Scotland's madcap, glorious truth? This was no heist
At the end of it all, rain lashing at his brow and pride erupting in his heart, Stuart Hogg sank to his haunches and stared into the ether, shaking his head and grinning at the sheer enormity of what his Scotland team had just achieved.
At long last, the Twickenham ramparts had been stormed. The empty, cavernous bowl reverberated with the screams of a gaggle of berserk Scotsmen. Saturday was extraordinary for so many reasons – the surreal ease with which Scotland bossed one of rugby’s greatest teams; the deserted seats in sharp contrast to the bonkerdom of the celebrations on the turf; the thunderous banishing of a hoodoo that has stretched nearly forty years.
Contrast. #ENGvSCO #SixNations pic.twitter.com/EussgmAgHR
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) February 7, 2021
Every time this fixture comes around, the spectre of 1983 looms. The last time Scotland ventured south to Twickenham and returned home triumphant. Every other season, the television packages, the press conferences, the column inches – the whole narrative – is shaped by the bleak history of Scottish doom. Twickenham was their haunted house, a graveyard of ghosts and despair. No longer.
In that moment, as he squatted in the deluge, Hogg was like a schoolboy who had just gotten away with setting off the fire alarm; an artist who had pulled off his greatest performance; a bank robber escaping with his bounty.
But this was no heist. Scotland dominated every facet of the game and the five-point margin of victory is not a true reflection of their supremacy.
In analysing the performance, you could name-check every member of the Scottish squad. Nobody underperformed. If pressed to speak about the stars of the show, you’d go to Hamish Watson, a true colossus at the breakdown who bested the much-vaunted Tom Curry, scrapped and hounded and bludgeoned England into all manner of strife. It is fitting that Watson, like a wolf pouncing on a lemming, grappled the ball back with the clock red and laced it into the stand.
Jonny Gray, too, was an immense performer. It is easy – too easy – to take his unremitting excellence for granted. Because Gray routinely makes 20+ tackles and 20+ carries a game, such numbers cease to become remarkable. He is a victim of his own relentlessness and he was utterly brilliant on Saturday. Since joining Exeter Chiefs, Gray has added telling little subtleties to his play that make him a horrible opponent to quell, and more snarl on the carry. He was the game’s premier second row.
Alongside Gray, Scott Cummings was an athletic powerhouse. Rory Sutherland and Zander Fagerson scrummaged well and showed up strongly in the close-quarter skirmishes. Matt Fagerson, still just 22, was a dynamic brute with ball in hand.
George Turner came in to 2021 as Scotland’s third-choice hooker, and then both Stuart McInally and Fraser Brown were struck down. Doubts were raised about his throwing, and how it might crumble in the white-hot arena of Twickenham with a yelling and flapping Maro Itoje filling his vision. Scotland did not lose a single of their fifteen line-outs. Turner carried like a beast.
Not a bad debut @camredpath pic.twitter.com/gJlaPQ7QRz
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) February 6, 2021
The story of Cam Redpath and his toing and froing between Scotland and England dominated the coverage in the week. At 21, on his Scotland debut, the Bath centre swaggered around like a centurion. Hogg infused his usual display of booming spiral punts and shrewd decision-making with a little of the flair that Scotland need to produce more. Few wingers would finish from the position where Duhan van der Merwe smashed his way across for the only try of the Test. The hulking Edinburgh man is a tremendous and rare attacking weapon. Finn Russell blew more hot than cold, but despite his magnificence, he has work to do to convince Warren Gatland he is a Lions Test 10.
In the coaching box, Shaun Edwards is lavished with praise for his work as the game’s premier defence man, and for the outstanding job he is doing with France. But Steve Tandy deserves huge recognition what he has achieved in Scotland. Since being hired before last year’s Six Nations, Tandy has instilled a new defensive system that has made the team fiendishly hard to penetrate when they are on their game. They had the best defence in the 2020 edition and they are the first team to restrict England to six points or fewer in eight years. Twelve, if you only count home matches. And, as pointed out by journalist Robert Rees on Twitter, the last time England scored six or fewer at home in a championship match was in 1988.
Townsend is all about the collective over the individual, but he must allow himself a moment of self-satisfaction. After the horrors of the World Cup, there were plenty calls for him to lose his job. Since then, he has led Scotland to a win over France, a first victory in Wales since 2002, and this maiden triumph at Twickenham for 38 years.
