Reality check

[Mikey Brown]

We’re gash and have no plan B.

Ditched Cotter too soon.

What else?

[Tobylerone]

We’re gash and have no plan B.

Ditched Cotter too soon.

What else?

No further comment required.

[Cameo]

I agree. Let's panick. We should try and score in increments of 3. We always used to win then

[Mikey Brown]

Exactly. A good strong knee-jerk reaction is what we need.

Failing that, a bit of balance. Maybe at least try and use our forwards at some point.

And remember how to pass/catch.

[ARM]

We’re gash and have no plan B.

Ditched Cotter too soon.

What else?

Cotter had a 0-5 record in his first 6 Nations including a home loss against Italy. After an encouraging Autumn series. 6N is a completely different proposition.

Townsend appreciates high risk rugby but unless the accuracy is high the downside is huge. We deliberately condition our players to be aerobically fit but we lack power. Gatland favours a high pressing power game - it’s a horrible style match for us. Just think Glasgow v Munster for the last season and a half under Toony. And Gatland doesn’t rate our players and is superb at infecting his players with this attitude. The Welsh are the ultimate confidence team - you gift them a 14 point head start at home and that’s game over. If we score after the Jonny Gray break in the first 5 mins, different game entirely.

And I wasn’t even at the game EinE.

[Adder]

Might be wearing the blue Royal next week at Murrayfield.

I think we need to bring on Horne as a second distributor at 12, push Jones at 13. We have to understand why our backrow was nowhere to be seen for 40 minutes.

Sent from my Moto G (5S) using Tapatalk

[Adder]

Can't see us surviving the French power next week.

Sent from my Moto G (5S) using Tapatalk

[Cameo]

Agreeabout the differebt game if we score after the J Gray break but wedneed to be able to come with powerful packs. Wales arent that bid a deal. U don't really think our pack let us down. Wales just read our gameplan and shut us down.

The thing is, the first half looked okay (apart from the welsh tries) and I am convinced if we had scored after Gray's break that rhe game would have changed.

However, it's one of the few games.we have no excuses for. Even with the England game last year, I felt the ref didnt suit our style but apart from a cou0le of calls we cant complain

[bruce]

Fat thumbs or a few drinks Cameo?

[cashead]

1. The team lacked accuracy at the right end of the field. It was some real basic stuff, like making sure the ball went into touch when kicking penalties, and that sort of thing.

2. Scotland wasted far too many chances on attack, and let the Welsh defence harass them into mistakes. It ties into the previous point, in that the lack of accuracy and handling errors when on attack may have been borne of Welsh defensive pressure, but there were some poor errors like Finn Russell not finding touch when they had a penalty in their own half.

Key thing is that the Welsh saw the opportunities that came their way, and turned them into points, even when they were barely even half-chances like the opening try. Scotland proved last year that they are a very, very good team and can compete with just about anyone on any given day, but today, they never really recovered once Wales forced them to start playing catch-up rugby.

[Mikey Brown]

1. The team lacked accuracy at the right end of the field. It was some real basic stuff, like making sure the ball went into touch when kicking penalties, and that sort of thing.

2. Scotland wasted far too many chances on attack, and let the Welsh defence harass them into mistakes. It ties into the previous point, in that the lack of accuracy and handling errors when on attack may have been borne of Welsh defensive pressure, but there were some poor errors like Finn Russell not finding touch when they had a penalty in their own half.

Key thing is that the Welsh saw the opportunities that came their way, and turned them into points, even when they were barely even half-chances like the opening try. Scotland proved last year that they are a very, very good team and can compete with just about anyone on any given day, but today, they never really recovered once Wales forced them to start playing catch-up rugby.

Yep, throwing 100% at them for 15 non-stop minutes at the beginning and going 7-0 down seemed to really rattle us. The handling was the most appalling I’ve seen from Scotland for a good while.

[Cameo]

Fat thumbs or a few drinks Cameo?

Haha a bit of both

[Cameo]

The missing touch thing I get but I would like to see some analysis comparing average distance from penalties to number of misses. I feel like Russel really goes foe it and often gets an extra twenty metres compared to say, Farrell but the flip side is that he misses a bit more often too. On balance, I think I'd take it

[Edinburgh in Exile]

The missing touch thing I get but I would like to see some analysis comparing average distance from penalties to number of misses. I feel like Russel really goes foe it and often gets an extra twenty metres compared to say, Farrell but the flip side is that he misses a bit more often too. On balance, I think I'd take it

I see what you are saying, but earning a penalty, then giving away possession by failing to find touch utterly kills momentum. Worse still, if it was a defensive penalty we earned it doesn’t relieve the pressure. I’ll take a lot less distance and the lineout possession all day. We’ve got backs that can make the yards, we don’t need to be 5 meters out on every penalty.

