Scotland Internationals - Game Week

First topic message reminder :

Scotland's 2017 Autumn Series



Saturday 11 November: Scotland v Samoa, Murrayfield Stadium (kick-off 14.30 GMT), live on BBC 1

Saturday 18 November: Scotland v New Zealand, Murrayfield Stadium (kick-off 17.15 GMT), live on BBC 2

Saturday 25 November: Scotland v Australia, Murrayfield Stadium (kick-off 14.30 GMT), live on BBC 1

Injury List

G Laidlaw
R Gray
J Barclay
M Bennet
A Dickinson
A Dell
G Reid
F Brown
R Ford
D Taylor
M Scott
A Ashe
S Maitland
J Hardie ( )

Scotland Squad here>>>>

https://i.servimg.com/u/f62/17/25/81/46/at17_s10.jpg

That is an issue. But he made it through his comeback at the weekend (however, short it was). If he can show in training this week that he's ok, then he could easily take a place on the bench.

Hello Scott's

What are your hopes for the autumn internationals?
What would you see as a success?
Any new players you have high hopes for?

And good luck

Scots with only one "T"  Scotts are the maker of porage oats ( no "D")

We should beat Samoa, give NZ a good game and not be thumped, hope to beat Aus which we have done a few times recently

WE have a settled playing and management team, we have some top quality players, we rare getting used to winning games. Front row is looking a bit thin tho and I expect trouble in the scrums

Especially in the backs we have some really exciting players and for once not too many injuries.  Look out for a game played at a pace unmatched in the NH.  We will not kick ball away routinely, we will attack from deep when you kick to us, we will continue to play a high risk high reward style.  There will be lots of offloads, quick taps and trick plays

Players to watch out for:

Russell pulling the strings at 10 with an array of skills unmatched anywhere - he will create things out of nothing, he will make mistakes
Jones in the centre
Watson in the back row being a ruddy nuisance
Hogg counter attacking
Fagerson senior an absolute beast in the loose
Ickle Jonny being a brick wall

TJ is a little bit more optimistic than I am! The front row is a real concern for me - as Glasgow have shown if you don't have parity up front you can really struggle against the big boys. I was worried about the centres too until Dunbar miraculously regained his fitness, so we're looking stronger there now with him paired with Jones.

So if we get a comfortable win over Samoa, a respectable defeat to NZ (less than 20 points!) and beat Australia I think it can be classed as a great success. The Aus game is a difficult one to call though - we beat them last time in Aus but they've also just beaten NZ! There is a fair chance we will lose that game but I at least hope we can put in a performance that can be built upon - I don't think it should be classed as a failure if we lose to them as they will still be the favourites. Due to injury we're lacking depth in some positions so we may not have our strongest XV available by the 3rd game either (same can be said for Aus).

I can't say I agree that we have a settled coaching team - they only took over in the summer and a lot of the players weren't involved in that tour. They are settled in that the coaches have general worked together previously, but this is a whole new adventure for the national team

RDW_Scotland wrote:TJ is a little bit more optimistic than I am! The front row is a real concern for me - as Glasgow have shown if you don't have parity up front you can really struggle against the big boys. I was worried about the centres too until Dunbar miraculously regained his fitness, so we're looking stronger there now with him paired with Jones.

So if we get a comfortable win over Samoa, a respectable defeat to NZ (less than 20 points!) and beat Australia I think it can be classed as a great success. The Aus game is a difficult one to call though - we beat them last time in Aus but they've also just beaten NZ! There is a fair chance we will lose that game but I at least hope we can put in a performance that can be built upon - I don't think it should be classed as a failure if we lose to them as they will still be the favourites. Due to injury we're lacking depth in some positions so we may not have our strongest XV available by the 3rd game either (same can be said for Aus).

I can't say I agree that we have a settled coaching team - they only took over in the summer and a lot of the players weren't involved in that tour. They are settled in that the coaches have general worked together previously, but this is a whole new adventure for the national team

I look at this list of ambitions and think about how far we've come.

Currently 6th in the world and 10 years ago, our ambitions for this AI series would have been as follows:

vs Samoa - try to face the right way, try for fewer than 20 players injured, try not to look too scared, try to score one of those try things

vs New Zealand -  try to look at the haka without crying, try to keep the score to within 60 points (at which point we can declare unequivocal victory)

vs Australia - try not to think about how much better looking their female fans are, try not to poop ourselves when their backline run at us, try to keep the score to within 40 points

Yeah we're getting a bit battered in the forwards these days.

Our first choice LH is cabbaged
Or first two choices at hooker are cabbaged
Our first chice TH is coming back from being cabbaged
One of our first choice locks is cabbaged

In the backrow we just don't know who should be playing where. We've got players who have or are suspended.

Our current captain (John Barclay) is coming back from being cabbaged. Our Captain before that (Laidlaw) is cabbaged.

Our inside centre has just come back from being cabbaged. Our outside centre was cabbaged for a long time and has been playing in Sarf Afreeka

One of our two first choice wingers is cabbaged.

Our first choice Stuart Hogg has just come back from being cabbaged and our depth in the Stuart Hogg position is lacking.

Over the summer I had high hopes of a good win over Samoa, a hard fought win over Oz and a good showing but ultimately defeated by the ABs. Now I'm worried that Samoa could break more of our players and push us close. I can't see us having enough in the tank to complete with NZ and we'll get blown away. Then we'll have players held together with duct tape against the Ozzies and it'll be a bridge too far.

I've been known to be wrong in the past though!

AI Hopes
- Put Samoa to bed by 15+
- Beat NZ
- Beat Aus by greater than 7 and not look like losing in the last 20

AI Expectations/Success Criteria
- Beat Samoa more comfortably than the scoreline suggests
- Stay within a shout of NZ until the last 20 when NZ score a try to flatter the scoreline
- Beat Aus

Players I am not so concerned with debuts as those with only a couple of caps. In particular
- Toolis to establish himself as the 3rd choice lock behind the Grays
- Berghan to get an opportunity and establish he is international quality (and be a rival as a starter to Fagerson for the next 8 years)
- Sutherland to do ok and not get injured after such a long layoff