Scotland 15 Georgia 6

First topic message reminder :

Scotland: R Lamont; M Evans, N De Luca, G Morrison, S Lamont; D Parks, R Lawson (capt); A Jacobsen, R Ford, E Murray, N Hines, J Hamilton, A Strokosch, R Rennie, K Brown.

Replacements: D Hall, G Cross, A Dickinson, R Gray, R Vernon, C Cusiter, C Paterson.

Late change with Scott Lawson pulling out and Ross Ford coming in - definintely adds to the bulk of the pack. Unfortunately means Dougie Hall will come on at some point though.

I'm off work today so can watch!

Come on Scotland!!!!!!!!!!!

Scotland player ratings in the Scotsman: Player ratings - Sco vs Geo and in the Herald: Player ratings II - Sco v Geo

Agree with most of them, would prob dock Morrison & Parks 1 apiece, dock 1 from Wagga too, and give 1 each to Rennie and Brown

Paul Ackford I feel has been very flattering to us in his analysis of the game.

I especialy liked this part :

"Scotland were good to England on Wednesday. They showed them exactly what to do to avoid embarrassment.

Georgia are trouble if they are allowed to build pressure by staying in the opposition 22, firing off their forwards on short, charging runs and retaining the ball. Scotland weren’t about to let that happen. They upset Georgia’s platform at the scrummage where Euan Murray did real damage, climbed into their driving mauls off line-outs and hit their ball carriers in the open.

That’s Scotland’s game all over. Before last season’s Six Nations, Andy Robinson was asked what Scotland did particularly well, what is, and always has been, their national, natural style? “Causing chaos,” Robinson replied.

It wasn’t a flippant remark. Scotland spoil and harry better than any other side in world rugby"

Ireland struggled with Georgia in the last world cup because they tried to play too much rugby in their own half and the Georgians have some pile drivers in defence. If conditions are good when England play them this weekend I fully expect them to beat Georgia and probably by a more comfortable margin than we did.

However if they are playing in the middle of "Hurricane Bob" like we did it will be a much closer affair.

Yesterday's win represented only the 6th time in history that Scotland have won 5 games on the trot. Here are the others:

The teams Scotland are chasing:

January 24, 1925 v France to February 6, 1926 v Wales

October 28, 1989 v Fiji to March 17, 1990 v England

The teams Scotland have matched:

March 10, 1888 v Ireland to February 22, 1890 v Ireland

February 7, 1891 v Wales to February 20, 1892 v Ireland

February 26, 1966 v Ireland to February 4, 1967 v Wales

I think some of the ratings are if anything a tad generous. Morrison had a poor game, no question, and Parks was good and bad in equal measure.

Mine would have been something like this:

R Lamont - 6
M Evans - 7
NDL - 7
Morrison - 5
S Lamont - 6 (knocking one off for silly knock-on)
Parks - 5
Lawson - 6
Jacobsen - 8
Ford - 8
Murray - 8
Hamilton - 7
Hines - 7
Strokosch - 7 (knocking one off for a silly penalty giveaway)
Rennie - 8
Brown - 9 (MOTM)

I think they have been a bit generous for Strokosh. He missed more than one tackle and was too easily brushed off at times. We needed him to be mean and he was the weakest link in the pack!

Are these ratings out of ten or a 100?

Seriously, I realise conditions were difficult and that Georgia pack is bigger than some states of America but really the divide should be a lot more evident than the scoreline suggests.

But two wins from two and a must win match against Argentina. The good news is that nothing has changed there. But to achieve that, the Scots must lift their game significantly. Much more aggression is needed and the error rate has to come down a lot. Too many forced passes where patience was required, too many soft attempts at taking the ball up. The Scots know the game plan, they have the players to pull it off, they just need to increase the commitment. I have every confidence they can win but it´s going to require a much better performance than what they´ve given so far. Hence far too many 8s and 7s and even 6s in those ratings.

kiakahaaotearoa wrote:Are these ratings out of ten or a 100?

Seriously, I realise conditions were difficult and that Georgia pack is bigger than some states of America but really the divide should be a lot more evident than the scoreline suggests.

But two wins from two and a must win match against Argentina. The good news is that nothing has changed there. But to achieve that, the Scots must lift their game significantly. Much more aggression is needed and the error rate has to come down a lot. Too many forced passes where patience was required, too many soft attempts at taking the ball up. The Scots know the game plan, they have the players to pull it off, they just need to increase the commitment. I have every confidence they can win but it´s going to require a much better performance than what they´ve given so far. Hence far too many 8s and 7s and even 6s in those ratings.

Kiakaha, wouldn't disagree with much of what you've said there I think that we've seen two different Scotlands so far - against Romania, our backline looked menacing (well, as menacing as we can!) for the first time in I can't remember it's so long ago, and our pack had the spine of a chocolate eclair, so on the little ball that we secured and could take wide, I thought we did well to run in 4 tries, as much as our pack did poorly to let in two solid scores from the Romanians; against Georgia, our pack fronted up well, dominant in most respects (scrum, lineout, breakdown & collisions), but our backline with Parks-Morrison and 1st and 2nd 5/8ths looked laboured, and when we created half-breaks, opportunities were squandered as we inflicted a raft of mistakes on ourselves (your 'error rate' comment). I'm not sure it's just about commitment, I think that we've got to select the right combinations of players to play the gameplan that gives us at least parity in the pack, with the potential to wreak havoc out wide

Fair points mate. But I think the danger is to take the forwards from the second game and the backs from the first game. Certainly you need a pack that can hold its weight against Argentina. But you should also have players like Parks who do have the ability to control a game. I think it was a combination of Scotland players thinking they were going to dominate in the backs before they did the hard work or trying to force play when patience was required.

