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Scotland vs New Zealand: Player Ratings

Scotland
The Scotland team confer during Scotland vs New Zealand in the Autumn Test at BT Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh - pic © Alastair Ross / Novantae Photography

Scotland came so very close to a historic win – could it have been tens across the board had they managed to make this one count? This was a surprisingly easy defeat for a fan to take although I’m sure the players may feel differently.

15. Stuart Hogg: Did virtually nothing wrong all night. Secure under the high ball, grown massively into his leadership role and able to cut apart the best side in the world almost at will. If he had made that last pass or beaten Barrett then everyone could have tens but he came closest despite the loss – 9.5/10

14. Tommy Seymour: Started poorly, got worse and suddenly with no warning came onto a game in the last 20 minutes. Knocking back over his own line and coughing up a 5 metre scrum was a particularly embarrassing moment in an error-strewn episode. Will have much better days at the office – 6/10

13. Huw Jones: A tough day for the centres, he had to do a lot of defensive work as Scotland missed out the 12/13 axis in many of their attacks. A sign of his quality that he stuck at it and yet again bagged a try with a typically strong finish. A real quality addition to the Scottish artillery – 7.5/10

12. Alex Dunbar: As with Jones, had a tough shift but did his work well and should get more opportunities to show his attacking intent. May have picked up an injury – 7/10

11. Lee Jones: Significant worries beforehand about Lee Jones’ ability to withstand the power of Naholo were made to look trifling.  His best game in a Scotland shirt, solid in defence and his speed and quick feet kept the All Blacks’ defence honest.  Can be proud of his efforts – 8/10

10. Finn Russell: Another mercurial performance from Scotland’s court jester, when he plays like this he’s world class. Kicking from hand was high quality and was constantly looking to test the opposition defence, in this form he’s a joy to watch – 8.5/10

9. Ali Price: Showed great maturity and is really starting to own the 9 jersey. Laidlaw may bring control but Price today showed that he’s now first pick, perfect for Scotland’s game plan and his box kicking and decision making were top class – 8.5/10

1. Darryl Marfo: Looks to the manor born. May be fourth choice at Edinburgh but on this form should very much be a fixture in Scotland squads going forward. Good in the loose, keen as mustard and solid in the scrum he’s proving to be a good addition – 7.5 /10

2. Stuart McInally: Really solid performance… in two positions! As hooker he’s brought a stability to the line out and looks good in open play, when moving back to flanker he more than held his own.  Fraser Brown has serious competition on his hands – 8/10

3. Zander Fagerson: Lasted 40 minutes and was solid, if unspectacular, in his work. The scrum was noticeably worse when he went off. Will have better days but still contributed to the cause for that superb first half. And no handbags! – 6.5/10

4. Ben Toolis: Another good performance and has really come on since the summer tour.  Went through a mountain of work, tackled himself into the ground and again contributed to a very good lineout. – 7/10

5. Jonny Gray: Massively improved from last week, really fronted up to the New Zealand forwards and fully deserved his try. Despite this he was still short of his best… this can only bode well for the future but great to see him back on an upward curve – 7.5/10

6. John Barclay: As fine a captain’s performance as Murrayfield has seen in many years – his work in and around the breakdown was nothing short of spectacular. Today looked like the day he came of age as his nation’s captain – 9/10

7. Hamish Watson: Only played 26 minutes but was another strong showing both in offence and defence – he adds a sharp edge to the Scotland back row which really compliments the Scottish game plan. Hamilton was a fine replacement but they lacked Watson’s guile afterwards – 7/10

8. Cornell du Preez: Starting to grow into the Scotland shirt, help shore up the wobbly restarts, tackled well and really does have some lovely hands for a big man. – 7/10

Replacements:

16. George Turner: Played 30 minutes and never really looked out of place, for a young man he acquitted himself well – 6/10

17. Jamie Bhatti: Wasn’t on for too long, had a tough time in the scrum but stuck to his task and will have learned from playing against the world’s best – 5/10

18. Simon Berghan: Labelled ice-Berghan by one hack as he threatened to sink Scotland’s chances, however came back well to put in a basically decent performance – 5/10

19. Grant Gilchrist: Solid as ever, nothing flashy and didn’t get injured so by his standards it was a success – 5.5/10

20. Luke Hamilton: Unknown to Scottish rugby until very recently however Wales’ loss is Scotland’s gain. Played for 30 minutes but was positive in everything he did and a couple of big carries. Could, maybe (please Lord!) be the big ball carrier in the back row that Scotland are crying out for – 7/10

