Andy Robinson likened Scotland’s 34-21 loss to France in their opening RBS Six Nations match of the 2011 season on Saturday to the heartbreaking defeat in Cardiff last year, but there’s another and on the face of it equally unlikely comparison with a recent game to be made.
The damage caused by France’s scrummage in the first half prevented Scotland getting a foothold in the game, with the key spell of four successive scrums near to Scotland’s line, which eventually brought an inevitable penalty try, coming when the game was 10-7 and the damage caused by Nick De Luca’s early fumble for France’s opening try was being steadily repaired.
Euan Murray, thought to be one of Europe’s best scrummagers, was bossed by Thomas Domingo, with no relief available from Moray Low, who turned an ankle in the warm-up and played only the last eight minutes.
By then, Scotland had wrestled some parity in the exchanges, but although Robinson had spoken to referee Wayne Barnes at half-time about the early hits of the French front row and several decisions duly went against the home side at scrums in the second 40 minutes, the coach dismissed any idea that France’s superiority in this area in the first half had been because they were getting away with something illegal.
Instead, he identified France’s changes in personnel, removing starters William Servat and Nicolas Mas, as the reason for Scotland coming back strongly in this area.FormidableFrance have built a formidable unit which is not likely to be matched by anyone else in the championship, but Robinson and Scotland thought they had a front row who would not be dissected in this way.
It certainly puts pressure on Murray, whose position in the team is based primarily on scrummaging.
By virtue of his religious convictions he will not play on Sundays, so the prop will miss two matches in this season’s championship, and key games in the Rugby World Cup later this year the crucial pool match against Argentina, Scotland’s probable quarter-final, the semi-finals and the final are also on Sundays.
Low will surely play against Ireland and England, and while he does not quite have Murray’s reputation as a scrummager, he is more versatile across the pitch, can carry ball effectively and is as good a defender.
It makes sense to make that change now, but Scotland’s other two probable alterations are less easy to deduce.
De Luca would be favourite to make way in the centre, but the reason that put the Edinburgh player there in the first place lack of credible alternatives due to the injury of Graeme Morrison remains the same.
Ansbro looked good for the few minutes when he went to 12, but he has been strictly a 13 or wing throughout his career.
The other question is whether to bring back Johnnie Beattie (who has played more games since coming back from injury than De Luca), but this would almost certainly mean Nathan Hines gives way to let Kelly Brown return to his best position, and the special bit of dig “Wagga” gives the Scottish pack would be sorely missed.
Certainly do not expect the ball to be flung about with quite so much abandon as it was in Paris when Wales come to Murrayfield next week. Scotland are slowly developing a Plan B, and it’s a little more intricate with scope for errors than the route one, Plan A option.
Robinson wants flexibility, which is just as it should be.
The despair of the collapse in the Millennium Stadium a year ago was far more acute than this loss to a French team perhaps more eager to put to rights their November disaster against Australia than the Scots were to record their first victory in the Stade de France since 1999.
Instead, the way Scotland played reminded one of their most recent disaster, the 49-3 humiliation by New Zealand back in November.
Then, as on Saturday, Scotland played a fast and loose game, committed a host of turnovers, and were roundly and ruthlessly punished. The main difference, of course, is on the scoreboard, Saturday’s 13-point deficit being far less wince-inducing that the 46 inflicted by the All Blacks.
That’s because this was Scotland’s Plan B in action, and it’s clearly already much better than the first unveiling of it in that match against the world’s number one team.
Three well-crafted tries were the most Scotland have scored in Paris since the Fabulous Five in 1999, and of course as many as they scored in the entire 2010 Six Nations.
Robinson will no doubt be content to answer no more questions about his team’s lack of try threat … at least for a while.
Scotland’s renaissance has been built on a control game, keeping the scoreboard ticking by forcing penalties through pressure. This has been just fine for most of us, as winning games had become a rare pleasure and five victories from six games was almost spoiling us.
However, although Robinson will forever repeat his mantra of one point more than the opposition by any means necessary 3-0 if that’s what it takes he knows that a limited game plan would only take Scotland so far.FlowingA more flowing, risky route will on occasion be required, one that means errors are more likely. Saturday showed that there are still too many, with each of the four French tries stemming directly from turnovers, but there were fewer than against New Zealand and the whole process looked far more convincing.
Joe Ansbro looked a strong link at outside centre, a position Scotland have sought to fill with a strike weapon rather than a facilitator.
It was surely no coincidence that Max Evans, Nikki Walker and Sean Lamont (bursting on to a delightfully timed short pass from Ansbro to score the third try) actually looked threatening in attack.
The other Scot to earn his spurs, and probably a considerable fortune in euros down the line, was Richie Gray, who was everywhere and won the hearts of the French: “si blond, si bon” gushed L’Equipe yesterday.
For all that the Scots played well, however, there were several areas other than the error count that need attention.