Scotland v Samoa, 10 October

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SCOTLAND V SAMOA
10 October 2015
KO: 14:30 BST
St. James' Park, Newcastle

Live on ITV

Referee: Jaco Peyper (South Africa)
Touch judges: JP Doyle (England) & Marius Mitrea (Italy)
Television match official: Ben Skeen (New Zealand)

A. Head to Head

9 Played 9
7 Won 1
1 Drawn 1
1 Lost 7
218 Points 122

B. Recent Form

8 June 2013
Mr Price Kings Park, Durban, South Africa
27 – 17 Samoa

23 June 2012
Apia Park, Apia
16 – 17 Scotland

27 November 2010
Pittodire, Aberdeen
19 – 16 Scotland

20 November 2005
Murrayfield, Edinburgh
18 – 11 Scotland

4 June 2004
Westpac Stadium, Wellington, New Zealand
3 – 38 Scotland

18 November 2000
Murrayfield, Edinburgh
31 – 8 Scotland

C. Teams

SCOTLAND

15 Stuart Hogg 14 Sean Maitland, 13 Mark Bennett, 12 Matt Scott, 11 Tommy Seymour, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Greig Laidlaw (capt); 1 Alasdair Dickinson, 2 Ross Ford, 3 Willem Nel, 4 Richie Gray, 5 Jonny Gray, 6 Ryan Wilson, 7 John Hardie, 8 David Denton.

Replacements: 16 Fraser Brown, 17 Gordon Reid, 18 Jon Welsh, 19 Tim Swinson, 20 Josh Strauss, 21 Henry Pyrgos, 22 Peter Horne, 23 Sean Lamont.

SAMOA

15 Tim Nanai-Williams, 14 Paul Perez, 13 George Pisi, 12 Rey Lee-Lo, 11 Fa'atoina Autagavaia, 10 Tusi Pisi, 9 Kahn Fotuali'i (c); 1 Sakaria Taulafo, 2 Ma'atulimanu Leiataua, 3 Census Johnston, 4 Teofilo Paulo, 5 Kane Thompson, 6 Maurie Faasavalu, 7 Jack Lam, 8 Alafoti Faosiliva.

Replacements: 16 Motu Matu'u, 17 Viliamu Afatia, 18 Anthony Perenise, 19 Faifili Levave, 20 Vavae Tuilagi, 21 Vavao Afemai, 22 Patrick Faapale, 23 Ken Pisi.

We're really missing Dunbar in this tournament, Scott just doesn't seem to be up to it currently, his defence especially for someone so big has been very poor (Visser-esque even). Obviously Bennett isn't the strongest of defenders but you have to include him for his attacking ability. I know others have dismissed it as a backward step but really perhaps we should consider Lamont at 12 for the QF purely for his defensive strength, and he's as able to crash it up as Scott. Given Russell's distribution skills I don't think it would necessarily lead to no ball getting out to Bennett and the back three. We need to consider any possible means of winning at the weekend regardless of how retrograde a step it might seem.

Wilson is a club level player and no more. At least with guys like Hines who was known for the occasional moment of stupidity, he redeemed himself with being an excellent player. Wilson doesnt, and I really dont know what the management see in him.

I'd keep Scott personally. I share the concerns about his defence yesterday, but he still offers the most in attack out of all the options. Peter Horne is terrible, and Lamont is a slow trundler without skill.

funnyExiledScot wrote:I'd keep Scott personally. I share the concerns about his defence yesterday, but he still offers the most in attack out of all the options. Peter Horne is terrible, and Lamont is a slow trundler without skill.

I wasn't suggesting Horne should play, swapping one (on current form) defensively suspect player for an even worse one, no thanks. I don't think lack of pace is so obviously a problem at 12 in most matches, Scott may be faster than Lamont but I've seen him plenty of times playing at 13 for Edinburgh and he's not really super fast himself. My suggestion of considering Lamont is purely horses for courses for this match given Scott is not on top form.

I'm not rubbishing the idea, despite being a long term critic of Lamont at 12. I actually suggested he play 12 against Samoa which in hindsight looked a good call. But he's just too limited for the Aussies. He won't bash through and he doesn't have the skill to unlock a defence.

funnyExiledScot wrote:I'm not rubbishing the idea, despite being a long term critic of Lamont at 12. I actually suggested he play 12 against Samoa which in hindsight looked a good call. But he's just too limited for the Aussies. He won't bash through and he doesn't have the skill to unlock a defence.

