Scotland play their first game of the tournament at home to Italy, a side who beat them in Rome last year.
How did Scotland do and did they look rusty or well-oiled? Where it all go wrong/right?
Give us your thoughts on the game.
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14 responses
There’s going to be a lot of over reaction to a sticky middle of the game. Over the 80 minutes it was comfortable and the defence was rock solid. White and Russell were poor but still played big parts in getting points on the board. McDowall didn’t add anything and we need Jordan’s aggressiveness against Ireland. Glasgow back row with Ritchie going to bench. Jonny Gray will hopefully play better in a game where we will make a lot more tackles.
Dickson was clearly trying to keep the game close. Ignoring the head hit on Ritchie which caused a knock on and the illegal steal on the 5m line were beyond belief. Italy dropped three mauls as well and the scrum was a farce.
Agree on most of this.
Dickson wasn’t good, he seemed to miss a lot in the game. Gray looked a bit sluggish but hopefully having had a run out he’s more up to speed. Dempsey offers more grunt than Ritchie so should start. I thought Macdowell was ok but Jordan did seem to offer a bit more.
Would add that I thought Kinghorn and Darcy were inspirational at sparking our momentum at 19 all and 60 mins. I was a bit worried Russell looked a bit lost in that period.
yes got a bit nervous at 19 all, but got there in the end. Great that we have so much potency in the backs – remember those days when we couldnt score a try in a month of sundays. Plenty of positives despite not being at our best
I’d be tempted to try a Russell/Jordan axis at 10/12. Jordan has the physicality and better playmaking ability than McDowell. It just looked like all the creativity was on Finn’s shoulders today without Sione there to share the load.
We also missed Cummings grunt today.
A comfortable win I think despite a very poor 3rd 20 minutes.
Gray seemed way off the pace and offered nothing in attack; I would start Gregor Brown next week. Russell (by his standards) was below par (and he admitted in the post-match interview). But even a poor Russell is still better than most 10s. Sadly McDowall had a weak game (against my expectations) so Jordan has to start at 12.
An all Glasgow back-row makes perfect sense. Darge and M Fagerson were very good today but Dempsey (at 8) offers hard-yards that will be needed next weekend (with Ritchie dropping to the bench).
But what about Cherry? I thought that he had an outstanding game.
We won and got 5 points sitting second. Unspectacular and dire for a home match. Lots of room to make changes for the Ireland match. I suspect today was about getting a win and keeping some players in the background for the tougher games.
You can’t argue with 5 tries, their try was a gift. Gray looked as if he was towing a caravan, clearly not fit & definitely shouldn’t start against Ireland, he contributed very little & he and Ritchie were big disappointments. Huw Jones is absolute class the way he can score tries & was deservedly man of the match. i thought Horne was a big improvement on White. Next week needs a huge increase in performance & concentration levels. Finally, why do we have co-captains? Finn’s game seems to deteriorate with the responsibility.
it’s true, Gray was comically slow. i think it will be the loss of Cummings that’s the worst one in the end. who starts next week if Johnny doesn’t? also McTowelie just not really good enough at international level, which is a shame. would love to have the home grown guy in there but you have to say that Jordan is just better.
I was getting a bit twitchy for a while but ultimately job done. Time will tell how good Italy ultimately are this year but I don’t think they were bad at all today. We blew them away a bit at the beginning, they were 14 – 0 down and hadn’t fired a shot. Some crap discipline and silly penalties from us was really what let them back into the game. In the end, despite the third quarter scare we won fairly comfortably. We didn’t really seem to get much coherent and consistent phase play and moves coming off though which was a bit worrying, although a try is worth 5 points either way, no bonus points for it being beautifully crafted. As others have said Russell didn’t have his finest game but even so I didn’t think he was bad, we should hopefully be past the point of relying solely on him to make anything happen. Thought Graham, Kinghorn and Cherry were superb though. Overall not a polished performance but job done, bonus point in the bag.
Not sure what to make of Ireland England. Ireland looked a bit sluggish to start but England were just a bit mediocre yet still ran Ireland very close. I have no doubt Ireland will have gotten a big wake up call from that. Shame both teams got bonus points, may be a factor come super Saturday.
Nervous middle period, with Russell playing a bit too fast and loose. Cant do that against Ireland…. However, overall an excellent performance. Cherry great with the arrows and set piece in general. M Fagerson my only doubt. Our patience in attack was great, and Huw Jones clearly
world class. Bk was exceptional on the highball, really rated him.
Resisting the urge to overreact because the first game is always tough. We played well for around 20 minutes, and looked lost/loose/undisciplined for the rest. Will need a big shift in gear to compete against Ireland.
The good:
– Darge and Jones were excellent.
– Darcy found a way into the game after a shaky start and helped to break the game our way. It was much needed.
– The lineout didn’t look too bad, considering we’re short in the boiler room. Cherry’s darts were decent, as was his all round play (that offload!).
– Kinghorn looked solid under the high ball (even if he does need to stop decelerating into contact and picking poor lines).
– Jordan and Horne both had good cameos off the bench. Solid defence from the former, and speed and positivity from the latter.
The bad:
– The scrum looked second best all day (albeit as a former winger, I don’t really know much about the dark arts).
– Gray and Duhan both looked off the pace. The former is probably the most concerning given how few options we have left.
– Russell had an off day, and tried to force it too much. Having said that, if Darcy had been able to pick up those two speculative offloads, we might have had two tries and been hailing a Finn masterclass. Fine lines and all that. The interception was pretty unforgivable.
– The wider back line just didn’t fire. Don’t think Stafford McD did too much wrong, but the combinations weren’t working. Felt like a lot of individuals out there. Looked better with Jordan on.
The ugly:
– The Toonie tombola for the Ireland match. He’ll want to make changes, and they’re never what we expect. Remains to be seen if they will help or hinder us.
Future results and performances in this 6N will reveal how good Italy are. Imo I think they’re at least as good as they were last year, and if I’m right then that was a good result yesterday against a bogey team for us over the years who’re definitely on the up.
We were somewhat frantic and error-strewn in the first 20 of the second half but defended well nonetheless. The gifted interception try for Italy to even the score applied the kind of pressure that Scotland sides of the awful 00s to the mid-10s would probably have succumbed to.
Finn Russell didn’t have the best of games so we really need him to step up next weekend. Not sure about J Gray yesterday. I never thought I’d ever see him in a Scotland jersey again tbh. Having read some of the negative comments about him, I’ll need to rewatch the whole match.
Kinghorn was very good under the high ball and will probably have to be just as good fielding the bombs Ireland will send his way next Sunday.
It was also good to hear on radio commentary Ireland getting pinged for the usual Irish cheating at the breakdown that they often get away with. Hope the match officials next Sunday are as vigilant. To include Porter scrummaging at right angles.
Tough, tough Test next week against a strong Ireland side. If we can be as aggressive against them as we were against the Saffers and Wallabies in the AIs then it’s doable, but Ireland in recent years have always found a way to beat us, unfortunately.
Italy are better than they showed yesterday. It is a great start IMO.
Not playing well but winning. That is a good sign. Finally people are talking about Huw Jones. What kept you , he is the best scottish player since the turn of the Century !