6N 2016: Scotland v England, 6 February

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Billy and Kruis stood out for me.

And Jamie George improved things when he came on.

Farrell should probably move to 10 as ford looks so off the pace.
But farrell annoys me alot. There was NO need for that shove in the back . That sums him up.

I know. Incredible stat and evidence of England keeping it tight and making very few handling errors, amongst other things. The clinical b*&tards. But then again, I could give 'clinical' a go if 2.3 mill was resting on it...

RDW, nickj,

Cheer up - my b*&tards weren't actually that clinical. We may have got the scrum stats down, but the number of brainless, unnecessary penalties we continue to concede beggars belief.

Meanwhile, I continue to be baffled how Scotland never bring their A game to England @ Murrayfield. It always seems to be about breathless scrapping and harrying and nullifying a perceived stronger opponent to try to snatch an heroic victory against the odds: and has felt that way to me since 1990. A more measured, less negative approach would surely see you actually outplay us and get a genuine decisive victory as the better team you often are on paper and recent form.

nickj wrote:I know. Incredible stat and evidence of England keeping it tight and making very few handling errors, amongst other things. The clinical b*&tards. But then again, I could give 'clinical' a go if 2.3 mill was resting on it...

England did knock on a few times but we got the ball and played on under advantage - but yes England did protect the ball well

SimonofSurrey wrote:RDW, nickj,

Meanwhile, I continue to be baffled how Scotland never bring their A game to England @ Murrayfield.

Maybe england don't allow them to bring their A game? Nevertheless, Scotland played way better than they did in their last 2015 6N match at Murrayfield. Hopefully they can play their A game this weekend.

Alex_Germany wrote:

SimonofSurrey wrote:RDW, nickj,

Meanwhile, I continue to be baffled how Scotland never bring their A game to England @ Murrayfield.

Maybe england don't allow them to bring their A game? Nevertheless, Scotland played way better than they did in their last 2015 6N match at Murrayfield. Hopefully they can play their A game this weekend.

Fair enough, but my point is Scotland seem to go into a defensive shell against England at home, whereas the games at HQ are usually more open. England have won the last 3 at Murrayfield by an average of 16-5, but the last 3 at HQ by an average of 28-16. Scotland's last four home wins against England, going all the way back to 'that' game in 1990, were all by just 6 points, and it's 30 years almost to the day since England last got a tonking in Edinburgh.

Not a criticism but - to end where I started - I find this baffling. I can't help but think that if Scotland just played England with less apparent caution they might just surprise everyone, including themselves.

I agree with you 100 per cent SOS and I have thought the same - I was expecting Blood and Gore in the first 10 from Scotland yet it was muted and bland. You have to give England some credit but I was expecting more passion and risk. Last year they lead England at HT at HQ but they never looked in it on Saturday. Before the game there was talk about Scotland being more professional rather than relying on passion alone. I think they threw the baby out with the Malt

Maybe its likened to the ALl Black syndrome. The All Blacks win most of their games in the changing rooms before the game - because of their reputation. Teams fear them.

England aren't the All Blacks....but in Scotlands case they nearly always lose to England. Maybe its a similar thing...their mindset in the changing rooms...regardless of what they are capable on the pitch.

They were just a little too controlled Geordie - there should have been a few wild banshees kicking everything that moved early on and upsetting the oppo. That was the Scotland of old at Murrayfield

England strangled the life out of Scotland. Nothing flash just solid defence for the most part and a good set piece tho we nearly gave it away with Youngs' pass during an attack. Scotland tried hard but were pretty ineffective particularly in the second half.

englandglory4ever wrote:England strangled the life out of Scotland. Nothing flash just solid defence for the most part and a good set piece tho we nearly gave it away with Youngs' pass during an attack. Scotland tried hard but were pretty ineffective particularly in the second half.

Got to agree with this. England just didn't let us get into our game of 'organised chaos'. England closed us down with real intensity, often flirting with or totally disregarding the offside line, but they got away with it, and any team would do the same if they could.

Scotland were poor and made a number of our own mistakes (apparently holding onto the ball seems optional), but a lot of that was also down to the English defence.

EWT Spoons wrote:

englandglory4ever wrote:England strangled the life out of Scotland. Nothing flash just solid defence for the most part and a good set piece tho we nearly gave it away with Youngs' pass during an attack. Scotland tried hard but were pretty ineffective particularly in the second half.

Got to agree with this.  England just didn't let us get into our game of 'organised chaos'.  England closed us down with real intensity, often flirting with or totally disregarding the offside line, but they got away with it, and any team would do the same if they could.

Scotland were poor and made a number of our own mistakes (apparently holding onto the ball seems optional), but a lot of that was also down to the English defence.

This is a worry, because the Welsh defence will get right up into our faces as well. A lot of pressure on Finn Russell to vary his game and pull a rabbit out of the hat. We did break the English defence on 4 or 5 occasions but failed to capitalise, usually losing the ball on contact. I doubt we'll get more opportunities from the Gatland/Edwards machine so we'll need to be more clinical.

funnyExiledScot wrote:

EWT Spoons wrote:

englandglory4ever wrote:England strangled the life out of Scotland. Nothing flash just solid defence for the most part and a good set piece tho we nearly gave it away with Youngs' pass during an attack. Scotland tried hard but were pretty ineffective particularly in the second half.

Got to agree with this.  England just didn't let us get into our game of 'organised chaos'.  England closed us down with real intensity, often flirting with or totally disregarding the offside line, but they got away with it, and any team would do the same if they could.

Scotland were poor and made a number of our own mistakes (apparently holding onto the ball seems optional), but a lot of that was also down to the English defence.

This is a worry, because the Welsh defence will get right up into our faces as well. A lot of pressure on Finn Russell to vary his game and pull a rabbit out of the hat. We did break the English defence on 4 or 5 occasions but failed to capitalise, usually losing the ball on contact. I doubt we'll get more opportunities from the Gatland/Edwards machine so we'll need to be more clinical.

Yeah, I doubt we'll have much more luck tomorrow. As you say we need to be more clinical, I also think we need to be quiicker in general. Our passing was slow and laboured, especially in the 2nd half, which gave the English defence plenty of time to line up. I'm hopeful that now the players have had a couple of weeks together things start to click a bit more. But I think the Welsh will be physical and close us down quickly.