Sure but my thinking is that there are others in the team who can, hopefully, unlock the Aussie defence but we just need somebody to shore up our midfield as Scott hasn't been on good form defensively. Of the two Scott is obviously the player that you want in the starting team if he's playing well. Having said all that, the most pressing issue to address are our restarts, constantly gifting possession to the opposition makes defence a problem for whoever we pick.

Agreed on the restarts. It's been a big issue for ages. What also annoyed me yesterday is that we did nothing with our own restarts, albeit we know that Russell can be quite good. We just kicked long and allowed them to clear, whereas when we were receiving the ball it was heart in mouth stuff each and every time.

Absolutely, we never seem to kick to give our own players a chance of competing for the ball, always long every time. Other teams kick shorter, seems obvious when you're watching on tv but for some reason the coaches never change the tactic. Have you ever watched Danny Brough the Scotland Rugby League captain kick up and unders etc? He looks to have a superior and more accurate technique to our Union squad, I'd suggest paying him to come up and give kicking training to Russell etc.

I just think it is a deliberate low risk tactic - when you kick long you're pretty much guaranteed that the opposition clears their line and you get a lineout in their half.

If you kick short and mess it up you run the risk of putting yourself under pressure.

What we need to do is mix things up a bit - do both throughout the game!

To be fair I think both Nel and Strauss brings something extra to Scotland

MacKnocked-on wrote:

funnyExiledScot wrote:I'm not rubbishing the idea, despite being a long term critic of Lamont at 12. I actually suggested he play 12 against Samoa which in hindsight looked a good call. But he's just too limited for the Aussies. He won't bash through and he doesn't have the skill to unlock a defence.

Sure but my thinking is that there are others in the team who can, hopefully, unlock the Aussie defence but we just need somebody to shore up our midfield as Scott hasn't been on good form defensively. Of the two Scott is obviously the player that you want in the starting team if he's playing well. Having said all that, the most pressing issue to address are our restarts, constantly gifting possession to the opposition makes defence a problem for whoever we pick.

Just arrived home after a fantastic weekend.

First thing NEWCASTLE I bow to you, just a fantastic experience pre match the town couldn't make you more welcome, the stadium was bouncing and generated even more atmosphere than last week and afterwards it was a night you wouldn't forget.

On the team performance, tale of two halves!, yet again we started crap and proceeded to get worse, it was only our better fitness levels that stood us in good stead, I think we deserved to win but only just.

Positives
The whole "team" approach is clear to see.
Schlong The Centurion..... well done laddie
Dickinson, Ford and Nel were superb, Hardie was awesome, Richie Gray, Maitland great shifts, Seymour had his best game, Greg was just immense and controlled, and the bench just played their part superbly.

Negatives
* Wilson. Lucky to get away with the yellow card, but missed too many important tackles,  around the fringes and restarts were gash.
* Scott was dire, but worst still was his front foot offensive, he did little to impress in any area, I find it hard to see me saying this but Lamont at the moment could be a better 12.
* Hogg was poor throughout, kicking was off, his running game was nowhere to be seen, his poor passing continues but worse of all is his attitude. I would consider Maitland at 15 against the Aussies.
* Russell was disappointing most of the game, his defence was sh1te, his kicking game stank, his running game stank however it mostly was due to the fact that he really didn't want to pass to Scott as all momentum was ruined when he did.
* Bennett defence was awful, and he didn't have anything off either Scott or Russell

Its a shame Barclay wasn't selected as Australia has shown you can play two specialist 7s if they are good enough

6 Barclay
7 Hardie
8 Denton

would have been mouthwatering

I would seriously think about benching Hogg and Scott in favour of

15 Maitland
14 Visser
13 Bennett
12 Lamont / Vernon
11 Seymour

Overall we punched above our weight, we started off as 3rd seeds, went down to 4th seeds during the group stages but we got through.

I think we will give Australia a better game than both England and Wales if we get the minds of the boys right.

