{"id":445281,"date":"2026-02-25T18:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T18:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/445281\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T18:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T18:59:09","slug":"day-of-reckoning-looms-for-scotland-side-with-soft-underbelly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/445281\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Day of reckoning looms for Scotland side with soft underbelly’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I had some exalted company for the Wales-Scotland<\/a> nailbiter on Saturday afternoon. A hard-bitten father and son duo who know all about the business of winning rugby matches. Olivier and Alexandre Roumat<\/a> had the same appraisal of Scotland to most of us who follow the team: riveting to watch, innovative, bold and daring, but lacking in power, and perhaps as a result, desperately short of consistency.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d felt uncomfortable during the week, listening to Scottish pundits bemoaning the state of Welsh rugby, sometimes in a way which felt obnoxious and condescending. The Principality has long been a graveyard for Scottish hopes and title claims. The atmosphere is hostile and intimidating in the best possible way.<\/p>\n

The whole world expected Scotland to dominate that game and they\u2019ve just shown they can\u2019t be depended on to do so. A soft underbelly was exposed again and that was extremely worrying.<\/p>\n

\"\"Scotland trailed Wales<\/a> until the 74th minute in Cardiff as they edged a frenetic contest (Photo by PA)<\/p>\n

Steve Tandy spent five years in Scotland and showed his hand early. In fact, he had their number. He turned the contest into a physical, bruising affair early on \u2013 pick and go, carries around the fringes, big runners off nine, Rhys Carre<\/a> punching holes \u2013 and tried to bully Scotland. Gregor Townsend<\/a> had to be ruthless in sending for Pierre Schoeman<\/a> and Josh Bayliss<\/a> before half-time to infuse the Scottish effort with some much-needed dynamism.<\/p>\n

One piece of brilliance and good fortune, allied to some schoolboy defending, saved Scotland\u2019s bacon. The call to take the quick restart which led to Darcy Graham\u2019s lightning try actually came from Matt Fagerson. It\u2019s a call Glasgow<\/a> Warriors use when they notice people aren\u2019t organised and it\u2019s on to play. Another of how Scotland outfox rather than outbox, and prevail through brain over brawn. Fagerson\u2019s vision, Russell\u2019s execution, the speed and awareness of Graham and the helpful bounce of the ball exposed a dozing Jim Botham. If those stars don\u2019t align, Scotland lose the game and the whole plotline flips. That was the catalyst. And it probably kept Gregor Townsend\u2019s job secure.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the maddening thing with this Scotland squad. They can win these games and win them well, but they are also very prone to capitulation. It happened in Wales two years ago and nearly happened against the same opposition at Murrayfield last season. It happened against New Zealand<\/a> and Argentina<\/a> on successive November weekends.<\/p>\n

Is there a mental frailty in this Scotland squad? This has been levelled at the players for years and every time, they baulk at the notion. I tend to agree. I don\u2019t think these infuriating fluctuations are down to psychology. They\u2019re down to personnel. And personnel dictates your game plan.<\/p>\n

Scotland tend to win playing x-factor rugby, rather than the basic, pragmatic stuff which is supposed to win Test matches. It\u2019s bananas.<\/p>\n

Scotland have a style of play and a group of backs who can score points, often spectacularly. But they\u2019re also liable to conceding cheap tries. The front-line XV can rock it with anyone, but if they\u2019re 10% off it, they\u2019re in trouble. They lost, deservedly, to Italy<\/a> and could have had no complaints if Wales had turned them over too.<\/p>\n

Scotland can rip apart top opposition. That\u2019s the big positive I retain. They made line breaks and 22 entries in Cardiff and coughed up so much ball. The inside pass from Duhan van der Merwe<\/a> to Huw Jones<\/a> which was knocked on. The spill from Gregor Brown. The jackal turnovers conceded. They cracked the Welsh defence then ran into trouble. That\u2019s been a theme these past few years.<\/p>\n

Scotland have physical and technical problems rather than psychological. When the game slows up after a line break, Scotland can\u2019t steamroll a set defence. They seldom repel heavy carriers and boss collisions. They are incapable of bludgeoning teams to death. They can\u2019t rely on their set-piece firing to keep a team under pressure. England, bizarrely, didn\u2019t challenge a lineout which collapsed in Rome. Wales did and got some joy. For the third week running, the Scottish scrum creaked, until Schoeman won the killer penalty at the end.<\/p>\n

\"\"Collective quick thinking from Scotland led to Darcy Graham\u2019s game-changing try straight from a kick-off (Photo by PA)<\/p>\n

France<\/a> can click through gears and physically obliterate teams. Scotland don\u2019t have that option. They\u2019ve never had it. But they have enough to win their set-piece, get the ball in play and test teams in different ways. Scotland tend to win playing x-factor rugby, rather than the basic, pragmatic stuff which is supposed to win Test matches. It\u2019s bananas. But they have to play that way because of the tools they\u2019ve got. Maybe that\u2019s why Gregor Townsend has never beaten Ireland \u2013 and never really come close \u2013 in almost a decade of trying. Ireland<\/a> are so adept at shutting down the flair players, Scotland have nowhere else to go but into the teeth of the green machine.<\/p>\n

The saving grace on Saturday was that Scotland won and won ugly. That\u2019s something of an anomaly for this group. I played against Jamie Roberts<\/a> a million times and he never lost to Scotland. I remember being in games against Wales and thinking \u2018they are not that much better than us\u2019 but they always found a way to win. The Warren Gatland teams were ultra-abrasive, pragmatic, squeezed the life out of you and took their chances. This time, in spite of all their failings, Scotland ticked the box \u2013 sweating bullets \u2013 and got over the line.<\/p>\n

The narrative following Townsend has flipped more times than a gymnast. Under massive pressure before the competition, the vitriol was palpable and the knives out when Scotland dissolved in the Roman rain. It looked like he might not survive beyond the end of the championship. A loss in Cardiff might have been terminal too. If that restart didn\u2019t fire perfectly, Townsend\u2019s jacket would again be resting on the shoogliest of pegs.<\/p>\n

On a wider level, we are no further forward than we were at the end of November.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, Scotland are two bonus-point wins from three and the tournament has opened right up for them. But on a wider level, we are no further forward than we were at the end of November \u2013 in whether this team is getting better, on why it\u2019s so mind-bendingly unreliable, on whether it\u2019s time to change the man at the top.<\/p>\n

This Six Nations<\/a> has only reinforced what we already knew, and why Scotland are so frustrating to follow. Where is this team? Depends who you ask. What have we learned about them? Nothing. What kind of performance will they deliver next week? Reach for your crystal ball, lads. Townsend has two fixtures, against the two best sides in the tournament, to show there is a point of difference and progress is being made.<\/p>\n

France are, by a distance, the form team in the Six Nations. They come to Murrayfield with all the raw strength and size Scotland lack, but they are laden with injuries to their midfield and speaking from experience, it would be very French to throw in a dud performance on the road when you\u2019re two games from a Slam.<\/p>\n

Beyond that, Scotland have the opportunity to win a first Triple Crown since 1990. That would be insane. The Ireland match in Dublin on Super Saturday will be the greatest yardstick by which to measure Scotland\u2019s development and Townsend\u2019s credentials to lead them to the World Cup.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to see what this Scotland side really are: contenders or pretenders. Destined to ride the rollercoaster of highs and lows, or a team with the stamina to sustain a realistic crack at the crown. Two days of reckoning are upon them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I had some exalted company for the Wales-Scotland nailbiter on Saturday afternoon. A hard-bitten father and son duo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-445281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}