The Club Scene
Edinburgh (7th in Magners League, 3rd in Pool 1). Let the glossing over begin! Actually, Edinburgh haven't been all that bad of late. They are one position higher in the league and cup than they were when we left them before the International break. Sadly, 3rd in the Heineken Cup group is not enough to qualify for the knockout stages, and the 7 points that they do have will probably not be enough to reach the Amlin Challenge Cup knockout stages (rugby's UEFA Cup setup). The close 24-22 win against Castres at an empty Murrayfield (safety concerns for once, not just apathy!) was nice, and the loss in France was pretty much inevitable. On the whole, I wouldn't be that disappointed with the Burgh's European performance this year. It's well known that the Scottish sides have no cash, but to be drawn with moneybags like Northampton and Cardiff was a bit unlucky.
The plus point of being out of European action is that Edinburgh can concentrate on the Magners League and beat up on weakened bigger sides, much like they did last year. They are, after all, only 5 points off of a playoff spot and I would expect them to be very close to getting one at the end of the season. Sadly though, when Edinburgh are having to play their backups as well the tables are well and truly turned. Quite simply, they do not have any strength in depth. The Scottish internationals in the side bring a lot to the table, and when they are with the national side the club suffers greatly. Beating Connacht and Treviso in Edinburgh is hardly ticker tape parade material, and getting pounded 33-16 away to Ospreys second XV is more telling.
Glasgow (10th in the league. 3rd in Pool 6). Once again, when the internationals are away the team turns crap. Glasgow are just not good enough to compete with decent teams unless they can field their absolute strongest team. Hindered by postponements, they struggled to keep any form over the past month. As a result, they lost badly to Toulouse both home and away. While the European champs were obviously the favourites, it was the manner of the defeats that was concerning. I was at the home game at Firhill and they were frankly abominable. Unable to hold a basic defensive line or to tackle, they were spared only by Toulouse's indifference.
The National Side
Well, I predicted all three games correctly so well done me. Might as well list the scores:
New Zealand 49 (Tries: Gear 2, Muliaina 2, Carter, Smith, Ellis. Con: Carter 5, Donald 2)
Scotland 19 (Tries: Walker. Con: Parks. Penalties: Parks 2, Jackson. Drops: Parks)
Samoa 16 (Tries: Fotuali'i. Con: P Williams. Penalties: P Williams 3)
The obvious game to gloss over is the New Zealand debacle but as I am a man and after a month can now think about the result without curling up in a ball and sobbing uncontrollably, I will look over it.
Firstly, though it is pretty obviously reflected in the score, New Zealand were infinately superior to the Scots. There was not one area of play that we were close to matching the All Blacks at. The fact that it was our first match of the Autumn and we had had no warm up was evident, but the difference in skill was even more apparent. The Scots did not defend the New Zealanders at all effectively, staying too straight in their line and being too passive. We did not drift effectively, being over-committed to matching up 2 on 1 and neglecting the narrow channels. For two of the tries, we were simply not aggressive enough around the fringes and were beaten down the narrowside wing, even though there were tacklers there to intervene. This is simply inexcusable at any level.
I won't bother to pick apart all the other errors we made, as that would quickly get boring, but suffice to say we were as much to blame for the loss due to our terrible mistakes as the All Blacks were for being on form and playing well. Ultimately, they did not dominate. They exploited. The worst kind of loss for a home crowd (a capacity one of 66,000).
Understandably then, the next weeks game against the Saffers attracted far fewer spectators. In fairness, the weather was tripe as well. But for myself, Ryan and the 36 odd thousand who did go, what a treat! Once again, the negatives that we didn't score a try and looked wooden in attack were all true but once again it didn't matter as we came away with the victory.
This one was much more convincing than the win over Australia last year. The South Africans weren't brilliant, but this was mainly down to their poor handling and decision making in the bad weather. An experienced international side, world champions no less, should be able to cope and will have experienced similar conditions before. Therefore, our victory must have came thanks to superior preparation and better execution.
Watching the game from up high, I could still tell that the Scots wanted this game. No more evidence of this is needed than Dan Parks taking a simply monstrous hit while attempting a drop goal at the end of the first half and popping straight back up to his feet to continue playing, with not a care about his safety. Now that is a rarity for Dan the Man!
The win again came on the back of the forwards, who were excellent against a South African pack who bludgeoned England down to size the next week. Big Richie Gray is every bit as good as English media darling Courtney Lawes as far as I have seen, but would remain unnoticed were it not for intrepid writers such as myself bringing up his name! John Barclay is the best openside in the British Isles without question, and Kelly Brown is second to Stephen Ferris at 6; hardly a bad player to be second to I might add.
The backs are still underwhelming, but at least have the defensive part of their game nailed down. Graeme Morrison in particular did well considering he is a player whose limits are fairly apparent. Rory Lawson confirmed my faith in him, as did Ruiridh Jackson against Samoa.
Overall, the Autumn went well. The attributes the Scots used to win the South Africa affair will allow them to be competitive in the Six Nations. As a team, we match up well against the Irish due to our forward prowess and can take on England and Wales with some confidence.
Winning close games will also come in useful at the 2011 World Cup. People forget that but for a narrow, narrow loss to Argentina in 2007 Scotland would have been World Cup Semi Finalists. That is where we should ultimately be aiming for. Bollocks to the aim low crowd
Finally, I'll just say that if Andy Robinson keeps this vein of performances up he should be strongly considered for a position with the Lions when the time comes.
None of the club players deserve much of a mention this month. The best performers in my book were:
Edinburgh: Greg Laidlaw, Fraser McKenzie, Tim Visser (standard)
Glasgow: DTH Van Der Merwe, Dougie Hall
Now on to the international lads.
Most Laddish Forward: Kelly Brown. Ross Ford was also good, combining his usual solid loose game and scrummaging with good performances at the lineout. Brown, though, is my choice. Consistent and safe, he took pretty much every kickoff and didn't drop a single one. Always committed and brave, he racked up impressive tackle counts in each game.
Most 'Laddish' (NB: backs cannot be true Lads) Back: Rory Lawson. South Africa are a very tough team to play against for a scrumhalf. Lawson put in an excellent performance, much like he did last year against Australia.
Phil Godman Award for Uselessness: Nikki Walker. What the fuck was he doing scoring a try! We don't score tries! He doesn't score tries! Nobody really stood out as being shit individually. We win as a team, and get pumped as a team.
LAD of the Month: John Barclay. Give the man the captaincy already. If the Lions were playing next week, he would be the starting 7 without question. Come the 2013 tour, he might be as well.
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