Am I correct that Lamont won his 100th cap yesterday? If so, well done to him.

funnyExiledScot wrote:Agreed on the restarts. It's been a big issue for ages. What also annoyed me yesterday is that we did nothing with our own restarts, albeit we know that Russell can be quite good. We just kicked long and allowed them to clear, whereas when we were receiving the ball it was heart in mouth stuff each and every time.

With reference to the long punts and giving the ball back. Its amazing that generally we crucified Weir last week for doing the same and yet in all other aspects of the game he played much better than Russell this week, and here is Russell getting away with murder it seems

We certainly have a touch of selective memories

Anyone else worried by the "job done, let's party" message coming out from the players, we've reached the stage we were expected to, none of us really sees ourselves as worse than Samoa. We have an even more important and much more difficult game next weekend, however it's been a long time since Australia really put us to the sword, obviously they are playing very well at the moment but we can't view yesterday as our final rather our prerequisite.

123456789. wrote:Anyone else worried by the "job done, let's party" message coming out from the players, we've reached the stage we were expected to, none of us really sees ourselves as worse than Samoa. We have an even more important and much more difficult game next weekend, however it's been a long time since Australia really put us to the sword, obviously they are playing very well at the moment but we can't view yesterday as our final rather our prerequisite.

I was thinking the same thing, but TBH I don't think it is too bad a thing. We've got 8 days until the next game and the guys will probably have had a bit of celebration last night, which will be great for the togetherness of the group and team morale.

I'm sure they'll get their mind back on the task in hand on Monday back at training.

MacKnocked-on wrote:

21st Century Schizoid Man wrote:That was the worst refereeing performance I have ever seen.  Peyper needs put onto a plane back to SA immediately.    The constant high tackling by Samoa was an utter disgrace and appears to be allowed within the laws according to the abysmal Peyper.    I take it this moron knows what warnings actually are -or are they of the super-secret variety.       He most likely had some sort of breakdown in the second 40 - he warned their 4 lock in the first 40 and then a further 3 times in the second 40.  

Starting 15:-

Good - Hardie, Laidlaw, Seymour, Gray, Gray, Ford,

Schieze - the rest

Think you're underestimating the contribution of Dickinson and Nel, to my mind Nel has made a tremendous difference to our scrum since coming in to the team, we're no longer giving away endless scrum penalties as was often the case before, and he gets about the pitch more than many others in the team. Looks absolutely comfortable in international rugby.

 

MacKnocked-on - You forget that Dickinson and Nel are Edinburgh players and therefore exempt from any sort of recognition of their contribution.
Judging by Schits latest rant, I must have overlooked the fact that Peyper must have been born in Edinburgh too.

Biltong wrote:To be fair I think both Nel and Strauss brings something extra to Scotland

Definitely agree about Nel, Bilts. Strauss is a bit of an enigma for me. He never seems fit and rarely plays all 80 minutes for Glasgow. Undoubtedly a good player but he just lacks something. I can't put my finger on it - it's almost intangible.

We aren't seriously suggesting Lamont to 12 again? Been there and done that!

Scott had a poor game but so did Laidlaw against SA and look how he bounced back.

Perseverance is the key.

I wanted Lamont to start against Samoa but wouldn't dream of him starting against Aus UNLESS Hogg is dropped and Maitland moves to FB

InjuredYetAgain wrote:

Biltong wrote:To be fair I think both Nel and Strauss brings something extra to Scotland

Definitely agree about Nel, Bilts. Strauss is a bit of an enigma for me. He never seems fit and rarely plays all 80 minutes for Glasgow. Undoubtedly a good player but he just lacks something. I can't put my finger on it - it's almost intangible.

That just shows what you know about Strauss and Glasgow - he frequently played all 80 mins and as captain in our championship winning season - including the final.

Having re-watched - agree re Nel, he had a good game. Also the forearm smash suffered by Dickinson and totally ignored by Peyper and TMO, definitely affected the rest of his game.

You're quite right. I was surprised that Dickinson passed the head injury tests. He was staggering all over the shop right after it happened.

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:We aren't seriously suggesting Lamont to 12 again? Been there and done that!

Scott had a poor game but so did Laidlaw against SA and look how he bounced back.

Perseverance is the key.

Greg didn't have worse a game than many others against SA, and there was mitigating circumstances if you progressed the play.

