Scotland A v England Saxons, 31 January

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Scotland A v England Saxons
Friday 31 January 2014, kick-off 7.30pm
Scotstoun Stadium, Glasgow

Referee: [tbc]
Assistant Referees: [tbc]
Citing Commissioner: [tbc]

A. Squads

1. Scotland A

Forwards – Olly Atkins (Edinburgh Rugby), Fraser Brown, Kevin Bryce (both Glasgow Warriors), Blair Cowan (London Irish), Jonny Gray, Robert Harley (both Glasgow Warriors), Allister Hogg (Newcastle Falcons), Tyrone Holmes, Ed Kalman (both Glasgow Warriors), Kieran Low (London Irish), Gordon Reid (Glasgow Warriors), Grant Shiells (Newcastle Falcons) and Jon Welsh (Glasgow Warriors)

Backs – Mark Bennett (Glasgow Warriors), Jack Cuthbert, Dougie Fife (both Edinburgh Rugby), Alex Grove (Worcester Warriors), Grayson Hart (Edinburgh Rugby), Tom Heathcote (Bath Rugby), Byron McGuigan, Henry Pyrgos (both Glasgow Warriors), Greig Tonks (Edinburgh Rugby) and Richie Vernon (Glasgow Warriors)

2. Saxons

Forwards - Nathan Catt (Bath Rugby) Calum Clark (NorthamptonSaints) Sam Dickinson (NorthamptonSaints) Dave Ewers (Exeter Chiefs) Jamie George (Saracens) George Kruis (Saracens) Charlie Matthews (Harlequins) Tom Mercey (NorthamptonSaints) Elliott Stooke (GloucesterRugby) Luke Wallace (Harlequins) Alex Waller (NorthamptonSaints) Dave Ward (Harlequins) Scott Wilson (Newcastle Falcons)

Backs - Freddie Burns (GloucesterRugby) Elliot Daly (London Wasps) Sam Hill (Exeter Chiefs) Matt Hopper (Harlequins) Dave Lewis (Exeter Chiefs) Rob Miller (Sale Sharks) Joe Simpson (London Wasps) Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs) Semesa Rokoduguni (Bath Rugby) Tom Varndell (London Wasps)

B. Previous Form

1 February 2013, Kingston Park
England Saxons 9 Scotland A 13

3 February 2012, Galashiels
Scotland A 35 England Saxons 0

C. Teams

England Saxons: 15 Miller (Sale), 14 Rokoduguni (Bath), 13 Daly (Wasps), 12 Eastmond (Bath), 11 Thompstone (Leicester), 10 Burns (Gloucester), 9 Robson (Gloucester); 1 Waller (Northampton), 2 Ward (Harlequins), 3 Wilson (Newcastle), 4 Stooke (Gloucester), 5 Kruis (Saracens), 6 Clark (Northampton, capt), 7 Wallace (Harlequins), 8 Dickinson (Northampton)

Replacements: 16 George (Saracens), 17 Catt (Bath), 18 Brookes (Newcastle), 19 Matthews (Harlequins), 20 Ewers (Exeter), 21 Simpson (Wasps), 22 Slade (Exeter), 23 Sharples (Gloucester)

Scotland A: 15 Cuthbert (Edinburgh), 14 Fife (Edinburgh), 13 Bennett (Glasgow), 12 Grove (Worcester), 11 McGuigan (Glasgow), 10 Tonks (Edinburgh), 9 Pyrgos (Glasgow); 1 Reid (Glasgow), 2 Brown (Glasgow), 3 Welsh (Glasgow), 4 Low (London Irish), 5 Gray (Glasgow, capt), 6 Harley (Glasgow), 7 Cowan (London Irish), 8 Hogg (Newcastle)

Replacements: 16 Bryce (Glasgow), 17 Allan (Edinburgh), 18 Kalman (Glasgow), 19 Atkins (Edinburgh), 20 Holmes (Glasgow), 21 Hart (Edinburgh), 22 Heathcote (Bath), 23 Vernon (Glasgow)

Totalflanker wrote:

Majestic83 wrote:Scotland unlucky not to grab the win near the end. Some very encouraging performances especially Ally hogg who led well with big carries and some fantastic work at back of scrum. Fraser Brown at hooker looked very good, good throwing and did alot around the park. Grayson Hart looked sharp when he came on and gave good quick service. Alex Grove also had a good game at 12, solid in D and good handling, shame he never got more of the ball to unleash Bennett, McGuigna who took his try well and Fyfe.