21. Henry Pyrgos: Only on the pitch for a short while, seemed to play a bit quicker than normal which was positive – 5/10

22. Pete Horne: Played about 35 minutes, had a few nice half-breaks but couldn’t make the breakthrough he did last week. Perhaps struggled physically against a wall of black shirts. If Dunbar is injured, may feature more next week – 6/10

23. Byron McGuigan: Came on but didn’t get any ball. Not really his fault… – 5/10

SQUAD UPDATE: Having recovered from injuries that kept them out originally, Sean Maitland and Fraser Brown will train with the Scotland squad this week.

72 Responses

  1. I think you were a bit generous to Seymour, Jones and Barclay, all of whom made a lot of errors, and a little harsh on the replacements (I thought everyone started at 6 and we’re marked down for doing bad – can’t really see what GG or HP did to be marked down), but I think the rest of the marks are spot on!

    1. What were you watching? Barclay was second only to Hogg. I agree with Seymour though, had a shocker

      1. I think seymour needs to have a rest as he has not had once performance we know he is capable of since the lions. including for glasgow, he just hasnt reached that form yet. what kind of message does it send to the other players in the squad if they are not being given a shot over a underperforming player ?

        Bring in Byron for the aus game with maitland on bench should he be struggling.

  2. Having looked back at the last ten minutes and it being highlighted on social media too. Can anyone who knows more about the laws of rugby union how the referee and his team came to this conclusion? New Zealand had just been given their second yellow card and Scotland successfully got the ball out the scrum at 71 mins 30 secs on the clock. Simon Berghan takes the ball in and Johnny Gray picks up and Kieran Reid knocks the ball out of his hands when he is lying on the floor.

    So no matter the advantage already playing that is in the red zone and is an automatic yellow card. Not only does the referee team not penalise this but the referee sees this as a knock on against Scotland. The ball clearly goes back from a Scottish point of view so if anything it is a knock on against New Zealand (it wasn’t it was a deliberate knock down playing ball on the floor) so play should go on and as it happened the foul play put the ball into Scottish hands who were under the posts and we were within 5 points with 8 minutes left. Or we would have been 5 yards out against 13 men. A huge difference in the situation of the game either way. I don’t understand how TMO and line judge didn’t have a look the match has stopped at this point again. To make matters worse I think it was highlighted in commentary on the radio that when Barclay questioned the decision the referee told him that they had already had two yellows. It doesn’t matter how may you had previously a yellow card offence is a yellow card.

    Can anyone explain this other than a bit of a disappointing decision all round?

    In saying all this we were so so close and Hoggs break probably wasn’t what we wanted. We were making great progress up the pitch and would have been there or there abouts with a few more phrases. Just making yards against 14 men would have been enough. Had Hogg finished we would of had a tough conversion to seal the win.

    Very proud and gutted at the same time.

    1. I think the referee was good but bottled a couple of decisions. That said, if our handling and decision-making were better, then we could have won.

    2. Is there any consistent standard as to when repeated offending on the try line becomes a penalty try?( see also Wales game).

    3. The ref was the same as every other ref in a Scot v NZ match for the last 25yrs – they assume Scotland are going to lose and ref accordingly. The number of red-zone pens NZ gave away was laughable.

      How the TMO and Ref managed to manufacture mitigation in Hogg getting taken out in the air was quite frankly bewildering – but NZ always are reffed differently to everyone else.

      1. I’d argue this needs to change….too many penalties in the red zone is penalty try…YC just doesn’t reward teams who need to score and are denied by illegal means.

    4. Just re-watched that 71:30 incident and I think you’re absolutely right in everything you say. Scotland were really unlucky there. Should have played on (no Scotland knock-on) with a Scotland try and a yellow card for Reid.

    5. The ref didn’t see it, simple as that.
      It was certainly a yellow card (even red?) and possibly a penalty try if we didn’t score from the advantage.
      Unfortunately things get missed every game, even with the TMO. Possibly Barclay should have pushed to have it looked at like Farrell did in the England game.

      1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/42044145

        Tom English has followed up on this. This incident reminds me of Wales match 3 nearly 4 years ago with Glen Jackson in his first test saying Sam Hidago Clyne played a forward pass when he didn’t and almost lost his head in a high tackle. Bennett grounded the ball no try and scrum. We eventually got back into that match with 2nd last play instead of having 10 mins against 14.