We all agree he hovered over the ball too much and passed too much to Richie Gray, Reid and Brown because more often than not he didn't have any options on the outside of him as de Allende mullered Matt and tucked him up like a kipper all match!, Scott made half a dozen runs and made the whole of nine metres!, lost the ball in the tackle three times, got turned over three times and miss tackles were nearly as high as tackles made.

Sorry no scrum half with half a rugby brain is going to whip the ball out rapidly to that train crash, the result would have seen a much higher battering.

We have to be realistic with our overview of where we are in the group, Japan beat SA and pretty much destroyed Samoa and should have scored more tries against them, we on the other hand got beaten up by SA and could have lost to Samoa if they had a bit more discipline.

Perseverance is not the key. the next stage is ahem a knockout game we cant persevere any more, we can do that on the summer tour.
Matt Scott is not playing well, and we have to have someone who can take on and beat Kuridrani/Giteau/Foley by speed of mind and body and I just cannae see Matty doing that at present.

Well, that's made me feel a whole lot more confident about next weekend, fhf.

I have thought of an ideal tactic for Oz, though. Start with Weir (no, bear with me. It gets better) and at the first phase of play get him to kick both Hooper and Pocock really hard in the Green Bay Packers, thereby neutralising them both for the rest of the game and getting Weir out of the rest of the tournament. QED

InjuredYetAgain wrote:Well, that's made me feel a whole lot more confident about next weekend, fhf.

I have thought of an ideal tactic for Oz, though. Start with Weir (no, bear with me. It gets better) and at the first phase of play get him to kick both Hooper and Pocock really hard in the Green Bay Packers, thereby neutralising them both for the rest of the game and getting out of the rest of the tournament. QED

I'm stealing that one!

For a small copyright fee, I am sure we can come to some arrangement.

InjuredYetAgain wrote:Well, that's made me feel a whole lot more confident about next weekend, fhf.

I have thought of an ideal tactic for Oz, though. Start with Weir (no, bear with me. It gets better) and at the first phase of play get him to kick both Hooper and Pocock really hard in the Green Bay Packers, thereby neutralising them both for the rest of the game and getting out of the rest of the tournament. QED

The odd thing about next week is that I have more confidence against Oz than if we had played a near full strength Wales just a shame we didn't have Barclay (and Hardie) against Pocock (and Hooper) again

Oddly, I agree with you. Wales do have a hoodoo over us.
I think our front row is better than Wales so we won't get pushed around (literally) the way Wales did. That said, I remain to be convinced that Oz were scrummaging legally yesterday

Has anyone seen anything about Dickinson? He was staggering about after he got short-armed to the chin but somehow passed the head injury protocols.

InjuredYetAgain wrote:Oddly, I agree with you. Wales do have a hoodoo over us.

It's not a hoodoo it's Scottish rugby in general, it's totally to pot. The SRU are doing everything wrong from top to bottom, giving your team no chance.

Read this article as a good example:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/international/scotland/11751825/Rugby-World-Cup-2015-Scotland-show-folly-of-current-international-eligibility-rules.html

Among the key accountabilities listed on the job description are “To advise and assist Scottish Rugby with the identification, recruitment, relocation, resettlement and integration of professional rugby players, coaches and other employees (and their families, as required) from overseas, particularly those from the Southern Hemisphere.”

Your under 20's have just smashed Italy, and beaten Wales and Ireland, won 3 games and lost 2 in the U20 six nations, which is a record your senior team can only dream of, and few if any of these lads will get a contract with Glasgow or Edinburgh, much less any kind of a chance at improving with a profesisonal contract, and yet the SRU has the money to hire some bloke to poach players off the Southern Hemisphere teams?

Shifty wrote:

InjuredYetAgain wrote:Oddly, I agree with you. Wales do have a hoodoo over us.

It's not a hoodoo it's Scottish rugby in general, it's totally to pot.  The SRU are doing everything wrong from top to bottom, giving your team no chance.

Read this article as a good example:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/international/scotland/11751825/Rugby-World-Cup-2015-Scotland-show-folly-of-current-international-eligibility-rules.html

Among the key accountabilities listed on the job description are “To advise and assist Scottish Rugby with the identification, recruitment, relocation, resettlement and integration of professional rugby players, coaches and other employees (and their families, as required) from overseas, particularly those from the Southern Hemisphere.”

