scotland have passed more than any other team in the tournament, gone through more phases and with players like Denton and Rennie carried the ball as much if not more than any other player in the competition so far. What matters to many are the results, but progress is being made here and that shouldn’t be ignored.
Following the defeat, yet more people are calling into question Robinson’s role as coach. There are many who are snapping to the decision to let him go but this would be a huge mistake at this stage.
If there is a time to lose games, it is now. This team is reforming and rebuilding. There is real young talent in the squad and a depth rarely seen in the Scottish game. The structure of the team and the ability to execute game wide tactics has improved immeasurably, even if the results haven’t come. Those losses haven’t come down to tactics, rather individual mistakes here and there. Robinson has created a real foundation for lasting consistent success, the fruits of which will surely start to bare in the next couple of years.
Against England, Scotland needed to create the chances. And they did. Against Wales, they needed to do the same but also put up an enormous defensive effort. And they did, at least for 65 minutes. Against France, the next objective was to carry those on and add execution and tries to the mix and again, they rose to that challenge. Scotland are building and it is clear for all to see.