Still not sure why we don’t let Hogg kick to touch. The man can kick the skin off the ball.

[OptimisticJock]

The missing touch thing I get but I would like to see some analysis comparing average distance from penalties to number of misses. I feel like Russel really goes foe it and often gets an extra twenty metres compared to say, Farrell but the flip side is that he misses a bit more often too. On balance, I think I'd take it

I see what you are saying, but earning a penalty, then giving away possession by failing to find touch utterly kills momentum. Worse still, if it was a defensive penalty we earned it doesn’t relieve the pressure. I’ll take a lot less distance and the lineout possession all day. We’ve got backs that can make the yards, we don’t need to be 5 meters out on every penalty.

Still not sure why we don’t let Hogg kick to touch. The man can kick the skin off the ball.

This. Its inexcusable. I admire his confidence but you have to back it up with results.

[Mikey Brown]

Italy looking pretty tidy.

[Big D]

The missing touch thing I get but I would like to see some analysis comparing average distance from penalties to number of misses. I feel like Russel really goes foe it and often gets an extra twenty metres compared to say, Farrell but the flip side is that he misses a bit more often too. On balance, I think I'd take it

I see what you are saying, but earning a penalty, then giving away possession by failing to find touch utterly kills momentum. Worse still, if it was a defensive penalty we earned it doesn’t relieve the pressure. I’ll take a lot less distance and the lineout possession all day. We’ve got backs that can make the yards, we don’t need to be 5 meters out on every penalty.

Still not sure why we don’t let Hogg kick to touch. The man can kick the skin off the ball.

Because he has zero game awareness in those types of situation. No other 10 in the 6N would miss touch in that scenario. Unforgivable but we have nae cunt to pressure him.

[Mikey Brown]

Farrell regularly misses touch on penalties, yet England don’t even let Ford take over.

Not that that’s really relevant.

I’d love Russell to add a bit of composure in moments like this.

[Big D]

Farrell regularly misses touch on penalties, yet England don’t even let Ford take over.

Not that that’s really relevant.

I’d love Russell to add a bit of composure in moments like this.

In that scenario, at 14-0 down with his team under pressure I would bet a good chunk Farrell would get it off the park.

[Cameo]

Farrell regularly misses touch on penalties, yet England don’t even let Ford take over.

Not that that’s really relevant.

I’d love Russell to add a bit of composure in moments like this.

In that scenario, at 14-0 down with his team under pressure I would bet a good chunk Farrell would get it off the park.

On about the halfway line though. For all it was a bad kick, it went into the twenty two and the wales ended up kicking it out on about our ten.

I think Russel is a very good penalty touch finder in general but he does go for it so invites criticism when it goes wrong. An unexpectedly good kick can be a game changer

[no sleep]

I guess Toony and the guys are happy with Russell going for long kicks at penas: it's a risk, but the payoffs can be good, and if it goes wrong, it's still high-tempo so fits in with the style of play. But at 14 down and the team needs to get in to the game, I'd expect the skipper to step up and say just make sure here. I think the issue's more about on-field leadership than just Russell's kicking.

[OptimisticJock]

He misses far too many

[Big D]

Farrell regularly misses touch on penalties, yet England don’t even let Ford take over.

Not that that’s really relevant.

I’d love Russell to add a bit of composure in moments like this.

In that scenario, at 14-0 down with his team under pressure I would bet a good chunk Farrell would get it off the park.

On about the halfway line though. For all it was a bad kick, it went into the twenty two and the wales ended up kicking it out on about our ten.

I think Russel is a very good penalty touch finder in general but he does go for it so invites criticism when it goes wrong. An unexpectedly good kick can be a game changer

It's about the game situation though. In that situation he MUST get it off the park. The team was 14-0 down and clearly a bit shellshocked.

The fact we got the ball back on the 10 doesn't matter, it's another psychological blow seeing Finn miss touch when he should have.

[no sleep]

He misses far too many

Yeah, I think so too, and everyone on the field thinks that (except maybe Russell), so who's going to have a word? Has to be the skipper.

[OptimisticJock]

He misses far too many

Yeah, I think so too, and everyone on the field thinks that (except maybe Russell), so who's going to have a word? Has to be the skipper.

It's the obvious choice. Either barclay isn't stepping up or he's happy too.

On a slight tangent I noticed Gray being a bit more vocal than I've ever seen (or been aware of). Not sure if he's stepping up as a leader or just being petulant as things were going shite.