Your under 20's have just smashed Italy, and beaten Wales and Ireland, won 3 games and lost 2 in the U20 six nations, which is a record your senior team can only dream of, and few if any of these lads will get a contract with Glasgow or Edinburgh, much less any kind of a chance at improving with a profesisonal contract, and yet the SRU has the money to hire some bloke to poach players off the Southern Hemisphere teams?  

It's actually very hard to argue with much of that, Shifty

changing tack slightly did the Samoa player get cited for that eye gouge after?
I havent read anything about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYCuPdTPphI

33 seconds in, when the player scores, look at the replay. The Samoan player seems to deliberatly go for the Scottish players eye.

I think he makes contact, but is trying to grab behind the knee of the other player

You can't tell from the camera angle what he was looking at but reaching under a maul to try and lift and hold up the ball is a completely natural movement.

InjuredYetAgain wrote:

Shifty wrote:

InjuredYetAgain wrote:Oddly, I agree with you. Wales do have a hoodoo over us.

It's not a hoodoo it's Scottish rugby in general, it's totally to pot.  The SRU are doing everything wrong from top to bottom, giving your team no chance.

Read this article as a good example:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/international/scotland/11751825/Rugby-World-Cup-2015-Scotland-show-folly-of-current-international-eligibility-rules.html

Among the key accountabilities listed on the job description are “To advise and assist Scottish Rugby with the identification, recruitment, relocation, resettlement and integration of professional rugby players, coaches and other employees (and their families, as required) from overseas, particularly those from the Southern Hemisphere.”

Your under 20's have just smashed Italy, and beaten Wales and Ireland, won 3 games and lost 2 in the U20 six nations, which is a record your senior team can only dream of, and few if any of these lads will get a contract with Glasgow or Edinburgh, much less any kind of a chance at improving with a professional contract, and yet the SRU has the money to hire some bloke to poach players off the Southern Hemisphere teams?  

It's actually very hard to argue with much of that, Shifty

Wish i hadn't read this as I've been basking in the feel good factor but this is my pet Rant, ill save going into it but the basics are..........player development pathways......third pro team......second rate southern hemisphere journey men.....Edinburgh lacking Scottish Identity.........Edinburgh not bothering with the borders.......Soloman's....rant rave grumble etc etc  But the long story is until we can find Scottish born players game time at a professional level age 20 - through until 24 we are failing. Should be Mark Dodson's first priority.

These are of course very well debated well worn issues that just have no easy solution.

Well there are many easy solutions but that requires money - something we just don't have enough of to make a difference.

Bit off topic, but I'd like to give a big thumbs up to all the Scotland fans that were at the game. I went along with my 7 year old daughter for what was her first ever game - she has asking to come to a game with me for quite a while.

All the fans we met were, without exception, really friendly and sensitive to being around a young child. Crowds being friendly and careful not to shove past/around her, and fans sat around us were great, talking to her, high fiving when Scotland scored and just generally acting like they were pleased to see her there.

For, me having worried a bit about her (she doesn't generally do too well with big crowds and lots of noise) it was a huge relief and something I am very grateful for. So while this probably won't be read by the exact same people - I still want to say a collective thanks, you are awesome! I will always be an England fan, but I think you may have made a Scotland fan out of her! We will hopefully get up to Edinburgh next year for one of the AIs and hope to enjoy ourselves as much then.

Big wrote:Bit off topic, but I'd like to give a big thumbs up to all the Scotland fans that were at the game. I went along with my 7 year old daughter for what was her first ever game - she has asking to come to a game with me for quite a while.

All the fans we met were, without exception, really friendly and sensitive to being around a young child. Crowds being friendly and careful not to shove past/around her, and fans sat around us were great, talking to her, high fiving when Scotland scored and just generally acting like they were pleased to see her there.

For, me having worried a bit about her (she doesn't generally do too well with big crowds and lots of noise) it was a huge relief and something I am very grateful for. So while this probably won't be read by the exact same people - I still want to say a collective thanks, you are awesome!  I will always be an England fan, but I think you may have made a Scotland fan out of her! We will hopefully get up to Edinburgh next year for one of the AIs and hope to enjoy ourselves as much then.

