Scotland hooker Ross Ford thinks the Stade de France scrummage struggles were a collective issue, but the British Lion is taking the rap for any lineout malfunctions.
The 26-year-old thinks too many individuals seeking to put right the scrummage against France caused things to get worse, but that the blip in Scotland’s usually strong lineout game was wholly down to his errors.
“The turnovers from lineouts, the options were good, the pods were open, so it’s all about me as a hooker hitting them, and that was it,” said Ford, who was 100% on his own ball against this week’s opponents Wales last year.
“I’ve got to make sure that’s right. It’s plain and simple, my fault for the overthrows. So yes, I have to take that on the chin and make sure it’s better against Wales if I’m selected.
“The scrum, I think we just didn’t perform on the day. We knew it would be tough because we knew how good their scrummage was and we were confident in our own ability.
“There was no complacency, there was a lot of focus on the scrum last week, but we didn’t go out and put into practice what we trained for.
“By the time we got a few penalties in the second half the French scrum was already dominant certainly in the eyes of the referee and the first couple of scrums had set the tone for the way he was looking at it.
“It was an eight-man effort, and I think we were very individual in the way we tried to fix it rather than do it as an eight and if you don’t work as one in the scrum then it effects everything.
“We’ve put it to bed, worked on a few small things, and looking forward to this week now. We certainly didn’t become a bad scrum overnight, but if I was a pack watching a scrum struggle like we were I’d be keen to target thatarea as well, and no doubt Wales will try.”DistasteScotland’s scrummage coach Massimo Cuttitta hasn’t read the riot act, but the players can detect his distaste.
“Massimo loves the scrum, right down to the little technical things, and he takes it as personally as anyone on the pitch does if he sees us being pushed back like that,” Ford said.
“He’s taken us aside one-by-one and shown little things we can improve on and it’s all about taking that on to the pitch.”
Ford was replaced before the great collapse began in the corresponding fixture against Wales, but thinks it will have a negligible effect on Saturday’s game.
“We’ve been looking at far more recent games of Wales and what they can do now, and it’s still all about performing. Perhaps some guys will use last year for motivation, but it’s a very personal thing.”
Skipper Al Kellock said he expected some attention to what happened at Cardiff last year, but in international rugby terms it was “already a long time ago.”
“There will be reflection on last year because it was an emotional game for so many reasons and it’ll still be in people’s heads, but it’s certainly not the be-all and end-all,” said the big lock yesterday.
“It’s all about being at Murrayfield in front of hopefully a sell-out crowd and looking for a result this time.”
Wales have won only once since that game in Cardiff a year ago, so there are rumblings in the valleys about outspoken head coach Warren Gatland, but Kellock doesn’t believe any of that talk is coming from the international camp.
He said, “I understand there might be a reaction from the Wales fans because of their passion for the game, but I bet there’s not any of that talk within the Welsh camp.”