Och aye, me nan's a Broon from Troon
A new day, a new country. The Wallabies are now in sunny Edinburgh preparing for Saturday’s match-up against the Scots at Murrayfield.
The Scottish team has been named and it remains unchanged from the side that defeated Fiji last weekend. I’m not sure that’s an entirely good thing for them?
That’s because in my view a number of their players just don’t look up to international standard. They’re going to have to do a whole lot better if they want to compete with the Wallabies.
Although completely outclassing Fiji in the set piece and dominating possession, they failed to put away a weak Fijian combo who had nine players debuting on the day.
Their forwards look fairly competent but the 10, 12 and 13 shouldn’t provide too many sleepless nights for Gits and the boys. I don’t think they’re up to it.
The front row contains the British Lions hooker Ross Ford, a quality unit. Allan Jacobsen at loosehead’s a journeyman but the nuggety tighthead, Moray Low is a real slippery customer. Shades of Mighty Mouse McLauchlan.
He gained his first test start on the weekend and won Man of the Match honours. He was impressive around the park and destroyed his opposite number at scrum time.
In fact, the front five were awesome in that department, notwithstanding the nature of the opposition.
They also stole hundreds of Fijian lineout throws with Nathan Hines and Al Kellock prominent. Ozzy Jock Hines was also a British Lion this year and has been Scotland’s No 1 lock for the past few seasons.
He’s an aggressive worker who’ll no doubt relish the opportunity to stick it to his fellow countrymen.
With all this possession, the Scots had awful trouble putting points on the board finishing at 23-10, but looking very scunnered and below par.
When the Scots Garry Owen’ed the Island boys ran everything back at them and caused them some grief. Little chip kicks over the top were also effective.
The Scot’s back three in Sean Lamont, Rory Lamont and Simon Danielli (say that in a good Scottish brogue) are all big strong running fellows with plenty of international experience. The halfback and captain Chris Cussiter had a boomer of a game and looks to be in top form.
The weak link is Phil Godman at stand-off, who’s flighty and may crumple when Cliffy runs at him and he’s placed under a bit of pressure.
Centres Alex Grove (outside centre for Worcester Warriors and a 1st cap replacement for Ben Cairns) and Graeme Morrison just didn’t cut it in attack last weekend, although defensively they were sound.
I like the look of their No 6 Alistair Strokosch. He was into everything and will put his body on the line. He provides a good link between forwards and backs, something Bam Bam has been recently criticised for not doing.
Their two real quality players are both MIA. British Lions prop Euan Murray is still out with a broken ankle he sustained on the South African tour and 2001/2005 British Lion Simon Taylor seems to be perpetually crocked.
The trouble with the Jocks is that they have minimal depth, with only two professional teams to choose from. It’s no wonder that in recent years they’ve had loads of kilted Kiwis and Aussies knocking on their door claiming their granny’s called McTavish.
If I was the Wallabies coach (heaven help us) I’d be demanding we retain more ball in hand and really test the Scot’s defensive channels around 10 and a bit further out. Well, ball in hand is better than crappy kicks to a strong back three!
It seems like the weather’s mingin all week with showers predicted, but it may clear up on Saturday. The referees some French dude who probably can’t speak Jock.
Andy Robinson’s coaching career for England was miserable. I can see him having similar success with the Scots, beginning Saturday.