Great to hear!

I'm sure you'll be made most welcome if you do come up for a game.

If you do come up and are looking for suggestions of places to stay/eat/ drink then post on one of our threads and I'm sure we can help you out.

Big wrote:Bit off topic, but I'd like to give a big thumbs up to all the Scotland fans that were at the game. I went along with my 7 year old daughter for what was her first ever game - she has asking to come to a game with me for quite a while.

All the fans we met were, without exception, really friendly and sensitive to being around a young child. Crowds being friendly and careful not to shove past/around her, and fans sat around us were great, talking to her, high fiving when Scotland scored and just generally acting like they were pleased to see her there.

For, me having worried a bit about her (she doesn't generally do too well with big crowds and lots of noise) it was a huge relief and something I am very grateful for. So while this probably won't be read by the exact same people - I still want to say a collective thanks, you are awesome!  I will always be an England fan, but I think you may have made a Scotland fan out of her! We will hopefully get up to Edinburgh next year for one of the AIs and hope to enjoy ourselves as much then.

Nice story.

Prothero wrote:

InjuredYetAgain wrote:

Shifty wrote:

InjuredYetAgain wrote:Oddly, I agree with you. Wales do have a hoodoo over us.

It's not a hoodoo it's Scottish rugby in general, it's totally to pot.  The SRU are doing everything wrong from top to bottom, giving your team no chance.

Read this article as a good example:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/international/scotland/11751825/Rugby-World-Cup-2015-Scotland-show-folly-of-current-international-eligibility-rules.html

Among the key accountabilities listed on the job description are “To advise and assist Scottish Rugby with the identification, recruitment, relocation, resettlement and integration of professional rugby players, coaches and other employees (and their families, as required) from overseas, particularly those from the Southern Hemisphere.”

Your under 20's have just smashed Italy, and beaten Wales and Ireland, won 3 games and lost 2 in the U20 six nations, which is a record your senior team can only dream of, and few if any of these lads will get a contract with Glasgow or Edinburgh, much less any kind of a chance at improving with a professional contract, and yet the SRU has the money to hire some bloke to poach players off the Southern Hemisphere teams?  

It's actually very hard to argue with much of that, Shifty

Wish i hadn't read this as I've been basking in the feel good factor but this is my pet Rant, ill save going into it but the basics are..........player development pathways......third pro team......second rate southern hemisphere journey men.....Edinburgh lacking Scottish Identity.........Edinburgh not bothering with the borders.......Soloman's....rant rave grumble etc etc  But the long story is until we can find Scottish born players game time at a professional level age 20 - through until 24 we are failing. Should be Mark Dodson's first priority.

On this topic, the SRU have made steps to increase the number of competitive fixtures for our under 20s players. They have set up a tournament between the 4 regional academies – a round robin tournament followed by a finals day at Murrayfield, which was held at the weekend.

Edinburgh region won – giving Glasgow a bit of a pumping in the process. I suspect a similar thing will happen come 1872 cup time!

Whilst this is a positive move, I’m not overly convinced the level of games will be any higher than a Prem 1 game – there aren’t enough players in the academies to make up match squads so under 20s players from amateur clubs have to fill in the gaps. As such I suspect the intensity is a big step down from under 20s international games, and not much better than Prem 1 club games.

But still, it is a start and hopefully something to build on.

My ranking - feel free to disagree - :-) (If we look at tackling alone, then all the back line should take 10 points off lol

15 Stuart Hogg   - 5 - not really getting involved with the game as much as I would like
14 Sean Maitland,  - 7 - busy and looking for work - starting to get back to form
13 Mark Bennett, - 7 - still good, a few issues on defence, but think that is a back line and 12 issue more
12 Matt Scott,  - 3 - not going forward, not tackling, not holding the ball - what is he doing just now
11 Tommy Seymour, - 6 - strong in defence, and also looking hungry - a great opportunistic try
10 Finn Russell,  - 5 - poor today - seemed to get a bit lost and took the wrong options - neeeds to get his game head on
9 Greig Laidlaw (capt); - 9 MOM for me - I put my hands up - and say so far on this WC - I have been wrong about him - very good game

