From despair to dreamland: Scotland's strength in depth finally comes good
Cast your mind back to March when Scotland, after seeing off Wales and Ireland in the Six Nations, were beaten spectacularly by England 61 – 21.
There was a genuine feeling that unlike other years, this time the Scots could defeat the Auld Enemy. Since the wooden spoon in 2014, they had grown in confidence, gained some world-class players and were proving themselves as a force on the world stage.
But when Fraser Brown was sin-binned for taking England’s Elliot Daly above the horizontal just minutes into the match and Stuart Hogg and his replacement Mark Bennett both departed early with injuries, the team was in disarray. Scrum-half Ali Price at just 5ft 8in had to move onto the wing after hastily discussing with his replacement Henry Pyrgos about which of them was going to give the position a shot.
Tommy Seymour, who had become a talisman on the wing, also had a disastrous day at full-back. The dam which took so many years to build had burst. England scored a flood of tries, painfully exposing Scotland’s lack of strength in depth and ending a realistic dream of winning the tournament in devastating fashion.
On Saturday, when Hogg injured his hip in the warm-up ahead of the final match in the Autumn test series against Australia, memories of that catastrophic day came back to haunt many a Scotland fan. The full-back had been so key in the series and with centre Alex Dunbar out with injury as well, that pit-of-the-stomach feeling struck again as Saracens’ winger Sean Maitland moved to full-back on his international return from injury and one-cap Byron McGuigan stepped into the left wing.
But after 17 minutes, McGuigan showed some impressive football skills to score his first try for Scotland in his first start. He followed it up with another score in the second half when Maitland set him up to touch down in the corner on the hour mark. The Sale man had no idea he was starting until 20 minutes before the match was due to kick-off and his performance was nothing short of outstanding.
Today’s @EdenMill Man of the Match.. @ByronMacG ?? pic.twitter.com/8ItT9LomeJ
— Scottish Rugby (@Scotlandteam) November 25, 2017
And he wasn’t the only newbie to make a good impression on the Murrayfield turf. Stuart McInally was quite possibly the star of the series starting at hooker in every game after struggling to secure a regular place in the squad since missing the World Cup through injury in 2015. His line-out throwing was much-improved and he scored three tries from driving mauls over the course of the series, only two short of the amount veteran hooker Ross Ford has scored in his entire international career. He is now without a doubt the top choice number two.
Fellow front-rower Darryl Marfo didn’t have a club in the summer and emailed Edinburgh Rugby to ask if he could play for them. Any fan would be foolish not to be extremely on edge when he was named in the starting line-up against Samoa in the first test, but he was solid in the scrum throughout the three matches and a great ball-carrier. Prop Jamie Bhatti was also sublime when called upon, even in areas you wouldn’t expect him to be, such as when he made a barnstorming run against Australia which eventually saw Jonny Gray run over for the Scots.
And Glasgow Warriors centre Pete Horne, who has often struggled to get into any real stride in a Scotland shirt, stepped up to the plate in some style when he had to replace Dunbar in midfield after showing himself to be a powerful and reliable replacement in the New Zealand and Samoa tests. He made good breaks, got himself into useful positions and constantly looked hungry for tries, scoring one against the South Sea Islanders in the series opener.
Scotland scored eight tries against the Aussies well and truly putting their World Cup woes behind them with a record-breaking points tally over a Southern Hemisphere side. After coming within inches of beating the All Blacks and scoring six tries against Samoa, it was the best test series the nation had seen for many years.
Every Scotland fan thought that cringe-worthy day in London would still be lingering in the back of the mind come the 2018 Six Nations but it’s safe to say those dark memories are already beginning to fade after Gregor Townsend’s men proved they have more than just 15 weapons in their arsenal.
So often a laughing stock in the past, Scotland now have to be taken seriously and if they can take this form into the Six Nations, there might just be more records broken.
Comments on RugbyPass
Close games are what we want to see…. What a match it was…. I am sure that everyone was drained by the end of it. The reality of it all there has to be a winner and a loser. The fact that we still talking about it is almost 6 months to the day Rugby is the winner.. Asante sana… Here is to 2027 and what it will bring out.
179 Go to commentsIt’s going to be a good game. COYQ
1 Go to comments“Shock”, the guy was casually saying he was just slightly surprised. Nowadays if you say anything it gets taken completely out of context. Calm down everyone.
