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Expectation levels in Scotland are as high as they have been for several years ahead of a Guinness Six Nations revival.
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The positive vibe north of Hadrian’s Wall is not in keeping with the assertion of those bookmakers who have priced up Gregor Townsend’s burgeoning side as fifth favourites in a six-horse race.
Scepticism from outside is perhaps understandable as Scotland have not won the tournament since 1999, when it was still the Five Nations. Nevertheless, there is a genuine sense that something special is brewing in Scottish rugby at present.
Underpinned by a couple of vibrant club teams in Edinburgh and Glasgow who are rearing an exciting batch of talent to augment top-class operators like Ali Price, Finn Russell, Stuart Hogg and Hamish Watson who went to South Africa with the British and Irish Lions last summer, Scotland are now regularly proving a tough opponent for the world’s top teams.
Ranked seventh on the planet, they have defeated four of their five Six Nations rivals, as well as Australia, over the last 15 months alone. Ireland are the only team in the tournament the Scots have failed to get the better of in this period.
There is respect, but certainly no fear of England – whom they beat at Twickenham last year – or France – beaten in their last two meetings. Recent experience of putting the two tournament favourites to the sword ensures confidence is high within Townsend’s squad.
Give it to me straight doc ?#SixNations2022 pic.twitter.com/5Qvvzmf2zJ
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) January 27, 2022
“It should create belief, and it does, but it’s a new tournament,” said the head coach. “You’ve got to put your game out there and take on these very, very good teams over a seven-week period. Certainly the experiences this team has had should put them in a very good place and full of optimism going into this tournament.”
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For all the big moments Scotland have enjoyed in recent times, the fact remains that they have not troubled the top two in the table since the Five Nations became Six in 2000. Consistency – or lack thereof – has been the stumbling block for a side currently not short on quality.
Last year, for instance, they beat England away, then lost in Wales. They have been perennially unable to get more than three wins from their five fixtures. The challenge is to find the level of collective focus required to turn three tournament wins into four or even five and endorse the notion – developing for some time under Townsend – that Scotland are on the brink of breaking new ground.
“We’d obviously love to win more than three games because if you do that, you’re going to finish in the top two,” said the head coach. “We’ve had experiences, we’ve got the players and we have the belief to do as well as we’ve ever done but we know the teams around us are all playing really well, as they’ve shown in November. It’s going to be as big a challenge as ever, if not even bigger.
“We are on a continual path to improvement. Whether we see that in the Six Nations or beyond, we’ll keeping working hard. We believe that with the group we have, the experiences they have had, and the fact they’ve improved since last year’s Six Nations, that we can win our games, but we know there are going to be challenges throughout this tournament.”
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Comments on RugbyPass
He was in such great form. Sad for him but only a short term injury and it will be great to see him back for the finals.
1 Go to commentsAfter their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
3 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
2 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
34 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
3 Go to comments