        We missed out on similar on Sat only against 13. These have to be looked at with the TMO. Have too. Every ref needs to get his first test but he needs help to get big calls right from TMO.

        There simply shouldn’t get these calls wrong when u can analyse and check as you go.

  3. Not had a chance to watch on the telly yet, but my impression was we were 4 or 5 knock ons, and a couple of uncharacteristic errors from Tommy, away from victory. If we continue along yhis vein we can hope for a win in the next 3 encounters, or so. Bossed the first half, drlriving them of ball and territory. We never gave up and NZ Pulled a wonder try out of the bag, but Hoggy was the best player on the pitch. All in blue gave it everything. Great game to watch.

  4. Team Cam, I presume you were referring to Huw Jones, not Lee Jones, the latter having put in an absolutely astounding performance in which he made good ground every time he had the ball, always safely recycling it. I also thought Barclay’s performance both as player and captain was superb, apart from the crucial decision for a scrum rather than a lineout in the closing stages.

    1. I did indeed mean Huw Jones. I think Barclay was really good, but in addition to the scrum decision he gave away a couple of silly penalties. I’d only mark him down 0.5 points, though.

  5. We need to talk about George Turners scrummaging. It is nowhere near international standard. Seriously underpowered and needs to sort this out. For all the good stuff he does in the loose the set piece should be his bread and butter. If he can get 7+kg on without impacting his mobility he could be a fantastic player.

    1. Yeh I agree his scrummaging is sub standard at pro-14 level let alone international level. He’s not exactly light at 102.5kg though. For reference McInally is 105kg and Brown is 103kg.

      The issue seems to be that the Glasgow front rows seem to scrum very poorly as a unit. Fagerson is clearly not a bad scrummager though so he isn’t the problem. I’m very surprised that it wasn’t Turner who went to flanker though as McInally is much more solid at scrum time and also I think the height difference between Berghan who is a proven strong scrummager and Turner can’t help at scrum time.

      1. Yeah I’ve seen that, same size as Ross Ford? Not a chance. You can tell by looking he’s not much over 100kg.

  6. Assuming just Watson, Hamilton and Fagerson are ruled out for next week, this is the side I think we’ll see.

    1- Marfo
    2- McInally
    3- Berghan
    4- Toolis
    5- Gray
    6- Wilson
    7- Barclay (C)
    8- Du Preez
    9- Price
    10- Russell
    11- Jones
    12- Dunbar
    13- Jones
    14- Seymour
    15- Hogg

    16- Turner (Although I’d be tempted to put in Cochrane)
    17- Sutherland
    18- Welsh
    19- Gilchrist
    20- Bradbury
    21- Pyrgos
    22- Horne
    23- McGuigan

    1. Any info on which Edinburgh players are now off to SA and, presumably, unpickable?

      Absurd scheduling to have a “home” Pro14 union team playing in SA same week as an international

      Seems to me that the new boys Cheetahs and Kings after 2 weeks off should be made to travel…

      1. He played for Exeter yesterday and seemed to do little other than miss a couple of tackles.
        Think his ship has sailed. Pity – a few years back he and Ryan Grant looked as though they would really be the business.

    2. Maitland could be back. Played for Saracens on Friday and I think Tooney may have said a few weeks back that he would be brought in. My shout (contentious, maybe) would be Maitland straight in and Seymour on the bench.

      Any chance of a recall for Strauss if both Watson and Hamilton are out? IMO Ritchie deserves the bench spot slightly more than Bradbury.

      It will never happen, but apparently Lee Jones can cover SH. Wouldn’t mind seeing Pyrgos dropped in place of Grigg.

      If Welsh plays, I believe it will be his first Scotland game since he was judged by Mr Joubert to have committed a 78th minute penalty against the same opposition? What a chance at redemption that would be.

      1. Brilliant. Brown to the bench for me and Maitland in the 23 somewhere.

        Wonder if the lack of back row call up means that Watson and/or Wilson looking like they will be fit?

  7. I think a tad harsh on Huw Jones , who was tackling brilliantly. Huw Jones and Dunbar are selected for their defense as much as attack and what a job. With 6 tries in 10 matches Jones is a finisher.

    line out was rock solid all game so Gray , Toolis and Barclay deserve credit for this , the AB’s are clinical in the line out and they were just ordinary.

    Marfo and Fagerson are solid and get around, shame about Fagerson’s knock on. I do not know what more we can ask from Props !!