154 Go to commentsAll I can say after reading this bitter, sour, sad piece is… Thank you very much! This will be read in the change room just before kick off on 31 August…
179 Go to commentsLook, we know contradicting opinions and wacky comments bring readers and clicks, so well done to RP for allowing always-wrong-Ben to say something here. However RP needs to put a disclaimer next to his comments for their own credibility. NZ was and is incapable of acknowledging their opp beating them. They refused so with Ire and with Arg in 2022 and also the Boks in 2023 x 2. Nothing Ben says here holds water, NZ attacked backwards, except when Kolisi and Kolbe was off And cyncialy took out Bongi, we played without lineouts for 75mins. Kolisi and Kurt-Lee almost scored twice. Thats 3 vs 2 for Boks, but the Boks opportunities was legal. Boks should have been 16-3 up by half time. Tacticaly the Boks attacked better defended better scrummed better (without a hooker) kicked better and crossed the whitewash more times. Boks beat Fr Eng Nz to win in 23, comeon give some credit at least. Even Federer Verstappen NY Mets, Mamoa, was able to see a great human sport achievement by the Boks and their DNA Boks #RWC27 !🏉
179 Go to commentsForget the 85kg bit, that can become something else. However I do like the one off test on ANZAC day idea. SR plays Fri/ Sat, test players travel Sunday and the squads have the full week together before playing Saturday. Rest of SR has a week off. Either involve women's teams in same location or in the other country and rotate annually. Herbert is right in that change is needed.
3 Go to commentsI’ve read loads of nonsense before but this article takes the cake. Or perhaps someone changed the date for April Fool's Day.
3 Go to commentsReally Rugbypass? Ben Smith I think you forgot what the Springboks did to the All Blacks at Twickenham 8 weeks earlier? Springboks 35 All Blacks 7. There is alot of ifs and buts in your article. The All Blacks threw the sink at the Springboks and unfortunately they were not good enough regardless if they played with 14 men or not. It was the Springboks who forced the All Blacks to make mistakes! Sorry but not Sorry the Springboks is the best ever Rugby World Cup Nation in the world. 4 Cups baby!
179 Go to commentsYou just backed the Boks with that fantastic review! Well done! Have some cake!
179 Go to commentsBen Smith please write up something better than this. The Springboks would have won the world cup if you were 15 men on the field. They would have found a way, they always find a way to beat the All Blacks.
179 Go to commentsWow, there is a lot of “could have” and “ should have” in this waist of time dribble. I love the desperation in this story to search for a glimpse at a silver lining. Here are the facts, NZ was a badly coached and undisciplined shadow of their former glory. They never took the lead in a game they were never going to win.
179 Go to commentsGOTTA MAKE ‘THE GEORGE’ HAPPEN!!!! That’s a great idea! A trans Tasman midget battle on ANZAC Day. I don’t think the ABs Wallabies game should be a one off winner takes all though, just the first match with the other two later in the year with the RC. Reason being, no one will ever shut up about how aussies couldn’t win it when it was a 3 match series.
3 Go to comments@Ben smith. Thats knock out rugby. So honeslty who cares?
179 Go to commentsIt will interesting to know which Irish players said that…
2 Go to commentsNaaaww boys will be boys! Now run along ya wee scamp! Don’t let us catch you at again😏
1 Go to commentsGreat to have Ethan Blackadder back in the Crusaders in the last few weeks. One of the best all round loose forwards around. He played so well last week against the Rebels. Fantastic attitude Ethan has and his comments are spot on.
2 Go to commentsThe author is 100% right. The Springboks know that they don't have near the natural attraction, mana, skill and mystic the All Blacks have. So, Chasing the sun 1 & 2 was concocted to overblow the Boks image on the back of a corruptly obtained “win". It's marketing ploy to force the Boks delusion as the World's Best. I guess World Rugby is also not to be believed when it came out with an apology about how the final was officiated. And if the 2023 final such a superb game by the Boks, then the Boks crying about Referee Bryce Lawrence for decades is also deserves a laugh. Chase the sun and get burned like a moth. A very well written literary piece that tore the Boks and Chasing the sun farce to shreds. 🖤All Blacks🏉
179 Go to commentsI’d say France was far more hard done by in the 2011 final than the All Blacks in this game. Joubert simply refused to call a penalty against the All Blacks in the last quarter even directing an All Black to drop a ball he picked up in an offside position rather than penalizing him. This article also totally discounts the efforts of PSTD. Ask Jordie how well he played. Or the backup flank who played hooker for the entire game. Siya was also a brilliant tackle by Richie from scoring a blinder. Pollard was also fantastic. Look I don’t like the boks style but the only thing more questionable than the content of this article is the timing of it. Get over it already
179 Go to commentsDad Marty was also a handy rugby player for Linwood back in the day. Great bloke. Sensational softball career.
2 Go to commentsWhat ifs are always dangerous. If you look at the game before Sam cane got sent of SA was dominating. You could make the argument the going down to 14 men rallied the troops and made them have to play to win which is always dangerous.
179 Go to comments