Ireland internationals rip 'pathetic' Finn Russell and error strewn Stuart Hogg
Former Irish internationals Shane Horgan and Rob Kearney have taken Scotland stars Stuart Hogg and Finn Russell to task over their lame-duck performance against France in Murrayfield.
France have fuelled their grand slam quest and ended Scotland’s Six Nations title dream in a stylish 36-17 win in the Scottish capital.
The French, the only remaining unbeaten team, delivered the killer blows against a strong and defiant Scotland side on Saturday with their third try right on halftime and a fourth try right after the break.
Scotland blew a great chance to lead at halftime but captain Hogg dropped a pass with the tryline gaping.
France rubbed it in when they pressed a tiring Scotland into injury time of the first half and centre Gael Fickou backed himself to beat the flagging cover for a converted try and 19-10 lead at the break.
Then, less than two minutes into the new half, France forced a turnover and the ball was quickly given to wing Damian Penaud.
He chipped ahead, the Scottish over-ran the bounce, and the trailing Jonathan Danty accepted the gift and an easy run-in.
At 26-10, France had a four-try bonus point and sucked the tension out of a packed and hostile Murrayfield, where they hadn’t won since 2014.
Scotland cost France winning the last two Six Nations, but the visitors’ counter-attacking skills and inspired defence earned a measure of revenge by handing the Scots their heaviest defeat at Murrayfield in the championship in seven years.
The French finished with a six-try statement on the road and were halfway to a grand slam and their first title in 12 years with Wales next in Cardiff in two weeks, followed by England in Paris on the last weekend.
But Scotland are out of the title race after a second straight defeat, the opening win over England a distant memory after losses to Wales and the formidable French.
Yet it was the performance of Hogg and flyhalf Finn Russell that animated the Virgin Media Sports TV panel on Irish television.
Shane Horgan didn’t hold back in his assessment of the Scottish captain, branding Hogg non-worldclass due to his propensity to cough up mistakes at crucial moments.
“I think he makes one or two big mistakes every game. I really like the way he plays, I think he’s really exciting. He wants to get involved he makes lots of breaks. He’s really passionate and he’s really committed to Scotland and he works really hard but he makes one or two errors every game. He’s not the complete player.
“He has a little bit of a weakness on his inside shoulder when defending. He has the occasional terrible day on the high ball, which we have seen with the Lions. His positional sense isn’t great. We saw him drop that ball. Even going back a couple of years ago with the try against Ireland which he dropped on the line. They’re crucial errors.
“If you want to be an outstanding, world class player, which I think he is and capable of being, you can’t allow those elements into your game and he consistently does it. As your top player, he can’t.”
Kearney was equally brutal in his assessment of the Exeter Chiefs 15, suggesting his defending is a potential weakness.
“Captain of the team, along with other big key members of this team not stepping up. On the big day, they’re the ones that need to perform,” Kearney said of Hogg. “He’s a fullback who closes the gate early. Teams will know when they’re analysing that he leaves a lot of space in the backfield. He’s caught badly out of position.”
Russell was subjected to an even more brutal appraisal.
Horgan didn’t spare the Racing 92 star, who struggled to make an impact in the face of the French defence and whose errant kick lead directly to a French try in the opening quarter. His effort level for the first try irked Horgan, who won 65 caps for Ireland.
“That is actually pathetic, for your top player, your talisman. Five minutes into the game. He doesn’t have an injury. He’s not fatigued. You’ve got a guy like Rory Darge killing himself around the field,” Horgan said.
“Then you’ve got your best player performing like that. There’s no way any team can win consistently if you’ve got players doing that.
"If Finn Russell counts himself as a really top player, have a look at the best players from the last 10 years.
"Look at Brian O'Driscoll, Dan Carter, Johnny Wilkinson.
"That was patethic." #SCOvFRA #GuinnessSixNations pic.twitter.com/PIv0gYBFXl
— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) February 26, 2022
“It’s like what France were doing in their dark ages. That’s gone out of the French team. You’d never see a Springbok doing that. You’d never see an All Black doing that. If Finn Russell counts himself as a really top player, have a look at the best players of the last ten years. Look at the Brian O’Driscoll’s, the generational players, the Dan Carters’, the Jonny Wilkinson’s. They were so hard working. That was pathetic.”
Kearney tore into Russell, suggesting his Scottish teammates should be irate over the effort.
“When that comes up on the big screen in front of your teammates, and your indirectly saying, ‘I don’t really care about this team'”
“‘I’m not going to work as hard as I can.’ That’s not good enough. It’s humiliating.”
Virgin Media panelist have made a hobby horse of Scotland of late, with former national head coach Matt Williams a regular feature on the show. Recently he ridiculed his former side, saying they need to “shut up”, comments that made it back to Hogg in Scotland camp.
“They have just got to shut up. Until they actually action out and live their talk, they have got to shut up because they are making fools of themselves.
“They have done this for about four years in a row. They win a couple of biggies and then the next week they lose. And each time they come out and say ‘we’re going to win, we’re a great side’. They’re not doing themselves any favours in the rugby world.”
– additional reporting AAP
Comments on RugbyPass
late hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
4 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
24 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
24 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
9 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
9 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
28 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
24 Go to comments