There has never been a season like it: after eight games in the Heineken Cup, Scotland’s teams have won five, drawn one and lost only two.
These are matches against Europe’s elite, clubs with several times the budgets that Edinburgh and Glasgow have to work with and greater resources on and off the pitch.
As it stands, both sides can qualify for the quarter-finals (although Glasgow’s odds are on the long side).
Both sides have had the odd good result in Europe in the past, and Edinburgh qualified back in 2003–04, but never before have both sides done so well at the same time.
The first and most encouraging aspect of this unexpected success is that it augers well for Scottish rugby in general and suggests that Scotland can look forward to greater success at an international level.
But it should also lift confidence levels in both camps. For too long, Scottish teams have gone into Europe expecting to get beaten, but now they don’t. They are certainly the equal of their Welsh counterparts (if not yet quite up there with the Irish), while the French hold no fear and the English now appear to have fallen somewhere down below them – whatever the myopic presenters at Sky TV may say about it.
The figures don’t lie. The Scots’ winning percentage in Europe this season is 62.5 per cent, while the Welsh, the English and the French all have a winning percentage of just 50 per cent. The Irish are well ahead on 83.3 per cent and the Italians well below on 12.5 per cent.
This gives the Scots the second-best record in Europe this season so far, after the Irish, ahead of all the other countries in the competition. Usually the Scots struggle somewhere just above the Italians, but not this year. For once, the Scots teams are punching above their weight and it is great to see.
Edinburgh’s three wins out of four has been tremendous and Glasgow’s efforts in winning two and drawing one of their four games is not far off that mark.
But it is not just in the pro game that Scots teams are achieving great things. Just a couple of seasons ago, Scotland’s amateur sides were getting gubbed in the British and Irish Cup. But on Saturday, Ayr beat Bristol, possibly the best team outside the Premiership – a truly remarkable achievement by the Scottish club.
Melrose and Currie have also won well in recent weeks over supposedly top-class opposition, which shows that the club game is in rude health as well.
Of course, as the anecdotal old lady in St Andrews was supposed to have remarked after a day of glorious sunshine, “Ah, but we’ll pay for it later” – and it may be that Scotland’s sides pay for this success with losses later in the season.
Edinburgh may lose both their remaining games in Europe and crash out of the Heineken Cup and Glasgow may do the same, not even making the Amlin Challenge Cup.
After all, Edinburgh did get more than a little rub of the green on Friday night in their win over Cardiff. Twice, Dan Parks opted for the corner when presented with kickable penalties and twice the Welshmen butchered clear try-scoring opportunities. Added to that was the Nick de Luca pass which put Tim Visser in for his first-half try. From the touchline it did look suspiciously forward.
But Edinburgh played well enough to win, at least in that pounding first half. The off-loading game is really starting to click. Both Mike Blair at scrum-half and Chris Paterson started to look back to their more threatening past selves, and the most heartening part was that Edinburgh didn’t concede a try.
This season Edinburgh have resembled reckless attackers, eschewing sensible defence to score blistering tries from all over the park – regardless of how many their opponents rack up. But the Edinburgh defence is improving and, when coupled with their now excellent attacking game, they should be a match for anyone.
Glasgow ground out a very creditable draw away at Montpellier on Saturday. They were in danger of being blown away in the first half but came back to draw the game – thanks in no small part to Duncan Weir, who helped turn the game Glasgow’s way after coming on for Ruaridh Jackson at ten.
Weir has to be first choice for Scotland on the basis of this season’s games. Jackson is solid and competent, but Weir just seems to be able to get that extra spark from those around him that makes such a difference.
Edinburgh are still on course to qualify for the knockout stages, which has been their intention from the start. That is a reasonable target – given how hard it is to qualify – but one can’t help wondering about the different attitude shown by the Irish provinces.
They don’t aim for a quarter-final spot, they aim for one of the top quarter-final spots so they secure a home tie and then the best chance of making the semis. Whereas just qualifying for the quarters would be a major achievement for the Scots.
That attitude reflects how further on the Irish sides are from the Scots. They assume quarter-final qualification and work to get themselves the best chance of progressing from that.
It would be nice to think that this season marks the start of a process which sees Scottish sides make the quarter-finals on a more regular basis. Then maybe, in a few years' time, we might be able to start thinking of more than that, too – wouldn’t that be something.
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