The team Scotland’s head coach names today to face Wales on Saturday may not show too many changes to those who lost 18-9 to France, but there were hints during his post-match assessment that he is already becoming frustrated with the limitations of at least some of that personnel.
His admission that Phil Godman had been replaced by Hugo Southwell because of the need to get out of their own territory was one thing. That he praised the French for their capacity to “play in different ways” while identifying that as “the work we’re looking to do with the Scotland team”, was another.
Godman did not play badly on Sunday, but while technically excellent in many aspects, there is never a feeling that he is about to throw the opposition into disarray. In tennis parlance, there is no big weapon. Scotland, under Godman’s direction, prod and probe provocatively without ever really looking like doing real damage.
That is not just down to him. Scottish international teams do not react well enough when breaks are made in either direction and even when they do react well, they have neither the off-loading ability to maintain defence-stretching continuity nor the finishing pace or power to score from long range.
Several made encouraging contributions, not least the Glasgow Warriors’ back row and their clubmates the Evans brothers, while Thom’s fellow winger, Sean Lamont, also looked to be back at something close to his best. Chris Paterson buzzed around willingly at both full-back and stand-off while Chris Cusiter, like his back row, never stopped battling.
However, another major concern is that, not for the first time, there was an impression that when Scotland’s players are asked to focus on developing their game in one area, they tend to let slip the things they had been doing well previously.
A team who were almost entirely dependent on defence when beating Australia in the autumn had trumpeted their desire to improve their attacking play in this championship. Somehow that made it almost inevitable that two poor lapses in defending too narrowly gave the French the chance to out-flank them.
Dan Parks may be seen as a one-dimensional player, but whether or not he is being considered for this weekend, his reintroduction at some stage in this championship will be inevitable if all of that does not change.
Even if we do Parks the injustice of suggesting he might be brought in solely to try to win the kicking battle and therefore ensure Scotland spend more time in places where they can hurt opponents, others such as Paterson and Southwell, can then help the team “play in different ways”.
What we know for certain is that with the likes of James Hook, Stephen Jones, Shane Willliams, Jamie Roberts and Lee Byrne in their back line, Wales are very capable of doing just that. Yet my own sense ahead of this campaign was that, while he believed his side could beat France if everything went right, Robinson was particularly anxious that confidence was not dented on Sunday to such an extent that it would damage their chances in a match he believes they should win in Wales.
Drilled as modern professionals are in monotonous management speak, it will be very difficult to assess whether that is the case before they take the field on Saturday.
As Scotland look for renewed inspiration, however, Scotland A’s defeat by Ireland in Belfast on Friday was a particular blow for Robinson, who would have appreciated having the option of bringing in players who were on a high after a good away win. With last summer’s British & Irish Lions Euan Murray and Mike Blair lining up alongside eight more highly experienced internationalists, expectations were such that it must have shocked their colleagues to see them so heavily beaten.
After the pounding the senior team’s scrummage took, Murray will be reintroduced this week and for all that it would seem reasonable to give Allan Jacobsen a starting chance, it might have served the coach well to look outside his original 30-man squad and give Jon Welsh a Test debut in the Millennium Stadium. That was effectively discounted yesterday, however, when he was not among the dozen players added to the 22 on duty against France, namely Mike Blair, Ben Cairns, Nick De Luca and Jim Hamilton (all Edinburgh), Dougie Hall, Ruaridh Jackson and Dan Parks (Glasgow Warriors), Scott Gray and Euan Murray (Northampton Saints), Simon Danielli (Ulster), Rory Lamont (Toulon) and NiKki Walker (Ospreys). We may not expect too many changes when the team is announced today, but we should perhaps be hoping for a fair few, if only to make Wales think Scotland can “play in different ways”.
James Robson, the team doctor, is monitoring the progress of the following who sustained knocks on Sunday: Johnnie Beattie (hip), Kelly Brown (shoulder), Thom Evans (calf), Nathan Hines (calf), Graeme Morrison (leg) and Chris Paterson (calf).
