Winners and losers

[Matt Ha]

So who are they?
Winners.
Hogg. Brilliant. Probably the biggest star of the tournament.
Seymour. Quiet in the last two games but had a good 6Ns in general.
Taylor. From bench-warmer to accomplished test performer.
Horne. Only got a brief chance to shine but took it well.
J Grey. Sorely missed in the last game. Huge tackling effort and carried like a beast.
R, Grey. Put in some of his best performances for a while.
J Hardie. A massive amount of effort.
Barclay. Wilderness years behind him.
Nell. Keystone of the pack.
Ford. Bit wobbly at the lineout but part of a formidable front row.
Dickenson. Overshadowed by Nell but more than held his own.

Losers
Bennett. Didn't deserve to be dumped but dumper he was.
Maitland. He has talent (and we missed him on Saturday) but there seems to be a personality problem.
Weir. Will be surprised if he gets back into a starting XV.
SHC. Never got a chance to shine.
Cowan. Gone from being a favourite to the fringes.

[Chunks Baws]

Hardie offers a bit more than "effort".

[Mikey Brown]

Hardie really has added something. I like the balance of our backrow now but it's so reliant on having a storming carrier at 8, they're all a bit inconsistent though I thought Strauss looked to have made a step forward with his Scotland performances. I'm not that fussed if we don't really look at Cowan again to be honest.

What happened to Blake?

[General Zod]

Is Blake playing sevens at the mo?

Anyway, hardie has been quality, although I thought he didn't have one of his better games yesterday.

Seymour's performances kinda mirrored the team's for me. Good in the middle 3 matches, not great for the other two.

[Big D]

Positives or "winners"
Whoever is responsible for the attacking patterns. They are working well.
Hogg
Set piece and ball in hand Nel
Dickinson - for the most part.
Hardie
Taylor
Seymour - mostly
Gray x 2 - Gray Snr appears to be a player who needs regular gametime to get into a grove, hopefully he will get that at Toulouse next year.
We didn't break Dunbar.
The U20s - Some players showing real potential and it is sad they were regularly without players who could have made a difference.

Mixed Bag or "some good, some crap"
Ford - set piece mostly went well and continues to work hard. Probably still the best of a bad bunch. As a former captain he should be part of a much stronger leadership core.
McInally - Saturday was his best cameo in a blue shirt. Not been consistent enough to put real pressure on Ford overall though.
Barclay - He has done well enough but some games have shown we lack a 6. His yellow on Saturday was mind numbingly stupid. As someone with captaincy experience he should be part of a much stronger leadership core.
Number 8 - I think all the 8s used did ok, and in parts were excellent. The fact that BVC can't settle on one or t'other may tell a story.
Laidlaw - Kicking good, direction of play in the main decent, leadership and rapport with referees are awful. I can see Pyrgos challenging when he gets a good run of injury free games for Glasgow.
Russell - Came on to a game but started shakily - possibly a winner based on the back ups not really challenging.
Bennett - was solid but not spectacular and was then dropped.
Horne - Great v France, poor v Italy off the bench and can't convince BVC he is the back up 10.

Negatives or "losers"
Who ever is in charge of defence.
Discipline and/or the inability to adapt to referees interpretations
Jackson - was good v Wales and then binned by BVC.
Defensive Nel - Misses way to many tackles. Five on Saturday alone.
Back up props - Were never really trusted to come on at a reasonable time in the game.
Toolis - Picking Harley in front of him for the bench was taking the piss.
Maitland - LI and Scotland appear at odds. Haven't missed him greatly although would probably take the 23 shirt.
Back up 9 - In case of emergency break glass.
Scott - can't go any length of time without injury.
Weir - Not great on Saturday but at 24 and regular game time next season may help him develop

[Mikey Brown]

Can't argue with much of that, though some are losers by their own hand and some not.

I really hope Ashe, MacInally and all the reserve props start clicking soon.

Laidlaw started to convince me for a brief patch, the situation there is really going to hinder us.

[Chunks Baws]

While he didn't get enough minutes to qualify as a winner or loser, I thought Sutherland showed some much needed 'mongrel' when he came on. I'd like to see a clip again of him putting an Irish player right on his arse.

[Tobylerone]

What happened to Blake?

Sevens squad, strange, looks like a NZ player..?

[Cameo]

Guscott's BBC article (which I dont seem to be able to copy the link to sorry) is generally positive about Scotland but he says he is unsure whether Cotter's "ruck and run" style is getting the best out of them. He also makes a strange comparison on the backrows. Anyone know what he means and have a view on if he is right?

[Mikey Brown]

Guscott's BBC article (which I dont seem to be able to copy the link to sorry) is generally positive about Scotland but he says he is unsure whether Cotter's "ruck and run" style is getting the best out of them. He also makes a strange comparison on the backrows. Anyone know what he means and have a view on if he is right?

I guess he's getting at England having two 6s rather than two 7s, they maybe get through a bit more graft than the Scotland pair but don't attack the breakdown (or attack in general) nearly as well. Surprising that.

I'm curious what tactics he think would be better suited.

[Big D]

Guscott's BBC article (which I dont seem to be able to copy the link to sorry) is generally positive about Scotland but he says he is unsure whether Cotter's "ruck and run" style is getting the best out of them. He also makes a strange comparison on the backrows. Anyone know what he means and have a view on if he is right?

I guess he's getting at England having two 6s rather than two 7s, they maybe get through a bit more graft than the Scotland pair but don't attack the breakdown (or attack in general) nearly as well. Surprising that.

I'm curious what tactics he think would be better suited.

