Well that was disappointing.
I don't know if it was us or them creating the niggle, but with it being a home crowd I didn't see much pay in us bringing them into things. That first extra 10m penalty they got from the referee and the proceeding 3pts was poor, though in fairness It looked like Potter was trying to get up (he was bridged over the ball) and the Scot could have easily reached under to get at the ball rather that playing at the man.
The first 20mins or so was filled with some excellent gainline and carries, genuinely punching through, but we just didn't covert any of that except for a penalty. The physicality looked great, but we need to do much better at getting some pay for our efforts. For me, it was this period where we lost the game. It's the difference to a higher ranked team like SA who would have converted some of that pressure.
Loosing JAS was unfortunate defintely changed the dimesion of our attack. Next week is going to be interesting now. Not ideal at all.
I don't know if it was more than once, but Tizzano seemed a bit eager at the breakdown without the accuracy of McReight which didn't help on a few occassions.
Our kicking in behind is just not good enough. We turned over ball cheaply on some kicks which were never setup for an easy regather by one of our players. Some of Noah's kicking for touch left a bit to be desired. Would love so see some more length.
Our accuracy and discpline was also generally off. I'd need to go back and check the count, but it felt like we gave away a lot of penalties in this game.
Th maul wasn't where we needed it to be, though I'd like to go back and rewatch a few of those to see what actually happened. The lineout likewise struggled without the extra jumper.
Their first try I also felt was a tad soft. It's not the most original move going over the top for a flying runner, I'm sure I've seen Codie Taylor do if a few times now. We need to be more switched on in those moments.
I also thought overall the referee was pretty average. He let the Scots get away with a lot at the breakdown coming in the side (which I think he called them on once), failing to roll away with any clear intent. I'm fine with the not awarding a player pinned in, but they weren't on most occasions. Our ball slowed down and got messy a number of times. They were also creaping up and looked offside a number of times. The multi replay of Wright was just stupid.
I also found the broadcast rather odd. They didn't switch to the tighter shots as often and there was almost zero replays. Len obviously fet that he's been hit in the head, but who would know as they didn't show any of the action in tight. It felt a bit like the rubbish the French broadcasters used to do.
On the positive, I feel like we're not a mile off being a respectable team with lots of components of our play starting to look good. Generally our ruck work looks to have improved. There were lots of good moments and a number of players had good impact. Players like Gleeson look the be growing and now genuinely bring something off the bench. Skelton definetely brings something to our team and I think has answered the questions about his inclusion in the Lions. I thought Potter had a very solid first showing and strikes me as a smart player a little akin to Kellaway.
Hopefully we can learn from this and put in a good showing with Ireland.