'We should have poked, prodded and fired up the boys more than we did'
Defence coach Matt Taylor has taken the blame for last Saturday’s horror show in Nice after admitting he failed to fire up Scotland before facing France.
Gregor Townsend’s team barely raised a hand to defend themselves as their World Cup preparations began with a feeble display at the Allianz Riviera.
The rampant Les Bleus ran in five tries in a 32-3 drubbing that has left the Scotland faithful fearing for their chances in Japan.
The Scots have now conceded 10 tries in their last two games and with less than a month to go before they jet out to the Far East, there is precious little time to fix the glaring faults in their defence.
Now Taylor – who is in charge of keeping the backline tight – has held his hand up and confessed he failed to sufficiently rouse the team before taking on Jacques Brunel’s powerhouse unit.
? BACK TO WORK | The Scotland squad get to work at our Oriam training base ahead of this Saturday's Summer Test rematch against France at BT Murrayfield ?#AsOne pic.twitter.com/ITv3BU6Rs2
— Scottish Rugby (@Scotlandteam) August 20, 2019
But he has vowed there will be no lack of motivation as they prepare to welcome the French to Murrayfield for Saturday’s return clash.
Asked what went wrong on the Cote d’Azur, the Australian-born former Scotland flanker said: “It’s a little bit about making sure we have the attitude and aggression first and foremost.
“I’ll take that upon myself in that I didn’t get the boys pumped up like we should. These warm-up games we have focused a lot on ourselves rather than the opposition. On reflection, maybe we should have poked and prodded and fired up the boys more than we did.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B1GUHbTo3JO/
“System-wise we still need to make sure that under stress and duress that guys are sticking to systems. We did that in part but in others, we didn’t. The biggest thing was that we didn’t win collisions.
“We were away from home and we just left it up to the players to get themselves in the right frame of mind, and maybe with it being a warm-up game in a nice place like Nice, we just assumed that level of intensity was going to be there and it wasn’t.
“I’ll focus on the area which I’m involved in – defence – and that’s the area where we need to front up. All the best teams in the world are the best team defensively, and we didn’t show that on the weekend. I’m the most gutted out of anyone in the team, or probably in the country because that’s my job to make sure we do that.
'Gregor will be making decisions that will count against some people' https://t.co/oCcUD6m7hi
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) August 19, 2019
“So, I made it pretty clear that we fell below the standards, including myself, and I’ll take that on the chin. I need to make sure the boys are up for it this weekend.”
Townsend is set to ring the changes to his starting XV and Taylor has seen evidence elsewhere that has convinced him Scotland can bounce back to beat Les Bleus.
The moment Rory Hutchinson #1104 and Scott Cummings #1105 were presented with their first caps in the changing room.
Congratulations to both players who started their Scotland journey in Nice after impressive seasons at club level. pic.twitter.com/zqAw9qZFJ1
— Scottish Rugby (@Scotlandteam) August 19, 2019
He added: “We have spoken about it and used the recent example of New Zealand getting beat by Australia by 46 points and then the next week they turned it around and got a nil result.
“Wales against England was very similar this week. England put 33 points on Wales but they turned it around to win by six points and that’s what we’ve got to do. We have the opportunity to right the wrongs of last week.”
– Press Association
WATCH: Part one of Operation Jaypan, the two-part RugbyPass documentary on what the fans can expect to experience at the World Cup in Japan
Comments on RugbyPass
The best outside centre in the world at one point. He will be greatly missed.
2 Go to commentsYip his great for the big moments when needed as a safa really enjoy watching him
4 Go to commentsOne that will start to come up from now on is penalties for back pushes during kick chase scrambles. Very difficult to detect. In Croke Park if you replay the Hendy NH try, you will see Furbank push Porter in the back, who collides with Larmour knocking the ball across into Hendy’s path to dot down. A more significant example was in the RWC QTR final where Arendse pushes Fickou into two other French players for the ball to spill into Arendse’s path for him to gather and run in to score SAs first try. Not cheating if you are not caught and very difficult to spot but with kicking becoming so critical I feel its an area that will referreeed/TMO-ed more.
3 Go to commentsWhat a pathetic little twit Andy Goode is, as if we care what he thinks…..😂
114 Go to commentsFoxy has been a wonderful player for the Scarlets and Wales.
2 Go to commentsNika the Georgian is the best referee in the world at the moment. Luckily we will be spared the shite SH refs and Barnes will hopefully remain retired given how shite and embarrassing he was at the RWC.
3 Go to commentsThis is the most exciting game of the summer imo, as we really won’t know in advance how both teams are going to play. - Will Robertson just reproduce his Crusaders tactics from last year, or will there be a conscious effort to borrow from the Hurricanes and Blues, and from the aspects of the ABs world cup strategy that worked well? - England under Borthwick have put in some good performances playing attacking rugby, and some good performances playing kick-oriented defensive rugby. Will Borthwick try to merge them together into a single all-court game, or will he continue switching between different approaches depending on the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition?
1 Go to commentsI’m predicting an aggregate points difference of no more than +/-10pts across both matches this series.
1 Go to commentsI’m predicting an aggregate points difference of no more than +/-10pts across both matches this series.
9 Go to commentsFinals are always tense affairs for the players so I do not expect this to be a spectacle of running rugby unfortunately.
3 Go to commentsBulls***': Ex-England international calls out Eben Etzebeth… Not to his face but from very far away… after he’d left. Checked to make sure he wasn’t in the building.
114 Go to commentsHopefully this will mean a new Auckland league team to support in the west. Big Warriors fan but it’s very, very stale on that front and I’d like the option of another team if it was to watch league again. League needs to step up BIG time if its to get anywhere, another AK team and something from the capitol or south is a must for the game.
3 Go to commentsGood, deep interview, nice job Frankie!
1 Go to commentsNRL players don’t have anywhere near the number of Tests. Some people would be happy having Rest Homes full if 40 yo ex-players walking, or hobbling more like it, into walls. It’s just a game!
4 Go to commentsNOW Razor is worried about ABs getting injured or overplayed! Didn’t bother him last year. He happily played his AB Crusaders.
4 Go to commentsWhat is the World Rugby U20 players born year.
2 Go to commentsMuch like the Chiefs finally gave up waiting for Atu Moli to ever not be injured, you have to wonder if the Chiefs and Crusaders will let Josh Lord and Ethan Blackadder go next season. They’re being well paid to sit in the injury ward every year. Better off putting those funds towards someone who might actually play.
7 Go to commentsShowed better basic skills than some nz Super sides, who probably would have botched some of those backline moves. This tournament really is too short though. Needs more teams, or have them play two rounds to properly prepare them for the near full-time NH U20 sides.
4 Go to commentsGood grief it’s only six months. Probably just upset it’s not an established kiwi entering their prime they can “project” into green to join the rest.
3 Go to commentsGood player but far from being best in the world. That's an exaggeration. Perhaps Best in world by Northern Hemisphere standards and biasis but certainly not Southern Hemi standards
4 Go to comments