  8. Have to say that the players that people had doubts about before the game all played well. Lee Jones was excellent and did little wrong. Fagerson can scrummage at this level. Marfo is the find of the autumn. McInally is playing really well. Gray looks like he could kick on after this. Backline defence was excellent until the injuries kicked in. Even then it took some outstanding play to come through us. Tactics were good. Maul defence was good. Ruck defence was good. Lineout was excellent. Cannot remember a better game kicking from hand by Scotland. Price apart from one kick was excellent and really mouthy which I like in a scrum half. That steal from a NZ scrum will live long in the memory. None of the new boys looked out of their depth and all will have learnt a lot from this.

  9. Waiting anxiously to hear news about injuries now. Hamilton was outstanding yesterday, fantastic debut, and Watson has as we would probably all agree definitely established himself as a truly world class open side. I would hate to see one of those two let alone both become unavailable for next week. The balance of that back row was excellent yesterday and caused untold problems for an All Black side so accustomed to winning breakdown battles.
    There can be no doubt the Wallabies will be completely up for it next week. Aggrieved by what they saw as injustices yesterday, and gagging to avenge Sydney in June, they are going to try to tear into us from kick-off.
    Think we can expect another titanic struggle at Murrayfield on Saturday.

  10. If all the Scottish injuries magically cleared up by next week, I think you would struggle to drop many of the guys that have played the last couple of games. Marfo and McInally have been superb, Hamilton looked very good (maybe the answer at 8 in the future? I don’t know where he is playing at Leicester, but not a fan of Wilson and I don’t know if CDP is quite there).
    Seymour had a bad game, but hopefully just a one off.
    Tight head is a massive problem now, Berghan is not good enough at scrum time. May not be too big an issue against Australia, but hopefully Nel and Fagerson will be back by the 6N.
    Would like to see G.Horne on the bench over Pyrgos as he is looking very sharp at Glasgow.

    1. Wait what – Hamilton is your answer to our No 8 question based on his cameo on Sat – really?

      He’s also only 6ft 3.

      1. It was really a question as to whether he could be rather than saying he is. We don’t have a top class 8 and he looked like a good solid ball carrier from what I saw.
        I haven’t seen him play for Leicester and don’t really know anything about him other than pre match chat, so I am quite open to it being a terrible idea, it was just a thought.

  11. Despite very recent history I would really like to see Bradbury play next week at 6. We have ‘claimed’ Hamilton now so I think Bradbury, who does have huge potential as destructive ball carrier with serious gas, gets a go. If he then tears up Pro 14 in next couple of months (at 8 or 6) we would know he could be involved in 6N. In particular, I think we will need some ‘horses for courses’ selection for 6N, with perhaps Bradbury and CdP in against England, for example, with Barclay and Watson set up for a half each at full tilt. We would play Barclay and Watson against most others but maybe not France.
    I agree that the performance yesterday certainly puts the ranking of players in certain positions in question. Would we start Lee Jones with Maitland being a better bench option?

    1. I think Maitland’s defence gives him the edge over Lee Jones, he saved tries against both Ireland and France last season through his reading of the game and I don’t think anyone else in the squad matches that. Lee has been very good though and i’d have no worries over him starting against anyone. I recall him going off with a bad head injury against Wales years ago and thinking that he wasn’t built for international rugby so it’s great to see him do so well.

      I also think Barclay and Watson have to start every game.

      1. I agree that Watson and Barclay are terrific but as our current predicament shows we are always likely to have an injury or 5(!) so having Bradbury more experienced will be a good result of the AIs. I was prompted into the thought thinking that Watson may well be unavailable next week and, more likely , Hamilton also.
        You just cannot ignore the fact that against England extra grunt is required as losing the collisons allows them to play their ‘painting by numbers’ faux creative game.

      2. It’s fantastic to witness Lee’s return. He was an integral part of Edinburgh’s run to the Heineken semis, but I also remember him getting flattened in a test from which he didn’t seem to recover. Seemed to lose his confidence and fell out of favour at both Edinburgh and Scotland, but came back much stronger for his stints with the 7s and Glasgow. I don’t think he should be dropped to accommodate Maitland, who’s only had one appearance since returning from injury. Maitland and Brown would add a fair bit of impact and experience to the bench though.