Comparing the flankers is doing a disservice to their roles within their teams.

The Scotland pair need to do all the breakdown work. Although Hardie has a massive tackle count. Whereas England have Itoje and Cole who offer a turnover threat so their two don't need to be at every ruck.

Their flankers carry significantly more (although metres per carry over the last 2 games is something like 0.07/carry difference) but our attacking structures use the tight 5 more to try and create quickish ball.

I didn't think he was comparing flankers FWIW as he named Hardie in his XV of the 6N.

[Chunks Baws]

Hardie doesn't seem to get much love from other fans, but he's certainly impressing the ex-pro's and pundits. He's made a fair amount of 'teams of the tournament' and Lions squads (including Keet Wood and Martin Johnson).

[switchskier]

Going to have to disagree with the discipline point a bit. In three of the five games our discipline was excellent and going into the Ireland game I think we'd given away less penalties than anyone else. We didn't adapt well in that game at all but that's not the same thing and I don't actually mind see some frustration and fight.

Anyone else a bit bemused by all the fuss about Ijote? He looks like a great prospect but he's the same age as Gray junior and I'd rather have the later who's workrate is even better. I'd say he lost a bit just because he isn't getting the plaudits he deserves.

[Chunks Baws]

Going to have to disagree with the discipline point a bit. In three of the five games our discipline was excellent and going into the Ireland game I think we'd given away less penalties than anyone else. We didn't adapt well in that game at all but that's not the same thing and I don't actually mind see some frustration and fight.

Anyone else a bit bemused by all the fuss about Ijote? He looks like a great prospect but he's the same age as Gray junior and I'd rather have the later who's workrate is even better. I'd say he lost a bit just because he isn't getting the plaudits he deserves.

I think you're right about our penalty count until the Ireland game. I'm sure it was mentioned by the pundits before kick off.

Itoje has massive potential but the English press need someone to go crazy over, he strikes me as the sort that could do without the ott coverage. He seems very grounded. They have some pretty scary depth at lock now.

[kk67]

Guscott's BBC article (which I dont seem to be able to copy the link to sorry) is generally positive about Scotland but he says he is unsure whether Cotter's "ruck and run" style is getting the best out of them. He also makes a strange comparison on the backrows. Anyone know what he means and have a view on if he is right?

I guess he's getting at England having two 6s rather than two 7s, they maybe get through a bit more graft than the Scotland pair but don't attack the breakdown (or attack in general) nearly as well. Surprising that.

I'm curious what tactics he think would be better suited.

Not so much the graft,.....more like the blast. It's the clearing out v the jackal.
Like Big D said,....England are delegating the jackal responsibilities while their flankers are doing the blast,.....and doing it nicely.

[kk67]

Guscott's BBC article (which I dont seem to be able to copy the link to sorry) is generally positive about Scotland but he says he is unsure whether Cotter's "ruck and run" style is getting the best out of them. He also makes a strange comparison on the backrows. Anyone know what he means and have a view on if he is right?

Found it, Gussett's a centre,.....but it's not just Scotland's backrow that got totalled. We all did.

[Big D]

Going to have to disagree with the discipline point a bit. In three of the five games our discipline was excellent and going into the Ireland game I think we'd given away less penalties than anyone else. We didn't adapt well in that game at all but that's not the same thing and I don't actually mind see some frustration and fight.

And in two of the five we played a quarter of the game with 14men with correct decisions from the officials in charge. And all 4 blatantly avoidable.

Maintaining discipline isn't just about a number of penalties that is given away. Russell v Italy and Barclay v Ireland were avoidable red zone offences. Yes the team was on a warning but the whole team should have had the discipline to keep within the defensive framework and not give away as many penalties to merit the warnings.

There's no problem showing a bit of fight but the failure of the team to adapt on Saturday is a major red flag about the on field leadership and Laidlaw in particular.

[Big D]

Re Itoje. He's been an exciting talent for a while. He's been beautifully managed by Sarries up to this point.

He's short for a second row at 6ft 5. I think he'll make a better 6 in time than second row.

He's a totally different type of second row to JG. Different strengths and weaknesses. Could complement each other nicely on a Lions tour.

[Cameo]

Guscott's BBC article (which I dont seem to be able to copy the link to sorry) is generally positive about Scotland but he says he is unsure whether Cotter's "ruck and run" style is getting the best out of them. He also makes a strange comparison on the backrows. Anyone know what he means and have a view on if he is right?

Found it, Gussett's a centre,.....but it's not just Scotland's backrow that got totalled. We all did.

To be honest I was as confued by his "ruck and run" comment. That seems to me to suggest he isnt sure about our attacking play. After a poor first game it got us three tries a game which is pretty good against some decent defences. Im genuinely curious what different gameplan he thinks we should have (or if he's just not watched our games very closely

[kk67]

Guscott's BBC article (which I dont seem to be able to copy the link to sorry) is generally positive about Scotland but he says he is unsure whether Cotter's "ruck and run" style is getting the best out of them. He also makes a strange comparison on the backrows. Anyone know what he means and have a view on if he is right?

Found it, Gussett's a centre,.....but it's not just Scotland's backrow that got totalled. We all did.

To be honest I was as confued by his "ruck and run" comment. That seems to me to suggest he isnt sure about our attacking play. After a poor first game it got us three tries a game which is pretty good against some decent defences. Im genuinely curious what different gameplan he thinks we should have (or if he's just not watched our games very closely

I luv watching the SH. They're showing us rugby,......and ironically enough, our loose UK ref's are helping them develop their test game.