Scotland vs Tonga - 1st half Analysis

6:57 - Laidlaw up and under (visser manages to gather)

7:20 - Laidlaw up and under (Tonga mark it in 22)

8:30 - Max evens grubber, no one gets it but puts Tonga under pressure.

10:00 - Pick and drives, pyrgos throws ball to players standing still.

13:24 - Terrible, ambitious pass from Laidlaw, luckily Lamont gathers it well.

13:39 - Another crap pass from Laidlaw, knocked on by Scotland.

15:03 - Laidlaw receives ball, doesn't pass, runs into Tonga defence becoming slightly isolated. Scotland penalised for diving over (due to being under pressure to do so)

16:00 - short period of Tongan possession, chip kick gathered well by max Evans

16:39 - good clearance kick by pygros, nice and high. Scotland rush up and manage to force Tonga penalty.

17:40 - Lineout and good passing from all backs to get ball to other side of pitch
gaining good territory. Tonga penalised at ruck very close to try line. Scotland opt for lineout.

18:30 - Lineout won. good rolling maul that sadly fails. Good Tongan defence. Scotland scrum 5m.

20:00 - scrum collapses once. 2nd time Tonga Penalised. Scotland turn down points opt for lineout.

21:30 - Lineout is successful, Tonga penalised for rushing early i think. Scotland once again opt for lineout over points.

22:00 - lineout won. 2nd rolling maul, held up. scrum scotland 5m.

23:20 first scrum results in scotland free kick, scrum scotland. Denton grabs ball and has a good go at smashing round the blindside. Ruck is formed, slow lazy pick and drive work making it very easy for Tonga to put pressure on Scotland resulting in turnover ball. Tonga boot it down field into touch.

24:45 - Successful Scottish lineout, passes down backs. Scott gets wrapped up by Tonga, maul formed, collapses. Tonga scrum.

26:00 - Tonga win scrum, kick for territory. Scotland lineout

26:30 good lineout, Tongan player slaps ball from Gray hands in air, deemed as knock on and Tongan scrum by ref.

27:00 Tonga win scrum and have a short period of good short passing across field twice before Tonga no.4 is pushed out by Scotland for a Scotland lineout.

28:00 - Scotland win lineout, Pyrgos kicks high box kick to centre of pitch. Tonga gain possession. Togan no.10 breaks Strockosh tackle, offloads, bit more ground gained. ruck, ball out to backs. ruck, Scotland penalty close to 50m line. Scotland opt for lineout.

29:10 - Scotland win lineout, ball gets passed to Laidlaw. Laidlaw finds gap and makes good break. Good rush back by Tonga prevents Laidlaw passing left to Visser, passes to Strockosh instead. Strockosh trys risky pass over Tongan player which results in knock on and Tonga gain possession right on their 5m line.

29:50 - Tonga kick for touch to get away from their try line. Visser manages to collect ball and do an amazing pass back in to lamont who passes to Hogg who makes good ground. ruck is formed on Tongan 22. Pyrgos passes to Laidlaw, Laidlaw decides against short sensible pass and opts for long pass to Evans which is skilfully gathered by Denton who drives forward. ruck, ball thrown long to Gray. He becomes isolated, Tonga win penalty. (this was not Grays fault, forwards did very poor job at securing ball. Scottish hooker just came in from side and fell over allowing Tonga to gather with eases.

31:00 - Tonga kick for lineout, miss touch. Hogg catches, up and under, Tonga get ball, they kick it back down, ball is booted up field. Tonga gather, chip kick, Hogg gathers and makes good ground forward. Tonga nearly get turnover ball as Scottish forward rushes into ruck and lightly kicks Hoggs presented ball in ruck. Luckily we keep possession. Ball goes to backs, ruck formed 50m line. Pass to Denton who makes 5m, Tonga penalised for hands in ruck 45 out. Scotland turn down kick at goal and go for lineout in Tongan 22.

32:30 - Good lineout, Scotland try rolling maul again. Tonga penalised, Yellow card.

33:20 - good lineout, kellock comes to ground facing wrong way. Scotland obviously wanted to go for another rolling maul. Tonga steal ball and boot up field. Visser gathers at 10m line. Goes for a run, does loop pass to Laidlaw who passes to lamont, who is held up by Tongan tackler and gets ball ripped from him. Tonga scrum.

34:30 - Tonga win scrum, boot up field. Hogg catches and goes for a run, makes good ground, offloads in tackle. ruck. Short passes, Scott gets ball and opts to run straight, smashes into Tongan player (you'll all remember this one) Scotland penalty 50m line. Opt for lineout Tongan 22.

35:40 - Brown gets ball but its a squint throw. Tonga scrum.

36:30 - scrum collapses once. 2nd scrum = dodgy put in by Tonga, Scotland free kick. Scotland go for scrum. Tonga penalised. Scotland opt for points. laidlaw kicks penalty. 6-3 to Scotland.

39:30 - restart, scotland gather and kick down field, Tonga throw in. Tonga win ball and do box kick. Scotland gather, run up to 10m line own half. ruck. short passes blind side. ruck, ball out to Laidlaw who boots it high. Tonga gather and Spread it wide to where no Scottish defence and very nearly get try. Pygros runs ball out to save a massive embarrassment.

HALF TIME

Analysis:

As you can see, Laidlaw is opting for kicking the ball high when we have possession in the middle of the pitch. This is risky. If Tonga get the ball they have possession in broken play and there will be gaps in Scottish defence. As is displayed towards end of half, Tonga very nearly score from this. Why couldn't Scotland keep ball in hand and try and get into a more promising position? or alternatively, kick for touch with a Tongan lineout in promising position? We have several huge 2nd rows who constantly steal ball in lineouts for their clubs, why cant they do it for Scotland? laidlaw also throws some dodgey passes in first quater of match when simple option looks like it will result in better ground being made.

Scottish forwards are very lazy at the break down and many times this results in turnovers or a penalty for holding on to the ball.

When in Tongan 22 Scotland opt for rolling maul every time. Why? I think backs would be a far better option. Rolling maul vs a Physical team? Daft. This just goes to show that Scotland are scared by Tongan rush defence or the coaches tactics are very wrong. Whilst Scotland try these rolling mauls the clock ticks down, Tonga realise they are still in a good position and before Scotland know it its half time and they are barely in the lead. Just see what happens in second half!