After a decent start, Scotland got blown away by Australia in a disappointing second half to end their home WXV series winless. Here are some talking points
Some positive shoots in the first half showing
Against Canada and the Black Ferns, Scotland struggled to contain the opposition and slow down the ball. Here, they were making things genuinely difficult for the Wallaroos in attack. As well as stopping Australia have clean and quick ball, the team did a really good job of utilising the favourable conditions to manage territory and assert dominance. When Scotland weren’t making ground quick enough, Helen Nelson was kicking excellently and mostly on Scotland’s terms. Meanwhile, one of the highlights of the first half was an excellent 50:22 from Meryl Smith. It came off a smart set play with decoy backs pulling Australia defenders out of position and leaving a lot of space across the field – if the ball hadn’t gone to touch, Rhona Lloyd may well have scored a try and she had asked an encroaching assistant referee to make sure she was out of her sprinting channel as the scrum was setting up. This control from the midfield, allied with much better defence and a big contribution from the returning Rachel McLachlan, helped give the feeling that Scotland were the dominant team, and they looked much more confident in defence carrying that feeling. It was far from perfect, but it showed the minimum performance level this team should expect of itself.
Attacking platform might be taking shape
Scotland’s attack in the first two games looked a bit rusty with players not quite in the right positions at times, understandable given the coaching upheavals. Here things did look a bit slicker, and there were clearer signs of the attacking game that Scotland want to play. There was a lot of use of no-look pull-back balls, allowing Nelson to come round the corner with more options to choose from and most importantly it looks like everyone from 1-15 knows exactly where to put the ball or where to be so that they can keep the pace up and stretch the defence. This hasn’t always looked the case during the year to date so it felt like a step up. Perhaps due to the absence of Rachel Phillips, Smith was also being used much more as a crash-ball 12, and had a couple of good strong runs, but it also opened up a bit more space for her tricksy passing game as the defence had more things to worry about. There will be a lot of layers of detail to add to this, and they can maybe make even better use of the personnel available. With Evie Wills and Hannah Ramsay added to the starting lineup, in theory Scotland had four playmakers to utilise, although it wasn’t until she moved to the centres that Ramsay was given that role. Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of all the coaching changes is that building a really detailed, inventive attack will take time but it’s not clear if there will be that consistency any time soon.
Scotland squander opportunity to build a big lead
For all Scotland looked more connected, they did not capitalise, only managed 10 points in the first half, and only had a slim lead at half time. And this failure to capitalise was mostly self-inflicted. A couple of chances were lost because things became a bit frenetic and risky offloads went to ground, but that is forgivable if the team is trying something. The others were more concerning. Some good attacking plays drew an Australian offence but then the chance was lost when the set piece didn’t function, such as the lineout after the 50:22. And too many attacking opportunities came to an end from ill-discipline. Scotland had maybe seven good set ups in the first half, but at least three ended up in a turnover because the support didn’t stop the turnover (although one was unlucky as Sarah Bonar was clearly held back from getting to the ruck by an Australian). It meant when Scotland found themselves against an increasingly strong wind second half, and an improved and more confident Wallaroos, they had no cushion to work with and the game slipped away.
Horrendous discipline kills off chances
Scotland’s discipline all round was just awful, beyond spoiling some good attacking opportunities. They conceded more penalties than they had in the first two games put together. A higher number might have been due to a more pedantic referee than the previous games, they also were penalised 15 times to Australia’s 8. Scotland somehow managed to be a triple threat of frustration. There were the penalties when they were attacking – getting turned over early in the second half after good build up took them from one 22 line to the other, obstruction on the late attacking line out which proved their only really solid chance of the second half. There were the ones in defence gave Australia easy territory. And then there were the careless offsides and other unnecessary mistakes, including an offisde from a clearing kick which could have finally taken Scotland out of their own half after sustained pressure. All of this added up to a complete inability to get a foothold back in the game or build any kind of momentum, sustained possession or territory. It was really disappointing to see Scotland shoot themselves repeatedly in the foot like this.
Nightmare passages remain the biggest flaw
Discipline is hopefully an easy enough fix. But what needs repaired more than anything is Scotland’s continuing bad habit of having 5-10 minutes where they fall to pieces. It isn’t new this year (for example, Scotland’s game last year against France was pretty even on the scoreboard if you take one ten period out) but it has been happening in pretty much every game, sometimes more than once, and until that is fixed, Scotland aren’t going to be able to keep things tight, let alone win games. This time, Scotland conceded three tries in seven minutes. The worst of all was the third of these (Australia’s fourth) which was scored 20 seconds after the restart, in a flurry of missed tackles, quick rucks and disorganised defence. After that try, Scotland managed to at least tighten things up, as the wind picked up and the rain fell. They showed a lot of the grit and determination in defence that they had done in the final 35 minutes against the Black Ferns. Although they weren’t completely out the game this time, the energy in stopping the rot, and the pressure it put on the team meant they never really got in a place where they looked like they might genuinely come back. There are things to build on from this match, but Scotland need to stop being the undoing of themselves as they head into two further WXV matches in Australia.