1 Alasdair Dickinson, - 8 - Strong scrum and industrious around the park - a very consistent player
2 Ross Ford,  - 7 - good line out (Shock) and also did not do much wrong - tackles a lot and part of the front row that dominated
3 Willem McNel, - 8 - see 1 - what a great Scottish player ;-)
4 Richie Gray, -  9 - gone is the show pony - he is now such a hard worker - what a transformation - BOOM he is awesome
5 Jonny Gray, - 7 - hard working but seems to be struggling a little with the power - still very young, so will come - good but not great in this match
6 Ryan Wilson, - 1 - WTF does he do - miss tackles - could have been red - no go forward - arrrgh
7 John McHardie, - 8 - another very strong performance - great to have these born and bred Scots making it through the ranks :-)
8 David Denton. - 6 - again a little ineffectual and hands a little bit like t * ts

Replacements:
16 Fraser Brown,  - 8 - a good replacement and a good player
17 Gordon Reid, - 7 - worked hard and played well as well
18 Jon Welsh, - Can not remember (Hiding behind my hands most the second half )
19 Tim Swinson,  - 7 - another solid performance
20 Josh Strauss,  - 7 - worked hard and actually make a bigger impact
21 Henry Pyrgos,- - Can not remember (Hiding behind my hands most the second half )
22 Peter Horne, - Can not remember (Hiding behind my hands most the second half )
23 Sean Lamont. - 100 - must get 100 out of 10 for his 100th cap - well done him
#

My NDL award of the natch goes to Matt Scott

I think 7 is a bit generous for Bennett. 7 implies an above average performance, yet he missed tackles and was pretty anonymous in attack other than one decent mini-break. I’d say he was a 6 at best, maybe a 5.5.

Other than that I pretty much agree, although I probably would have given Hardie a 9 too! Seymour probably deserves a 7 for that try and some good work.

Certainly agree on Richie Gray – the commentators noted that he looked dead on his feet at the end and rightly so, he gave his absolute all and put a huge shift in.

Riskysports wrote:My ranking - feel free to disagree - :-) (If we look at tackling alone, then all the back line should take 10 points off lol

10 Finn Russell,  - 5 6- poor today - seemed to get a bit lost and took the wrong options - neeeds to get his game head on. I thought he defended well in spells

9 Greig Laidlaw (capt); - 9 8 MOM for me - I put my hands up - and say so far on this WC - I have been wrong about him - very good game One of his best games, but yet again he spends too much time standing at the back of the ruck pointing and waving, and that is my biggest problem with thim, if he had been slightly quicker it would have been a 10 from me.

2 Ross Ford,  - 7 6 - good line out (Shock) and also did not do much wrong - tackles a lot and part of the front row that dominated needs to hook, we are screwed against the wallabies if he doesn't


6 Ryan Wilson, -1 -1 - WTF does he do - miss tackles - could have been red - no go forward - arrrghWhy is he on the team, I can only assume it's so they can jump the queue when they go to the kebab shop

8 David Denton. - 6 4 - again a little ineffectual and hands a little bit like t * ts. Needs to work on everything

I am bizarrely confident for the Aus game. I think we have a decent pack, which will have the upper hand (Ford needs to hook though), especially if Pocock is on the naughty step........actually I have changed my mind mid sentence when I thought about the match up in the back row.....never mind...

9 Greig Laidlaw (capt); - 9 8 MOM for me - I put my hands up - and say so far on this WC - I have been wrong about him - very good game One of his best games, but yet again he spends too much time standing at the back of the ruck pointing and waving, and that is my biggest problem with thim, if he had been slightly quicker it would have been a 10 from me.

Strangely enough this was one of the main reasons I thought we won

What we did not need in THIS games was super fast action packed ball - look what happened in the first 20 when we did

I hope Scotland pick their bets team to score points, not the stupid negative tactics that only we in the NH seem to do of picking a team to "negate" the opposition. Play to your strengths Scotland and back yourselves. You are not favourites, but you are surely the best underdog in the world!

Riskysports wrote:9 Greig Laidlaw (capt); - 9 8 MOM for me - I put my hands up - and say so far on this WC - I have been wrong about him - very good game One of his best games, but yet again he spends too much time standing at the back of the ruck pointing and waving, and that is my biggest problem with thim, if he had been slightly quicker it would have been a 10 from me.