  12. Still haven’t watched the game (!!) but just hoping we have 6 fit front rowers in the 23 next Saturday.
    I think expectation & belief is having a real impact on this current squad. The fans expect a higher level, the coaches do, the Pro 14 clubs do & so do the players. The mediocrity of the 2000s & early 2010s is hopefully now just not accepted any more. The same with belief – the players look like they now believe in themselves & each other.
    Looking forward to Aus next week, a real test to see if we can put together a winning performance against a hurting Wallabies team while putting aside our own disappointment from this weekend. And no injuries in training please!

  13. I’d be giving Seymour a close inspection in training this week with Maitlsnd around. He has a lot of money in the bank but we can’t afford for him to have a game like this weekend

    1. He (Seymour) won’t – his past form means that short of an injury, he must start next weekend. I would put money on him to score. Maitland is only just back to fitness but deserves a bench spot.

  14. Really baffling that we kept going for the scrum from those penalties in the last ten minutes. As is why McInally moved to blindside as I think Turner playing on the flank would have been more beneficial.

    Berghan is a good scrummager but Turner is seriously underpowered in there, it was very easy for the NZ loosehead to shear in against Turner negating Berghan’s power by splitting him from Turner and Bhatti.

    Bhatti has looked poor at scrum time for Glasgow but such is the loss of power when Turner comes on I think the jury is still out on his scrummaging. Overrall good to see Brown called into the squad but Turner has to improve in the scrum because he is so good in the loose.

  15. I agree about taking the scrum but credit where credit is due they did at least use the tap and go most of the time. I have watched Scottish teams stubbornly back the scrum with no evidence to back it up. They watch the ball just stick in the channel and they get penalised or pushed off their ball. All momentum gone and away back to the halfway without possession in a line out. You may as well just had a go from the tap. That was again the case when our line out didn’t function. Lose the ball in the maul etc etc.

    I think one scrum was to get them to put on a prop which didn’t work due to that props currency being the scrum. It was highlighted in radio commentary that the prop cheated to lose his Bind and berghan couldn’t fight it so with new Zealand going forward they won the pen. But after getting the prop on the real mistake was taking another scrum. It wastes so much time too so when u need two scores with so little time get on with it with a tap.

  16. We often talk about picking players on reputation rather than form but anyonecalling for Lee Jones to be dropped would be dropping a player based on reputation rather than form

      1. Jones did a solid job in defense but did little in attack. I wouldn’t say he earned the right to play Oz…he just didn’t let anyone down. Maitland is simply a better all round player than Jones. Seymour had a poor match for the 1st hour then began to find his form. Seymour in form is also a better player than Jones…imo. Id start both Maitland and Seymour…Jones or McGuigan on the bench.

  17. JP07 — your post has clearly been misinterpreted: you are in favour of retaining Lee Jones in the starting line-up and I agree with you. I was impressed by his short, powerful bursts, his excellent recycling and generally good defence. His form, rather than his reputation, demands his retention. However, in all selections “horses for courses” comes into play; that entails careful analysis of the opposition both as individuals and collectively, and their likely game-plan. In return we must select the best players to counter them in all these respects.

    1. Maitland is clearly a better player but he is also a player who rarely gets out of third gear who has played one club match since injury. Get him on the bench as cover at wing and FB. Dropping Jones would send out a terrible message to the squad, he has literally done nothing wrong. Seymour made basic error after basic error.

  18. Tommy Seymour had one bad game, dreadful by his high standards. His CV reads 38 caps , 16 tries , a recent lion , next to Huw Jones(10 games and 6 tries) he has the best strike rate in the 23 selected.

    Maitland, is just back from injury and while I respect his defense capability he only has 5 tries in 28 matches.

    It is just an opinion but last week we were fast,loose and scored twice, so why pick a winger for his defensive qualities !

    Jones strike rate is no better (1 from 7), but he is in the squad and is fit enough to last an entire international. Given our attrition rate in the first 2 matches , picking 23 who can last 80 minutes is non negotiable IMO.

    1. its not the strike rate in concerned about with seymour , his focus just isint were it should be and its reflecting on the pitch with lots of small mistakes , the amout of times i have heard people say that is uncharacteristic from seymour over the autmn and for glasgow so far reflects this.

      besides that this is pretty much the best time to blood 1-2 new players as the ranking does not matter now and id prefer against aus than in a 6 nations we should really be challenging coming up.

      McGuigan has earned his shot he is top try scorer in the aviva for not the strongest of teams.

      1. They are also saying Seymour came on form towards the end. By omission it feels like you do not favour a Maitland return and imply you want to see McGuigan take the pitch !!Just want to be clear what we are saying.