Scotland:
1 Allan Jacobsen (Edinburgh), 2 Ross Ford (Edinburgh), 3 Moray Low (Glasgow Warriors), 4 Nathan Hines (Leinster), 5 Alastair Kellock (Glasgow Warriors), 6 Alasdair Strokosch (Gloucester), 7 John Barclay (Glasgow Warriors), 8 Johnnie Beattie (Glasgow Warriors), 9 Chris Cusiter (Glasgow Warriors) Captain, 10 Phil Godman (Edinburgh),11 Simon Danielli (Ulster), 12 Graeme Morrison (Glasgow Warriors), 13 Alex Grove (Worcester Warriors), 14 Sean Lamont (Scarlets), 15 Rory Lamont (Toulon)
Substitutes: 16 Dougie Hall (Glasgow Warriors), 17 Kyle Traynor (Edinburgh), 18 Jason White (Clermont Auvergne), 19 Richie Vernon (Glasgow Warriors), 20 Mike Blair (Edinburgh), 21 Chris Paterson (Edinburgh), 22 Nick De Luca (Edinburgh)
Tags: Alasdair Strokosch, Alastair Kellock, Alex Grove, Allan Jacobsen, Andy Robinson, Chris Cusiter, Chris Paterson, Dougie Hall, fiji, Graeme Morrison, Jason White, John Barclay, Johnnie Beattie, Kyle Traynor, Mike Blair, Moray Low, Nathan Hines, Nick De Luca, Phil Godman, Richie Vernon, Rory Lamont, Ross Ford, Sean Lamont, Simon Danielli
It will be a real litmus test of character for this wallaby team. Can they pick it up where it was left and give this Scottish team the thrashing it deserves. If they do this and build again on the Irish test, we really have something here.
Most people i speak to, whilst dissapointed about last weeks result are really getting excited about this team. Especially the piggies……To draw with that Irish side is no shame especially the way they played.
Bring it all boys, and wipe murray field clean.
Does anyone believe for a second that Scotland can win? They’re no chance & everyone knows it, so let’s see what Robbie does now. Run the B team or try to build combinations? That’s the question. We need experienced depth, so the B team option is well worth considering. However having watched the tape of the Irland match, Wales will have spotted weaknesses that they can exploit, so Robbie may well try to develop those backline combinations to tighten up the defence, and so stick with the same team. I’d prefer he stuck with our forwards (after getting the lineout sorted) and experimented with the backs as I don’t see Scotland testing us enough anyway.
The Scotland camp has gone on record saying that this Wallabies team is there for the taking, and will present less of threat than Fiji.
I don’t think they quite said that the Wallabies pose less of a threat than Fiji. What John Beattie said was that they were more predictable than Fiji, which made it easier for him to know where to stand in defence, as opposed to trying to tackle Fijian props who can sidestep.
Pfft. I was merely setting a Jocks trap.
Being more predictable doesn’t always mean easier. Dan Carter’s kicking from the hand is mostly always predictable (it’s going to that far corner), but that doesn’t mean it’s easier to play against.
Beating the scots at any sport that doesn’t use cabers should be a gimmee. I just want to see the back line fire for once. It really seems to me that unless we give them a drubbing then we’re playing below par.
Problem is Pedro, when there is an expectation that the Wallabies will clean them up easily – it never happens. We always have difficulty following through when we’re in a situation like this. I suspect we’ll win but I don’t think it’s going to happen without a fight and, despite a lack of top quality players, the Jocks will give their all .
Yeah I agree, but it is Scotland. Fingers crossed.
That’s just how I would judge the game, maybe unfair.
I think the first half will be quite tight and fiercely fought. The Scots, after all, aren’t going on to the paddock just to make the numbers up.
But I would really love to see the WBs giving the ball width in the second half and doing it at pace; because I think some holes will start to appear.
Robbie said that he thought the WBs played quite a narrow game in the backline attack against the Irish, but I’m not sure what that means in English (anybody else know??). Presumably it means that things didn’t fizz and pop the way he wanted them to.
Well I hope he is going to do something about it, because Quade Cooper is now on record as saying he thought that, apart from his first kick (which he says came off the side of his boot) his kicking was good. His words not mine.
Well if he thinks it was good we’re in for a repeat dose of it on Sunday morning and last weekend he was almost criminally addicted to it. If he thought it was good then, what the hell is he going to be like this weekend?
There needs to be another game plan drilled into the skulls of 10, 12 and 13 and reinforced with barbed wire to make sure it stays there.