WELL, that’s my tenner gone to fill the Ladbrokes coffers once again. Scotland can, theoretically, win the Six Nations but it is highly unlikely, improbable even, in fact it is all but impossible.
Scotland lost once again on the first weekend of the Six Nations but, perverse as it may sound, it is not being accompanied by the wailing, knashing of teeth and post first match despondency that is usually the case north of the border.
That is because Scotland played well, really well. Yes, Scotland lost 34-21 but they scored three good tries – away - at the Stade to France. They played with verve, speed and precision but were undone by a simply brilliant and powerful French side.
Scotland only managed three tries in the whole of last season’s Six Nations. One more in the series win in Argentina and then just one in the three autumn games against the southern hemisphere teams.
Yesterday, they scored three in one match, away to the Grand Slam champions of last year.
My hopeful and patriotic tenner may have gone for another year, but I am encouraged. If it had been a football game, Scotland would have lost 4-3. There is no embarrassment in that. It was not a hiding.
Having said that, though. Scotland still lost. They hit the target Andy Robinson set them of scoring 21 points in a match. The trouble was that they let the other lot rack up more than 30.
And, despite picking one of the heaviest and strongest packs ever to wear the blue jersey, Scotland were driven back time and again by the French eight.
The Scotland scrum was dismantled, conceding one penalty try after disintegrating too many times on its own line and providing a succession of almost irretrievably bad balls to Rory Lawson and then Mike Blair at scrum half.
Euan Murray is an excellent tighthead and Alan Jacobsen can handle himself on the other side against most front rows in the world. Ross Ford at hooker is a big lad but they were made to look amateur by the coordinated power of the French scrum. That, though, is the key. It was coordination.
Take a look at the scrum which finally gave way to the penalty try. Kelly Brown at number eight had his hands resting on the second row in front of him. He was not pushing, his head was up looking for a back-row peel from the French. Likewise Nathan Hines at six and John Barclay at seven. None of them appeared to be pushing in that scrum. All three were waiting for their opposite numbers to make a break.
Scotland had to have eight men pushing at that scrum but they didn’t appear to have. The only way the Scottish scrum could survive against that sort of pressure was with coordination and precision and both fell away at those crucial moments.
The Welsh scrum, particularly if Adam Jones and Gethin Jenkins are still missing, won’t be nearly as good next week so Scotland should hope to rectify those errors and build a platform of good, front-foot, first-phase ball when they return to Murrayfield on Saturday.
If that is the case, there is no reason why the Scots can’t build on the positives of yesterday – and there were many – to finally start to win games in the Six Nations.
If they could score three tries from the wreckage of the set piece as they did yesterday, what could they do with an advancing pack?
Al Kellock took his try extremely well, dummying and diving over from two yards. Kelly Brown’s was just as good, from a little further out, even if the French defence went to sleep at just the right moment and Sean Lamont showed he still has a god eye for the tryline after being released with a beautifully timed pass by centre Jo Ansbro near the end.
Ansbro had a good game, as did Max Evans and Nikki Walker on the wings. Parks’ passing was risky at times and he stood flatter than often in the past (although still a little deeper than was probably strictly necessary).
But the standout player in a blue shirt was Glasgow lock Richie Gray. He was powerful in attack and tremendous in defence, saving one and possibly even two certain French tries.
And when was the last time a Scotland team scored all over its tries in a major game without a single penalty? Parks didn’t even get a pot at goal, such was the French discipline. This, remember, was supposed to be a French weakness – discipline. But Scotland didn’t even get the chance to build the score through penalties.
As for the French tries, they showed everything that should make the other Six Nations teams very worried indeed. The first showed superb vision from Aurelien Rougerie to kick ahead when he released there was no full back in position, allowing Maxime Medard to score with only three minutes on the clock.
The second was the penalty try which owed everything to raw power, strength and brute scrummaging up front. The third, by Imanol Harinordoquy came from a sublime between-the-legs pass by Francois Trinh-Duc and was finished off by perhaps the greatest natural athlete on the field while the fourth, by Damien Traille, was a vintage French backs score, made by changes of direction, pace and soft offloads out of the tackle.
But, at one time in the first half, when Scotland mounted wave after wave of attacks, Flower of Scotland echoed around the stadium. This was Paris, the home of the Grand Slam champions of last year. It faded away, as did Scotland’s chances. But it left behind the feeling that a corner has been turned and that we may hear that song again, and, hopefully, next time in victory.
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