Disagree with you there I am afraid - from what I saw England looked the cooler/confident under pressure and deserved to edge it. So much aimless kicking from Scotland, only big positive the defence which was very strong.

Agree and disagree with you Maj

I don't think there was much in it, conditions dictated the match to an extent.

Back row looked good especially Harley and Hogg, Brown was accurate and industrious, Hart however looked aimless and slow directly from the scrum, had to look three or four times before distribution was made and by that time the English defensive line was straightened up.

Totalflanker agree we kicked too much and most of it was aimless and gave the advantage back to you guys grrrrrrrr

i think these A side matches, if the conditions are less than good, are always going to struggle from a lack of fluency. coaches are by definition experimenting, but also under pressure to deliver a result, so territorial kicking is always going to be big, and with good coordinated defense its always going to be hard to score tries. well done scotland for scoring the only open play one.

Considering it was a really scratch side from Scotland with a few players with even minimal club experience (Brown, Byrce and Allen) and a host of others who are far from regular starters such as Heathcote, Hart, Vernon and Reid, I thought it was a pretty good effort and a good draw.

This was never about putting out our second best XV but about seeing which of our junior players might be able to step up. A few of them definitely showed that they might have that potential.

Gray we would have expected a good game from and got one, despite his lack of game time. Atkins looked good when he came on, as he has done recently for Edinburgh. Other than in the set scrums, which were a bit of a lottery, we gave little away to England up front. It is not to often we can say that. Frazer Brown at hooker definitely looks like he has got what it takes and Gordon Reid did not disgrace himself. John Welsh unfortunately got on the wrong side of the ref, which may or may not have been his fault. The scrums improved when Ed Kalman came on.

Rob Harley tackled everything that moved and Ali Hogg had a very clever game, using all his experience of dealing with a retreating pack. He is still a good player and could still do a job for Scotland if called on, though at 31 I am not sure that he offers more than the younger models. He should not be forgotten about though and he clearly still has the hunger to get to 50 caps!

The back play, other than McGuigans try was disappointing and was crying out once or twice for someone with the vision to open things up. They pretty much all made a bad mistake and got away with it, but all did well defensively and did not lack for effort. Heathcote looked more composed than Tonks, but that may have been the injury, I am not sure how long he carried that. He certainly does not look ready to step up just yet.

Both scrummies did ok, but Hart seemed to get the ball moving a bit better and was a little bit less inclined to kick it away. We need to watch carefully how he develops with a bit more game time that he will undoubtedly get over the next couple of months.

This was always going to be more about performance than result for Scotland so I think they will actually have been very happy with the draw. To have not lost to England at A level for 3 years now is no mean feet

Aye Quins old chum you are spot on there.

We kinda expect too much from the A sides when the reality is they never spend that much time together and the players probably have an eye on the "full team opportunity" and as you said the coaches are under pressure to bridge the gap from club rugby to full international team preparation as well as ensuring the A team victory.

For me ,from the stand , it was an awful game. Tonks was clearly not the answer at 10. Heathcote looked much more natural when he came on. Scotland were too slow moving the ball from the breakdown and neither team had any invention or carried a significant running threat. Scotland's maul worked well but the line out was a disaster area .They struggled to even catch their own front ball. Cuthbert and Fyfe did well. Hogg too, as he should have given his experience.
There were no real leaders on the park and the scrums were an enigma wrapped up in a mystery.
Other than that , I really enjoyed the game

It was almost as if the team's had read the weather forecast from a couple of days ago and had decided that kick / chase was going to put the opposition under pressure in a howling gale and with driving rain. Well, for Glasgow, the actual conditions weren't too bad. Playing the ball in hand might actually have worked - as shown when both sides tried it.

Yeh there was a five minute period when a game of rugby broke out. Three quick recycled balls and Scotland scored in the corner.
The lack of ambition has to be a worry for both sets of coaches though.

Poor game spoiled by a ludicrous referee who confused all 46 players and the 4000 who braved the freezing conditions to watch.

For Scotland:-
Cuthbert - very steady at FB
Hogg - very assured performance and worthy MoM
Harley - Big Bob just keeps on tackling
Brown - had a very good game in the loose and put in some monster hits
Gray - excellent in the loose but line out was all over the place
Pyrgos- steady at 9 and kicking very good
Tonks - poor and looked relieved to be coming off
Heathcote - better when he came on
Atkins - looks a useful player and also put in some monster hits late on
The centres and wings never really got the ball so hard to say. McGuigan tooks his try well enough but that apart was poor and nearly gifted them a try with an embarrassing attempted clearance kick.