He has entirely reinvented Scotland’s style of play from the ‘fastest rugby in the world’ that defined the early part of his reign. And, you fashion, he had to accept that his blueprint – indeed, the very way he feels the game should be played – was not working. That cannot have been easy. Townsend has evolved and so has his team.
When you look at the match more closely, the numbers are astonishing. In the Six Nations era, Scotland have conceded an average of 38 points per Calcutta Cup match at Twickenham. On Saturday, they shipped six.
When did England last fail to make a single line break in a Test match – any Test match – let alone one at home against a team they habitually batter? When were they starved of ball so suppressively, to the extent they finished with 37% possession? They were forced to make 192 tackles – nearly twice as many as the Scots. They leaked 15 penalties and Scotland should have punished their indiscipline with more scores.
And that’s the madcap truth – it should have been more. As insane as it sounds, there were tries out there that Scotland could not take and opportunities they squandered to squeeze the last air from English lungs. For all that England had possession and a chance to win it with the clock red, there was never any real sense of impending doom, nor even the merest indication that they might have it in them to score a try.
England were poor, no doubt. In five years under Eddie Jones, they may never have played so meekly, looked so hopelessly bereft of ideas in the face of ravenous defence. Their deadly strike runners barely touched the ball. They were shorn of big players, but for a country of such rich resources, that is no excuse. Jones will shoulder the public blame for it all, but in private, he must be asking serious questions of his men. England were miles off it in so many areas.
But this, emphatically, was Scotland’s day. Townsend’s day. The coach was nine years old when Twickenham was last ransacked. Scores of players have come on to the scene, embarked on long and distinguished careers, and retired without making it happen. Gavin Hastings, Chris Paterson, Gary Armstrong, Tom Smith, Rob Wainwright, Simon Taylor, Finlay Calder, John Barclay, David Sole, John Jeffrey, Alan Tait – these are giants of the Scottish game. Some were Grand Slam winners. Some were Five Nations champions. Some, victorious Lions. None of them tasted the sweet nectar of victory at Twickenham. That is the scale of what Scotland have done.
At last, we can all shut up about 1983 and the slew of shellackings, heartache and general torture that has transpired since. The future for this Scotland team is bright. The Lions tour, if it happens, is a realistic carrot for a good chunk of them, but it will take more than one humdinger against a ghost of an England side to compel Gatland. Their English, Welsh, and Irish counterparts have been racking up the performances, victories and trophies for a huge while longer.
Still, this tournament hasn’t opened up so much as been blown apart with a bazooka, such is the magnitude of Scotland’s glory. Wales at home come next for, and while they will now be seen as favourites, Wayne Pivac has a team laden with champions and Lions. There is a long and arduous road ahead, but for Scotland, the opportunities now are exhilarating.
Comments on RugbyPass
The hell with this constant regurgitation of what this pretty boy is doing. For all I care he might as well be doing a Jamie Oliver cooking course. Rugby is not a progression toward the NFL, which, given its prominence in your reporting, you appear to regard as the ultimate contact sport. It has virtually nothing to do with rugby, and forever may that remain the case. I know that if I don’t like it I don’t have to read it, but I’m sick of seeing this dishwater-dull nonsense.
1 Go to commentsGuys Eben did not mean it in a ugly way as it’s just a feeling he had. We Safas rate the All Blacks and no Bok player wants to play NZ in a Knockout game
140 Go to commentsHe basically described who Aaron Smith also considers the GOAT 9….the one & only Fourie du Preez😎
3 Go to commentsI’m hoping that the Reds can win their last 4 games with a couple of try bonus points. The pessimist in me wouldn't be surprised if the Drua and the Tahs knock the Reds over. The Reds may end up ruing the fact they were distinctly 2nd best against the Force and just so clunky against Moana Pasifica. The Brumbies should win all their remaining games with some bonus points giving them at least a top 2 finish as the leading Kiwi sides will take points off each other. How the Brumbies handle the fact that they will be expected to beat the Crusaders will fascinate me. You’d probably have to go back to 2001 for the last time the Brumbies would go into a game against the Crusaders odds on to win.
7 Go to commentsFree to air is the key to fan expansion. I attended last weeks game at Suncorp (Reds v Blues) and the total cost is prohibitive to most people that wish to attend. Two tickets $130, parking (event day gouging) $75, road tolls $20, dinner beforehand $130, plus some petrol and a beer inside the stadium and a single game starts to cost $300-400. Who can afford that week in week out, I’d love to go more but could only afford this one game to see the Blues, I’d have loved to have seen more NZ teams here but I’d need to stop eating or sell a kidney.