  19. Changing the back line is madness for me. Maitland on the bench and anyone but Pyrgos but starting back line, why change? Aus have a huge centre pairing but we just managed SBW, to an extent. We totally nullified Ioane and Naholo. Aus don’t have anyone to rival those wingers.

  20. Telegraph has reported Dan MacFarland saying they expect all the squad v NZ to be available v Australia including Hamilton, Watson and Fagerson.

    If correct, we’ll be in a decent place as Brown and Maitland strengthen then bench considerably and Wilson may also be back.

    1. Fagerson will be subject to head knock protocols surely – isn’t that 2 weeks off?

      There is no way Hamilton will be fit.

      Hopefully Watson’s injury was just muscular – him against Hooper is a fantastic battle.

  21. I’m puzzled by Steve hansens comments saying Scotland should have had yellow cards for collapsing driving line outs rewatched game couldn’t say I noticed anything obvious

    1. Classic deflection – when your team have been cheating all day in the red-zone, manufacture the opposition doing the same.

      TBF to Hansen he was intereviewed by the appalling Sonja McLaughlan – she has the uncanny ability to get the backs up of everyone she interviews. You could see Hansen’s body language change as he was confronted by her banality.

  22. Saw second half of Sarries v Gloucester. Maitland did absolutely nothing. Didn’t even hear his name and he was on the field. Vellacott on the other hand came on and turned the game for Glos. Superb performance.

    1. Vellacott could be ideal as a Danny Care style “finisher” who rather than coming on to control a game as say Pyrgos or Laidlaw would, comes on to up the tempo and put it to bed with more tries. Sadly Eddie Jones may be thinking the same thing…

  23. Important things compared to when we beat aus in summer.

    1. We are at home
    2. We have Hogg and they dont have Falou.

  24. I’m a bit concerned about the game on Saturday. Australia will be hurting about the loss to England and the perceived injustices. We had to use a lot of energy and emotion against the All Blacks and it’s going to be difficult to repeat that.

    That said, we’re almost at the point where we would expect to win pretty much every home game, and we do have the players and skillset to trouble the Wallabies.

  25. This is a must win for us. If we lose then it’s same cycle. If we really want to herald a new era nothing but a win will do.

    1. Funnily enough, after last Saturday’s performance, if we do lose the Wallabies match I would be disappointed but not in bits with desolation.
      I actually think we will win, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re the bookies’ favourites to win, but there was so much that was so good about Saturday that it got me focused not on the Wallabies Test this weekend but on the forthcoming 6N and especially the opening game away to Wales. For me, that’s absolutely the next up ‘must win’ game.
      Just to be clear, I dearly want us to beat Australia and hope we will, but there’s something about the way that this squad under Toonie is developing that makes me think their real focus is on the build through 18 to the 19 RWC.
      It’s staggering that so many unknown and unsung players fronted up to the All Blacks so well the other day. You only need to read the NZ press reports to gauge how shocked they were by this, and how much our stock has risen in the opinions of NZ and other rugby fans. Toonie, supported by the SRU and our two pro clubs, is definitely taking us right out out the wilderness. And BVC pointed the way out, bless him!

      1. This! I fully agree…

        The build has been going since BVC started it…the upward trajectory needs to be at the right angle/speed, like you say, for the team to reach max form during the rwc. I don’t really mind too much Scotland losing games, here and there, against good sides or teams that play well beyond themselves…as long as the general trajectory/build continues toward the rwc.

        The Scotland team and everyone round them must truly believe before they reach the rwc and I believe they will…

  26. Help ma boab – looks like Jonny Gray may be off at the end of the season too. Another blow for Glasgow and surely Dave Rennie’s plans.

    As for selections, I hope that Toonie will stick with the same starting 15 as far as injuries allow. I think Townsend (and also Rennie and Cockers) puts a huge focus on attitude and ethos, and is not scared to exclude anyone who he believes is not giving it 100%, but similarly will stick with those that have rewarded his faith. A bit of controversy about Seymour then. His performance was well below par, but not necessarily lacking in intent. It was also a mix of the good and the bad. I didn’t see anything from McGuigan in his 11 mins to suggest he should get in (a bit harsh maybe, but Tommy did some good stuff over the same time period) and Maitland is just back from injury with a fairly non-remarkable appearance for Sarries on Sunday. Tricky one.

    1. Rennie of course may have plans of his own – named in my paper yesterday as favourite for Gatlands job when he leaves.

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