“Unacceptable.”
That is Andy Robinson’s blunt appraisal of his Scotland side’s miserable display as they lost 24-6 to Wales at Murrayfield.
Replacement back Sean Lamont went even further saying: “It was abysmal; the boys need to go away and have a good look at themselves.
“The players owe it to the coaches and the fans. I’m sick of having this year after year, valiant losers or whatever.
“We need to pull our fingers out. There have been too many games gone by where we have been also rans.
“It’s not good enough.”
Lamont, probably the only player to come out of the game with a positive performance has hit the nail on the head. Once again Scotland managed to put in an impressive and plucky performance against France in Paris, albeit a losing one, and then follow it up with a crushingly poor one against Wales.
The Welsh were better than they were against England a week ago. James Hook brought dynamism to the playmaker role, the back row was impressive and Jamie Roberts looked much more like his old self, although he spent the day running at, or indeed through, the defensive open door that is Dan Parks.
They were not however, a team that should be winning test matches away from home by eighteen points.
Scotland looked lost and without a plan. They shuffled sideways until they were tackled and then proceeded to throw ineffectual offloads until they were turned over or spilled the ball. Sam Warburton, the Welsh openside has received a lot of praise for his work at the breakdown and quite rightly, he is the closest a northern hemisphere has to the majestic Aussie David Pocock. However, Scotland made life easy for him, frequently getting isolated and allowing the master poacher to get his hands on the ball.
The two occasions that Scotland did manage to build up any meaningful spells of possession, they eventually got bored and cross kicked. Both times they turned the ball over.
It was a return to the bad old days for Dan Parks. So assured a year ago, his decision making was deeply flawed, his defence nonexistent, a fact that Wales exploited and even his kicking, normally his great strength, was poor. Which begs the question – when is Andy Robinson going to give Ruaridh Jackson a chance? If you can’t try him out when the game is in such desperate need of an injection of something, anything from the Scots and the incumbent is playing as poorly as Parks was, he will never get his chance. I’m not saying that bringing Jackson on would have changed anything but Scotland have got to give him a shot because Parks on present form simply will not do.
As stated earlier, the only player to come out of it was Sean Lamont who looked like the dynamic, dangerous runner he was when he first appeared on the international scene. He even made a brilliant try saving tackle on Jamie Roberts when the rest of his team appeared to have given up. He must start against Ireland as well as his brother Rory who should have been at full back for the opening two games anyway in place of Hugo Southwell. The Stade Francais man has long been ineffectual for Scotland and his selection ahead of the younger Lamont is baffling.
One poor performance does not make this current crop of Scottish players a bad one. Results up until now have been pretty good and hopefully they can bounce back against Ireland in two weeks. They really have to otherwise things will go from bad to worse as they face we still need to play a rampant English team. Whatever happens, this display against Wales will hang heavily on Scottish rugby fans for the next two weeks and Andy Robinson as well. It’s not going to be enough to be plucky losers now, results are essential.
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