21 Go to commentsBrumbies are looking good and if they keep their home form up a final is not beyond the realms of possibility. They showed against the Hurricanes exactly how clinical they can be as they absorbed pressure in that contest while also scoring points and applying their own pressure. Reds are well placed as well but need to find consistency. They are building a longer term project with a young side and plenty of quality players. Been surprising to see the strength of Aussie sides this year after the debacle of the world cup. Have NZ sides gotten weaker? Have Aussie sides gotten stronger? A bit of both I would say. Whatever the case its good to see some actual competition between NZ and Aus sides again and thats exactly what the fans wanted and is probably driving better viewership numbers. All of this can only be healthy for Aus and Super Rugby and I hope the Brumbies go all the way.
7 Go to commentsDead time reductions are important as is ball in play time increases. Premiership leads the way in terms of ball in play and Northern refereeing standards around the breakdown has sped up the game significantly. Super Rugby is trying new things but its not leading the way in terms of making gains in reducing dead time and ball in play time. Northern administrators are also not against speeding up the game, on the contrary they want a faster game and have been trying things and are embracing increasing the speed of rugby. Super Rugby isnt providing a blueprint for anything, its just part the agreed upon blueprint that administrators across the world are moving to.
21 Go to commentsSome interesting stats that just proved what my first impression of NZ’s drive to speed up Rugby Union would amount to - fine margins here and there to cut a few seconds off the game and nothing else. To do more there would have to be wholesale changes to the game like doing away with scrums, lineouts and bringing back the ELV’s to have free kicks instead of penalties. Very little chance of it happening but, in the end, Ruby Union would be a 15-man version of Rugby League. There are reasons why Rugby Union is globally more popular that Rugby League and what NZ are also not considering is the unintended consequences of what they want to achieve. This will end up turning Rugby Union into a low value product that will not be acceptable to the paying public. If people really wanted a sped-up version of rugby, then why is Rugby Union globally way more popular than Rugby League? Rugby lovers all over the world are also not stupid and have seen through what NZ are trying to achieve here, selfishly to bring back their glory days of dominance over every other nation and compete with Rugby League that is dominant in Australasia. NH countries just don’t have the cattle, or the fantastic weather needed to play like NZ SR franchises do so good luck to whoever has to try and convince the NH to accept going back to the days of NZ dominance and agreeing to wreck the game in the process. I have serious doubts on the validity of the TV stats presented by GP. All they did was expand the broadcasting base by putting it on free to air, not even any indication of arresting the continued drop in viewership. Match day attendance goes hand in hand with broadcast ratings so if there was an increase in the one you should expect to see it with the other. However, the drop in match day attendance is very evident to the casual highlights package viewer. The only club who looks to be getting solid attendance is the Drua. I am calling it now that NZ’s quest to speed up the game will fail and so will the vote on the 20-minute red card.
21 Go to commentsAll of these media pundits always miss the obvious whenever they analyse what is ailing or assisting the game. Rugby always has contentious points for debate when picking apart individual games and finding fault with itself. All this focus and scrutiny on “speeding up the game”, “high ball in play” etc is all contextual to the fan. As a tv viewer, if you’re absorbed into a game, regardless if your team is playing or not, more ball in play time and action are all byproducts of the contest. A good contest subliminally affects your memory in selectively remembering all the good aspects. A poor contest and your brain has switched off because its a blowout and the result is never in doubt or it’s a real chore to watch and remain engaged throughout. The URC, Top 14 and English premiership are all competitions that feel like there’s real jeopardy each week. The dominance of Super rugby by NZ teams was unhealthy from a sustainable interest perspective. You can’t fault those teams or the players, but the lack of competitions won by SA and Australian teams long term was always going to test the faith and patience of die-hard and casual fans from those regions. SANZAR took their eye off the fans and fans voted with their feet and subscriptions. They were so concerned about expanding their product they forgot the golden rule about broadcasting live sport. Viewers tune in more when there’s an atmosphere and a true contest. You need to fill stadiums to create one, host unions need to do more to service ticket buyers, and this year proves the other, there’s more interest in Super rugby this year only because more games are competitive with less foregone conclusions. All these micro statistics bandied about, only interest the bean counters and trainspotters.