Obviously some enterprising backline play and cutting edge wouldn´t go amiss. But I think AR will go for his experienced men and go with plan b on the bench if things start to move away from Scotland. But you´re right, it´s going to be interesting to see which combinations he goes for and what type of play he rewards or wishes to promote.

ASBO - "wreak havoc"?? I'd settle for mildly troubling the opposition defence at the moment.

funnyExiledScot wrote:ASBO - "wreak havoc"?? I'd settle for mildly troubling the opposition defence at the moment.

Agreed. Am minded of the Frankie Boyle line in Scenes We'd Like To See on MTW, with the section heading "Things You'd Prefer Not To Hear In The Army":

"Men, our only hope is that the enemy kill so many of us, that they become Slightly Depressed."

Having now watched the game in full, I have the following points to make:

- I was completely surprised just how good Georgia are. The play with great structure and fluency that a lot of teams would be chuffed with themselves. Strong in the tackle and pretty competitive acrosss the park. Their scrum half looks liie someone they brought in off the street mind.

- NDL was actually very very good in defence and some of his hits were tremendous.

- Pack were much better....Kellock seems to be the weakest link and from now on, I would rather him an impact player from the bench when the opposition forwards are tiring.

- Brown is easily the best player in the Scotland squad. Our answer to Richard Hill!

- DP's international career should end. Right now.

- I know the conditions were wet but a lot of knock ons came from being tackled from behind. FFS hold on to the ball with both hands even if you have no intention of off-loading. So so infuriating.

I have a strong belief that most teams subconsciously increase or decrease the quality of their play according to the opposition. Scotland have pretty much gone down to Romania and Georgia's level over the last two games. They will undoubtedly raise their game to the required level against Argentina and England.

Yesterday's pack with Saturdays backs should be enough to see us through to the quarters followed by a decider against England.

I hope anyway.

I fully agree on NDL. 13 has become a proper contest now, with both Ansbro and NDL showing some form. I still think Ansbro has the edge, but I'd be pretty happy with NDL playing against England. Had Danielli not played so well against Romania you could make a decent case for both NDL and Ansbro playing together, NDL at 13 and Ansbro on the wing.

NDL is the epitome of average. Ansboro is alright though.

miaow wrote:NDL is the epitome of average. Ansboro is alright though.

I would say he was a wee bit better than Average against Georgia.

NDL is a funny one. He made it into the Magners League dream team at 13 prior to his debut for Scotland, and was widely tipped in Scotland to made a big impact (at the time we had Henderson in the centres). His debut was utterly dreadful, and he completely lost confidence. However, last season and in the warm-ups he played some nice stuff, and made a key intervention in the Ireland warm-up match, showing good feet and quick hands. As pointed out above, his defence against Georgia was very good and he looked lively whenever the ball came is way (which with Morrison inside him and Lamont crashing off the wing wasn't very often).

As I said, I prefer Ansbro. He's a tad quicker and a more balanced runner. But NDL, so often a whipping boy for Scotland critics, has actually played well recently, and deserves credit for it.

Oh and Dan P's kick for touch at the end of the first half.

I haven't seen anything like that since playing Sunday friendly rugby for a laugh.

Honestly....what was he doing so close to the ruck?

That was a horror moment for me. Amazing really, when he's outside his 22, with an overlap outside him, he never seems to fail to kick the ball directly into touch.

It wasn't the fact he was too close to the ruck. He decided to grubber it along the floor. What a twit.

Parks would kick for touch even if he was over the try line and had to score 5 points to win the match.

Imperialbigdave wrote:Parks would kick for touch even if he was over the try line and had to score 5 points to win the match.

He didnt in 2010, he kicked it straight to Wales when a simple touch finder would of done.
Cheers Dan! No wonder Jiffy made you man of the match

To be fair, he was quality that game.

He was. His kick for the Max Evans try was top class. Credit where credit is due.

Perhaps someone else in the backs calling the shots would take a bit of pressure off.

If the calls came from Cussiter or Blair, Parks could then just perform the move without really having to think about it.

He should have been deep behind our own try line or at the base of the ruck with some protection in front of him.

Clueless.

On a different note, it was good to see Jacobsen winding up his oppo number after scotland destroyed their scrum. And he kept on niggling after that as well.

Chunk had a bit of a stormer. Carried throughout the game and really got stuck into his opposite number.

Jacobsen is on rare form at the moment, as is Ford (playing as well as I can remember). If Cross gets busy against Argentina then we'll be in business.

I have a feeling that AR will tinker with the pack in a bad way.

By this I mean Stroks will be out and Hines moved to 6.

I can see this pack put out:

Chunk
Ford
Cross
Grey
Hamilton
Hines
Rennie
Brown

Someone has mentioned earlier about playing Rennie and Barclay with Brown at 8.

Interesting.

I would advise against Playing both Rennie and Barclay. What makes our backrow so strong is it is a perfect unit. We need Stroks in there or Brown on the blindside to focus on the chopping and leave whoever plays no8 the chance to do the bulk of the carrying.

Barclay, Rennie and Brown just seems a wee bit light weight and not agressive enough.

Was at the game , oh dear ....Highlight for me was meeting 'Mighty Mouse " at
Pūrākaunui Falls the day before

It would be a dreadful decision to play Hines at 6, he should play at lock with Gray. I'd leave Hamilton out. He can face England.

Strokosch, Barclay and Brown should be the back row, and Vernon should be on the bench for impact. Rennie and Barclay together lacks punch, and we'd be short a ball carrier. Rennie vs Barclay is a straight choice, and you may as well flip a coin for it, it's such a tight call.

I'm more concerned about the selection in the backs. I don't want Parks and Morrison playing together again.