Our set piece was a mess and England should have walked it, but it showed just how mediocre their side is - many butchered attacking opportunities.

Not the best game ever but well done Scotland on making it three years undefeated against England at this level, no mean feat. These games are always useful though to see who might be able to make the step up. Tonks didn't have his best game but shouldn't be discarded as a 10 option although Heathcote was obviously much better when he came on, far to good a player to be getting so little game time at Bath. Apart from the one bad penalty kick, and to be fair to him that part of the pitch was just mud, he played very well and deserves to be considered for the main 6N squad. Grove was as steady as we expected him to be, should really be in the main squad as well. Actually thought that Hart looked OK as well despite some other posters feeling differently, think he could develop well.
Atkins was good, another serious lock option to add to the others. Goodness knows what was happening in the scrum, was Welsh having a bad game or did the ref pick on him? Kalman seemed to steady the scrum in the second half and should be considered for the 6N squad if Low etc don't perform, we can't afford to give away endless scrum penalties that's for sure. We're maybe better with a steady prop rather than one with poorer scrummaging but more mobility?
Tactically, I wish we would stop kicking away our ball, eg Cuthbert played very well at fullback but he generally kicked the ball too far for us to have any chance of pressuring the England back three. Noticed that all our kick offs were long as well, why can't we kick shorter and give our forwards a chance of getting the ball?
All in all a useful game and a few players put themselves in Johnson's thoughts I sure.

MacKnocked-on wrote:
Atkins was good, another serious lock option to add to the others. Goodness knows what was happening in the scrum, was Welsh having a bad game or did the ref pick on him?

I think the ref had made up his mind who was at fault. One given against scotland A on our put it was a real stinker. The scrum put in awarded to Scotland was when the scrum turned but no one infringed. "gone round beyond 90"

MacKnocked-on wrote:Tactically, I wish we would stop kicking away our ball, eg Cuthbert played very well at fullback but he generally kicked the ball too far for us to have any chance of pressuring the England back three. Noticed that all our kick offs were long as well, why can't we kick shorter and give our forwards a chance of getting the ball?
All in all a useful game and a few players put themselves in Johnson's thoughts I sure.

The kicking annoys - some of Cuthbert was good and won a lot of territory but especially in the second half we ended up just giving them the ball. Mind you Saxons looking prettty ineffective with all the ball they got and Burns was guilty of more than a few aimless kicks as well.. Lineout was a bit of a mess. Hogg and Pyrgos really put their hands up I thought - and The Ginger Tackle Monster did what he does best. Cuthbert basically solid and even tried a few counters in the second half. Both sides took some poor decisions that wasted chances. Scotland should have won but for crucial periods of the game simply were not good enough to get their hands on the ball. Dinnae think much of the penalty try.

TJ wrote:

MacKnocked-on wrote:
Atkins was good, another serious lock option to add to the others. Goodness knows what was happening in the scrum, was Welsh having a bad game or did the ref pick on him?

 I think the ref had made up his mind who was at fault.  One given against scotland A on our put it was a real stinker.  The scrum put in awarded to Scotland was when the scrum turned but no one infringed.  "gone round beyond 90"

MacKnocked-on wrote:Tactically, I wish we would stop kicking away our ball, eg Cuthbert played very well at fullback but he generally kicked the ball too far for us to have any chance of pressuring the England back three. Noticed that all our kick offs were long as well, why can't we kick shorter and give our forwards a chance of getting the ball?
All in all a useful game and a few players put themselves in Johnson's thoughts I sure.

The kicking annoys - some of Cuthbert was good and won a lot of territory but especially in the second half we ended up just giving them the ball.    Mind you Saxons looking prettty ineffective with all the ball they got and Burns was guilty of more than a few aimless kicks as well..  Lineout was a bit of a mess.  Hogg and Pyrgos really put their hands up I thought - and The Ginger Tackle Monster did what he does best.  Cuthbert basically solid and even tried a few counters in the second half.  Both sides took some poor decisions that wasted chances.  Scotland should have won but for crucial periods of the game simply were not good enough to get their hands on the ball.  Dinnae think much of the penalty try.

I dread Laidlaw box kicking endlessly tomorrow.

Calumn Clerk -should he be citing for attempting to pull Hoggs head off?

Well if Clark was cited and found guilty, given his track record, it would be bye bye for good - dirty besterd !

No "high tackle" possible in a maul is there - but it looked like dangerous play to me

I missed it, but one of the commentators mentioned it at the time.

It was nasty and could have hurt Hogg. A real headlock.

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