21 Go to commentsThe match experience still sucks at SR games, irrespective of the game being a little quicker. Rugby has to compete with so much in the modern world, if you’re going to get people to leave their houses and pay to watch a game in winter then the experience has to be worthwhile.
21 Go to commentsIt’s a good, timely wake up call for NZ Rugby (seem to be a few of them lately!) - sort out the bureaucratic nonsense at board level. We can’t expect to stay the number one option without keeping fans/players engaged. We’ve obviously been bleeding players to league for years but can’t let the floodgates open (although I think this headline is hyperbolic as it’s a result of a recent Warriors pathways system where they are tracking things more closely) Understand the need to focus boys on rugby if they’re at a proud rugby school too, don’t think it’s harsh at all re Barakat in Hamilton. Reward the committed players with squad positions. An elite 1st XV system in NZ has done more for league than they even realise, think it’s good to protect our game further.
6 Go to commentsDon’t pay a blind bit of notice to Lukie… he likes the sound of his own voice and is always looking for something controversial to say. He has been banging on about Leinster's defensive system all season like he knows something Jacques Nienebar doesn’t. Which is the reason why he didn’t apply for the job obviously
16 Go to commentsWho got the benefits out of Schmidt, Lowe, Aki, and Gibson Park?
16 Go to commentsWhat’s new its a common occurrence, just the journos out there expecting a negative spin. The outcome will be beneficial to jordie and Leinster. The home grown lads hav got some experience to step up to and be more competitive, that or spend the 6 months keeping the bench warm.
16 Go to commentsI’m all for speeding up the game. But can we be certain that the slowness of the game contributed to fans walking out? I’m not so sure. Super rugby largely suffered from most fans only being able to, really, follow the games played in their own time zone. So at least a third of the fan base wasn’t engaged at any point in time. As a Saffer following SA teams in the URC - I now watch virtually every European game played on the weekend. In SR, I wouldn’t be bothered to follow the games being played on the other side of the world, at weird hours, if my team wasn’t playing. I now follow the whole tournament and not just the games in my time zone. Second, with New Zealand teams always winning. It’s like formula one. When one team dominates, people lose interest. After COVID, with SA leaving and Australia dipping in form, SR became an even greater one horse race. Thats why I think Japan’s league needs to get in the mix. The international flavor of those teams could make for a great spectacle. But surely if we believe that shaving seconds off lost time events in rugby is going to draw fans back, we should be shown some figures that supports this idea before we draw any major conclusions. Where are the stats that shows these changes have made that sort of impact? We’ve measured down to the average no. Of seconds per game. Where the measurement of the impact on the fanbase? Does a rugby “fan” who lost interest because of ball in play time suddenly have a revived interest because we’ve saved or brought back into play a matter of seconds or a few minutes each game? I doubt it. I don’t thinks it’s even a noticeable difference to be impactful. The 20 min red card idea. Agreed. Let’s give it a go. But I think it’s fairer that the player sent off is substituted and plays no further part in the game as a consequence.
21 Go to commentsThose are pretty good draws for the two top Aussie teams. I certainly wouldn't want my Chiefs to have a quarter final in Brisbane. None of the top teams will want the Crusaders.
7 Go to commentsHonestly, I am a bit lost here …. Ireland - RSA was (at least in my opinion) perhaps (from a purely technical / rugby-skills-show point of view) the pinnacle of the RWC2023 - almost flawless playing (putting aside the kicking of RSA which was the difference between the two teams), rugby at it’s very best …. if I were a Bok and after the game some Irish lads came around saying “see you in 5 weeks same place”, I definitely wouldn’t have thought of it as being in any way “arrogant”, rather a sort of jolly “if we both continue to play like this, no one could stop us” - besides, few of us fans would have, at that time, been surprised to see the same teams playing on 23 september and 28 october 2023 ….. well, we all know Ireland chose to hit a slump to keep the QF curse alive …..
140 Go to commentsThere’s value gleaned from having an All Black star running and training with your team. How many games he starts (or even where he plays in the backline) will be decided on a week by week basis based on the needs for that week. But the overall learning and growth for all concerned, I’d think, is massively beneficial. Especially for Irish players.
16 Go to commentsSon, whith just " raw athlete “ , you are able to beat “ better rugby players “ by 74 points…. May be England should recruit in athletics….
1 Go to commentsPffft. It’s not a one-way street bud and Irish teams don’t seem to have had an issue taking kiwi players previously.
16 Go to comments