Scotland v Wallabies at Murrayfield 12.40am Mon 25 Nov

[John S]

One of the few positives is that we may have a replacement for Marky in Harry Potter, he looked strong and fast.

He was either lucky or skilled in getting the ball down before his leg went dead.

 

[Derpus]

Oh and man did Noah get schooled in the kicking duel. Russell's kicking was beautiful. That combined with our shoddy lineout had us camped in our half most of the game.

 

[Dctarget]

Also good to see Sione is still a lippy fluffybunny years later

 

[Tex]

Jeez you'd love to have Russell and Tuipulotu as your 10-12 combo.

 

[stillmissit]

He was either lucky or skilled in getting the ball down before his leg went dead.

I wasn't referring to the try, I thought his general play was very good. Interested in his tackle stats.

 

[fatprop]

It seems pretty clear Scotland are on the second tier of world rugby and we are still on the third, and next week we get to see what a 1st tier side will do to us

 

[JRugby2]

Oh and man did Noah get schooled in the kicking duel. Russell's kicking was beautiful. That combined with our shoddy lineout had us camped in our half most of the game.

Really impressive to see the acceleration of the Scot midfield when we tried these chip kicks. Some of those behind-the-post camera angles you see them rush out of the D line then turn on a dime to back track.

Kick accuracy would have helped but we really failed to read the game. First 10 we bashed them backwards by pure force - why this was seemingly shelved is beyond me

 

[Tomikin]

Not sure it's quite that definitive, the loss of Faessler so close to kick off in a week where we had little opportunity to train likely had as much or more impact on our lineout. That's pretty clear to me in the fact that are lineout still struggled after Skelton left the field.

I would probably be looking at Frost as his partner in the future though, he has much more capacity to get up above the competition and is better over 80 than Salakaia-Loto.

Edit: Losing Williams so close to kick off won't have helped the lineout either. We aren't a settled enough side to roll with these sudden changes and a disrupted build up all rolled into one.

None of that helps, but we clearly lost some of the defensive pressure, and started losing our lineout ball.. BPA throw well, Pollard needs work but you got to set them up for success and I don't think we did.

 

[stillmissit]

It seems pretty clear Scotland are on the second tier of world rugby and we are still on the third, and next week we get to see what a 1st tier side will do to us

I think we will go better against Ireland, based on nothing, unless we change our D (won't happen) and then I will be optimistic.

 

[John S]

I wasn't referring to the try, I thought his general play was very good. Interested in his tackle stats.

I agree his general play was good too - the try just topped it off, and I think was evidence of his work rate

 

[Tomthumb]

7 missed tackles for Kellaway is atrocious at test level

 

[John S]

Kick accuracy would have helped but we really failed to read the game. First 10 we bashed them backwards by pure force - why this was seemingly shelved is beyond me

Maybe because the ref just let them lie all over the ruck and we weren't getting anywhere with it? But yeah I have no idea why that got shelved.

 

[JRugby2]

Maybe because the ref just let them lie all over the ruck and we weren't getting anywhere with it? But yeah I have no idea why that got shelved.

I disagree we weren't getting anywhere - seemed more so a poor carry or dropped ball was the reason for turn overs, especially in the first quarter. Otherwise we seemed to make metres and suck in defenders every carry

 

[Derpus]

Yeah our carrying in tight was fine. We just never used it properly.

 

[Strewthcobber]

7 missed tackles for Kellaway is atrocious at test level

I reckon that's a little bit unfair on Kellaway. He is being asked to play a role he hasn't done much of, and isn't really suited to, and he did make 15 tackles.

That he was asked to attempt 22 tackles total shows the Scots were really targeting him in our midfield.

We need one of our wingers to be physical enough to defend in close in the line, and there doesn't really seem like there's a good option there at the moment

 

[KOB1987]

View attachment 20813

That's not really what Goosestep was suggesting though. Not suprisingly Fox are exaggerating the issue:

“He’s got a pretty numb arm, but we’re hopeful it’s not too bad,” said Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt.

Horan earlier said: “Initial reports courtesy of the Wallabies’ camp was that he had broken his arm and then throughout the second half we were getting messages saying, ‘Well, we’re not quite sure, maybe it’s not as bad as we first thought’.”

 

[rugbyAU]

One of the few positives is that we may have a replacement for Marky in Harry Potter, he looked strong and fast.

Marky is a lot better

 

[Derpus]

One thing I thought Scotland did a lot and got away with (I think we did it a bit too but just not as successfully) is have tacklers roll into the 9 channel rather than to the side. Gordon was doing hurdles out there.

 

[John S]

One thing I thought Scotland did a lot and got away with (I think we did it a bit too but just not as successfully) is have tacklers roll into the 9 channel rather than to the side. Gordon was doing hurdles out there.

Yeah, that was picked up on the Commentary. It's something I've noticed a few of the NH sides doing over the last few weeks. It just got picked up by the refs in the last two games.

 

[Dctarget]

One thing I thought Scotland did a lot and got away with (I think we did it a bit too but just not as successfully) is have tacklers roll into the 9 channel rather than to the side. Gordon was doing hurdles out there.

We don’t do it as much because we try to pilfer more often. We need the space clear so we can present a clean picture to the ref. If you’re not trying to jackal, but just slow down and set your defence it’s not such a problem.