Strangely enough this was one of the main reasons I thought we won

What we did not need in THIS games was super fast action packed ball - look what happened in the first 20 when we did

I kind of agree, but there were times (mostly all 2nd half) when we were on the front foot and in their 22 and quick ball may have resulted in a try, but instead Samoa got time to re-organise their defence.

Riskysports wrote:9 Greig Laidlaw (capt); - 9 8 MOM for me - I put my hands up - and say so far on this WC - I have been wrong about him - very good game One of his best games, but yet again he spends too much time standing at the back of the ruck pointing and waving, and that is my biggest problem with thim, if he had been slightly quicker it would have been a 10 from me.

Strangely enough this was one of the main reasons I thought we won

What we did not need in THIS games was super fast action packed ball - look what happened in the first 20 when we did

I agree with that - we were getting drawn into a 7s game and that would have been a complete disaster for us. We certainly need to exert much more control, which we did in the 2nd half to great effect.

RDW_Scotland wrote:

Riskysports wrote:9 Greig Laidlaw (capt); - 9 8 MOM for me - I put my hands up - and say so far on this WC - I have been wrong about him - very good game One of his best games, but yet again he spends too much time standing at the back of the ruck pointing and waving, and that is my biggest problem with thim, if he had been slightly quicker it would have been a 10 from me.

Strangely enough this was one of the main reasons I thought we won

What we did not need in THIS games was super fast action packed ball - look what happened in the first 20 when we did

I agree with that - we were getting drawn into a 7s game and that would have been a complete disaster for us.  We certainly need to exert much more control, which we did in the 2nd half to great effect.

See my post above, while I agree to a certain extent, it just can't be the default setting.

cakeordeath wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:

Riskysports wrote:9 Greig Laidlaw (capt); - 9 8 MOM for me - I put my hands up - and say so far on this WC - I have been wrong about him - very good game One of his best games, but yet again he spends too much time standing at the back of the ruck pointing and waving, and that is my biggest problem with thim, if he had been slightly quicker it would have been a 10 from me.

Strangely enough this was one of the main reasons I thought we won

What we did not need in THIS games was super fast action packed ball - look what happened in the first 20 when we did

I agree with that - we were getting drawn into a 7s game and that would have been a complete disaster for us.  We certainly need to exert much more control, which we did in the 2nd half to great effect.

See my post above, while I agree to a certain extent, it just can't be the default setting.

I would also agree with that (there's a lot of agreeing going on here!).

If we would mix Laidlaw's rugby brain with Hidalgo-Clyne's explosiveness we'd have some player.

RDW_Scotland wrote:

cakeordeath wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:

Riskysports wrote:9 Greig Laidlaw (capt); - 9 8 MOM for me - I put my hands up - and say so far on this WC - I have been wrong about him - very good game One of his best games, but yet again he spends too much time standing at the back of the ruck pointing and waving, and that is my biggest problem with thim, if he had been slightly quicker it would have been a 10 from me.

Strangely enough this was one of the main reasons I thought we won

What we did not need in THIS games was super fast action packed ball - look what happened in the first 20 when we did

I agree with that - we were getting drawn into a 7s game and that would have been a complete disaster for us.  We certainly need to exert much more control, which we did in the 2nd half to great effect.

See my post above, while I agree to a certain extent, it just can't be the default setting.

I would also agree with that (there's a lot of agreeing going on here!).

If we would mix Laidlaw's rugby brain with Hidalgo-Clyne's explosiveness we'd have some player.

I think the one thing we can certainly all agree on 100% is Ryan Wilson doesn't belong in the team.


Edit: that may sound a bit harsh, but Wilson has been truly awful, and his brainfart yesterday didn't help his cause. I can't help but feel the ginger tackle monster would have helped us a lot in the SA and Samoa game.

I in fact couldn’t agree more that Harley would have been exactly the kind of player we needed against SA and Samoa.

For all Vern Cotter needs congratulated for getting us to the QFs, his selection of Strokosh and Wilson have proven our worst fears and he needs to take the flak for that.

Credit to Swinson though – I’ve been his harshest critic at international level but he did a good job for us yesterday.