Scotland vs South Africa: The Talking Points

Today at 08:53 AM

Scotland went into the South Africa game with a reasonable degree of confidence, if not exactly expectations that this would be a close game. In theory, it was: the double World Cup winners duly served up a game of leaky defence and poor handling – that still somehow saw them run out winners by a healthy margin. Scotland were in turn impressive in defence and aggression – yet conceded four tries.

It actually reminded me a lot of Autumn tests from the early days of the site where Scotland just couldn’t get over the try line, would be doggedly competitive for about 60-70 minutes then a couple of late tries would flatter the visitors and we’d take the moral victory all the way up the road to Haymarket.

The thing is, this is a much better Scotland side than a lot of those teams, so why do the games sometimes feel so similar?

So we have to talk about the officiating

Look, we’ve tried to keep the days of whining about George Clancy in the past. But there were a number of, let’s say “odd”, decisions in that game that actively hampered Scotland’s cause at exactly the wrong moment.

The new enforcement of “use it”: good idea. Keeps the game flowing and stops the human centipede nonsense.
Only whistling it up once in the match despite both sides creeping outside the allocated time on almost every kick, to hand SA a huge attacking platform near the Scottish 22: unbalanced execution of a good idea.

TMO calling up a knock-on early in the build-up to a try after the conversion: reasonable, a kick at goal having already happened shouldn’t really justify something wrong being cemented in the scoreline and we’d want it called against our opponents too. The try was class though.
TMO failing to show evidence of a knock on by a hand that the referee himself shouted “that was off his foot” during play, and then contriving between them to award the knock-on anyway – and so a scrum in front of the posts to SA: pointless intervention. Show us the evidence repeatedly and clearly.

The TMO had also intervened earlier in the match to award a Yellow – upgraded to Red – against Scott Cummings for a croc roll, best described as “falling on someone’s knee and trying to pull their head off” which seemed to happen to Eben Etzebeth on both legs simultaneously between Cummings and Rory Darge. At best it seemed like a case of mistaken identity, even if it did give us all a chance to experience the new 20 minute red card.

There were more examples, but Christophe Ridley and his team didn’t have a good day at the office.

Scotland clearly have a reputation as penalty factory when other teams don’t, and somehow we have to overcome this perception with officials to stop them penalising us disproportionally. Not unfairly, but well out of proportion to other teams who offend just as much. We have not yet found a skipper to master this art of talking to referees.

The Back Three need to change

Is it time for a change of thinking on the wing?

The two tries down his side were not Blair Kinghorn’s fault although the brainless penalty for not letting a player on the deck come up after gathering a loose ball was. Duhan Van der Merwe was – as often the case these days – well marshalled by the touchline defenders and against bigger men finds it hard to make or find space. His one brilliant chance to run rampant was halted by Etzebeth’s fingertips snaffling his jersey, and you can’t blame him for Huw Jones murdering two passes that might have put him away. But he still needs to find a way to work the inside channels better.

That the pick of the back three was new Bristol Bears signing Tom Jordan, playing possibly his first pro game at fullback, doesn’t say much for the wingers on the pitch.

The lack of “protection” for jumpers under high balls now (ie lazy runners blocking the kick chase) is not only making it a fairer more exciting contest but it sadly means our severe weakness against high kicks is resurfacing. Scotland badly missed Kyle Steyn’s proficiency in this area but may need to pick based on the ability to defend the air rather than pure finishing power, especially against strong scrummaging teams who will earn knock-ons from the tactic.

Depth at Scrum Is An Issue

New father Zander Fagerson probably had one of his finest 20 minutes in a Scotland shirt as he took on the Bomb Squad early in the first half with a series of rampaging carries, backed by Jack Dempsey and Tom Jordan who all had purple patches where they seemed nearly impossible to bring to ground.

He also managed to turn a spat of Zandbags with Springbok skipper Eben Etzebeth into a penalty for Scotland that got them out of a dangerous field position deep in their own half – possibly just by tripping over his own legs.

The scrum was, if not a strength in the opening hour, not the Achilles heel, but sadly once Fagerson and the equally impressive Pierre Schoeman went off it clearly became a weakness. Having survived the onslaught in the loose, SA were able to bring the might of the bomb squad to bear in the set-piece and keep Scotland away from their 22.

It shows how much respect they offered Scotland that the on field decision to take 3 pts (the coaches box were demanding another scrum) late on in front of the posts but that took the game out of reach.

The Portugal game won’t tell us much

It’s still a banana skin fixture but the team is likely to see some heavy rotation before the final Australia match. Soime of that will be injury enforced, but some will be to rotate players or give them game time. Might there be a first cap for the impressive back-row Freddie Douglas whose highest honour to date is playing for Scotland U-20 and Edinburgh A?

In terms of the wider squad, Max Williamson is out with a hand injury along with Jack Dempsey who has sustained a shoulder injury. Gregor Brown is also out with a rib injury.

Johnny Matthews and Alec Hepburn have been called up as “replacements”, while it is expected that both Darcy Graham and Kyle Rowe will be available for selection in the backline. Given the misfires in the back three and the front row so far, some may be flung straight into the action.

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