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Ben White: 'It's tough to take any positives right now'

By PA
Press Association

Ben White admits Scotland “fell short” when it mattered as he rued their lack of ruthlessness in the key moments of their Six Nations campaign.

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After kicking off with back-to-back wins over England and Wales, Scotland’s hopes of silverware were dashed by subsequent defeats against the world’s top two sides as they lost 32-21 away to France a fortnight ago and then 22-7 at home to Ireland on Sunday.

Gregor Townsend’s men competed well for large chunks of both of those matches but scrum-half White admits they need to become more clinical if they are to have a chance of defeating the elite nations.

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“It’s tough to take any positives right now because we back ourselves to win and we fell short,” he said. “Ireland were very good, they were accurate when they needed to be.

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“Against the top sides, you’ll get three or four chances and you have to take them all if you want to win.

“Against Ireland we created three or four chances and we took one, and ultimately that cost us in the end. They took their chances and we didn’t.

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“Our accuracy in the final third wasn’t good enough and that’s something we’re going to have to work on going into the Italy game.

“We were in that game until about 55-60 minutes and then they turned the screw on us, which is disappointing.”

Scotland hooker Fraser Brown, who came on for the closing quarter on Sunday, felt Ireland showed their resilience in how they dealt with the challenge of losing their two hookers, Dan Sheehan and Ronan Kelleher, to injury within 50 minutes.

“Ireland adapted very well to losing two hookers in the game,” he said. “It takes something (special) for a side to be able to adapt their game that well and come out with a win.

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“The fact they extended their lead after both their hookers went off, they controlled that situation really well. I’m disappointed we didn’t put more pressure on them though, particularly at set-pieces.”

Brown is adamant Scotland will be able to rouse themselves for their final match at home to Italy.

Although they no longer have a chance of the title, the Scots can land the consolation prize of a top-three finish if they win on Saturday.

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Brown hopes they can deliver a big performance to cap a campaign that promised so much after the opening two games.

“It will be pretty easy to pick ourselves up because we’ve got another big game on Saturday,” he said. “We started the championship really well, with two victories.

“We played really well in parts against France in Paris and did well to work our way back into the game and again against Ireland we played well in the first half and put them under a lot of pressure.

“We know the quality we have within our squad and how well we can play but the next part of the puzzle is putting it all together to produce performances week after week for 80 minutes.

“It’s important to win on Saturday, it’s important to finish as high as possible and it’s important for the growth of the team heading into a big summer.”

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Jon 8 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 11 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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