'These are the kind of nasty, confrontational blokes Scotland need'
When Mohamed Haouas crashed his fist into the titanium-enforced cheek of Jamie Ritchie, the thunderous blow of a melee that plunged France into dreadful hardship, Scotland knew they had the Grand Slam-chasers precisely where they wanted them.
This was a grievous regression, an act of self-harm that spoke of the old France – the France who self-destructed when the pressure came on; the France who let a demonic emotion possess them, scrambling their senses and poisoning their rugby. Haouas’ red card grossly handicapped them.
We hadn’t seen the old France in the brief but brilliant reign of Fabien Galthie. Until they rocked up in Edinburgh, his squad of talented young men had been immensely diligent in their work and disciplined in how they handled adversity. They were callow, sure, but unflappable nonetheless.
The Scots riled and badgered them in a way that England, Italy and Wales could not. For the first time in this tournament, crevices formed in a glistening veneer. Haouas let fly and as his knuckles mangled the features of the Scotland flanker, so too he punched a great big hole in the swelling French bubble.
Ritchie might have been binned himself for aggravating the mighty prop. Nick Haining could have gone for shunting Haouas in the chops, the initial flashpoint that stoked the fire to come. Haining might still find himself in hot water. Certainly, the French management have made firm remonstrations to the citing commissioner about the number eight’s role in it all.
But this was not merely a tale of Scotland needling France until they lost their collective rag. It was a hugely controlled and effective home performance, all the more impressive given the continued absence of Finn Russell.
Tactically, too, it was a big moment for Gregor Townsend, who has been pilloried since a brutal 2019 and hard-luck stories against Ireland and England in 2020. Stuart Hogg got slated for spilling the ball sickeningly over the Irish line in Dublin and guddling over his own whitewash in the lead-up to England’s match-winning score at Murrayfield. Adam Hastings faltered in Rome in the turgid Scottish triumph last time out.
The coach, the captain, and the emerging fly-half come out of this one with major plaudits. Townsend went a little left-field with his selection but picked a team to handle France physically and gave them a blueprint that would expose their flaws with smart kicking and canny defence.
Hastings’ game management was excellent. He kicked some fabulous goals and made a dazzling break for Sean Maitland’s first try. Hogg had a hand in that too, and a bigger hand in Maitland’s second just after half-time. The skipper has been a forceful fulcrum these past two games.
The Scottish pack, though, were at the heart of this rousing afternoon. Even before Francois Cros was binned and Haouas sent off, the home scrummage bossed it. Zander Fagerson is flourishing as a titanic customer on the tighthead side with a voracious work-rate, but most startling this championship has been the searing ascent of Rory Sutherland.
Over three years ago now, the Edinburgh loosehead blew his adductor muscles clean off his pelvis. He spent weeks in a wheelchair unable to sit up, eat or relieve himself without his wife’s assistance, then underwent month after painstaking month of rehabilitation. Sutherland is a frightening specimen of a man – he is well on track to recording a 220kg bench press – but the road to his rightful place in the Test arena often seemed hopeless.
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Jim Hamilton discusses the ramifications of the Six Nations going behind a TV pay wall
Four years after his first clutch of caps, he has come of age as an international, a colossal scrummager and a destructive presence around the paddock. How Scotland longed for a loosehead that could do both. A Lions berth is far from beyond him. The addition of scrum specialist Pieter de Villiers and the rise of Sutherland have been precious.
Behind Sutherland, Grant Gilchrist – restored to the team – put in a chart-topping 23 tackles, five of them dominant hits. Ritchie and Hamish Watson hunted and scavenged like wild dogs, Haining thundered around with and without the ball.
These are the kind of nasty, confrontational blokes Scotland need. They have found their steel and their snarl and no longer are they ripe for the physical bludgeoning by teams, like France, with a big power game. Defensively too, there have been massive strides. Scotland leaked tries like an old colander in 2019, but Steve Tandy has plugged the holes with a new system. There is less emphasis on chasing turnovers at every breakdown and more bodies covering the field as a result.
PLAYER RATINGS
Scotland won, as predicted by the RPI. Here's how we rated the Scottish performance. 👨💻 #SCOvFRA #SixNations https://t.co/LykffaWvxI
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 8, 2020
Incredibly, Scotland have the best defence in the championship, averaging just over twelve points conceded per match. Against Ireland, England, Italy and France, they have shipped a total of four tries. Against the same opposition in 2019, they lost 15. Of course, there are mitigating factors – the Calcutta Cup deluge was hardly conducive to a try-fest – but these are extremely heartening numbers.
On Sunday, Scotland forced France into conceding 13 turnovers, ten more than they lost against Wales and five more than Italy forced in the previous round. Scotland put in 17 dominant tackles. France made only seven, compared to the 28 visited upon Welsh ball-carriers in Cardiff. Their error count bulged as the Scottish defence turned the screw.
There is a caveat to all of this, undoubtedly. France played 53 minutes of the contest with 14 men and over 70 without their stricken play-maker supreme Romain Ntamack at a venue where they last won in 2014. Still, they did not wilt; still, they scored two tries and still, even at the death, they cleaved Scotland open with some beautiful flourishes of attacking abandon. It was a glimpse of the old France, yes, but there was plenty of the new.
'Spooky day' conclusion potentially on the cards for 2020 tournament 👻https://t.co/mgEn3uy1ye
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 10, 2020
The Scottish lineout remains a niggling frailty in need of some surgery. Both Fraser Brown and Stuart McInally threw in squint, even if one of McInally’s lost throws led directly to his rampaging try. And there were absolutely more scores out there for Scotland had they made the most of their field position and opportunities. Really, it should have been a bonus-point win.
Regardless, with this triumph, the whole complexion of the Scotland campaign changes. Win in Wales, and they top the table until such a time as the postponed fixtures are played. They would finish with three victories – the general benchmark for a good Scottish campaign – and two losing bonus points in desperately tight games, all without their most valuable asset, Russell.
Townsend’s position looked decidedly shaky a month ago, shakier still when the details of Russell’s departure detonated across the media. He still has questions to answer, but the pictures are a lot prettier now. He looks to have learned lessons from Japan and appointed smart lieutenants whose impact is tangible already.
Hastings, Ritchie and Fagerson were five years old when Scotland last won in Wales. Townsend was playing that day 18 years back. Wayne Pivac’s team are, like Scotland, in a state of evolution with three losses against Ireland, France and England, two of them very narrow and with some delicious rugby along the way. This will be a fiendishly tight Test. History is against Scotland, but form is not.
WATCH: Joe Marler “nothing more than an egotistical narcissist” – ex-Wales skipper blasts England prop
Comments on RugbyPass
After 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.
29 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 commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to comments