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'There is no one there!': Matt Williams on Scotland's real problem area after Italy loss
Ex-Scotland head coach and Irish TV pundit Matt Williams has dissected Scotland’s problem area in the 31-29 loss to Italy which cost Townsend’s side a chance at the Six Nations title.
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With Ireland losing to England later in the evening, Scotland missed a golden opportunity to set up a deciding clash in the final round of the tournament.
Italy’s attacking kicking game exposed a big weakness in the Scots defence, with debutant Louis Lynagh scoring from a well-weighted grubber and centre
Juan Ignacio Brex latching onto a chip kick in the first half.
“While I’ve got some criticism of the Scotland play, I don’t want to take away from how well the Italians played,” Williams said on Virgin Media Sport‘s post-game show.
“I don’t want to get into the ‘Scotland were lousy that’s why Italy won’, they weren’t. They thoroughly deserved that win.
“The Scottish backfield is a real problem. The French kicked through and scored tries, the Italians scored tries. Your conceding soft tries like that, and they were soft because there is no one there!
“If all you got to do is kick through and pick it up, you are going to keep losing. They’ve got to fix that up.
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“The other part of that, we’ve got to give it to the Italians, the Italian defence in the second half was just vastly superior to what it was in the first half.”
Scotland failed to score a point from the 28th minute until three minutes from time as the Italian resolve stuffed the Scotland attack.
There was however one key self-inflicted blunder from Scotland, a blocking call on prop Pierre Schoeman that ruled out a try.
That resulted in a 14-point swing in Italy’s favour when they scored shortly afterward.
“The Scots fell into, what you said at half-time, they tried to put the game away early and they almost did, they thought ‘we’ve got this’, we thought they’ve got this,” Williams explained.
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“And then that crucial turnaround from a Scottish error. Schoeman comes in, takes out an Italian player, now he may be up for an Academy award. It wasn’t a dive but he certainly made it look worse than it was. That was a 14-point turnaround.
“All of a sudden they looked at the clock and thought we’re in trouble. And they were. Then you add the great Italian tackles. Some really great last-ditch tackles that saved tries.
“One-on-one Capuozzo versus Van der Merwe there. Every time you think Van der Merwe would just bump him off. Great one-on-one tackle to save the try.
“It was courageous stuff from the Italians rather than poor Scottish play.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Why cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
31 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
4 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 Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 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
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
31 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
31 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.
31 Go to comments