RBS 6 Nations - Scotland vs France - 26/02/2012, 15:30

[jaunard06]

Yeah sounds like we have not seen the same match. It is nice to be nice with our scottish friends but it is nice also to be realistic. We have crushed the scottish on most of the area of the games and they are lucky to leave this match so close to the french on the scoreboard.

I neither have the feeling to be "nice" with the scots, or negative as you said before about french team. I rather have the feeling that you take your impressions for a fact but this is denied by the stats. So we have "crushed" the scots in "most areas" of the game:
- twice our possesion in the first half for them (18-19mn vs 9mn),
- they beat us in territory on both halves,
- they won all their lineouts and stole 2 of ours,
- twice our number of line breaks,
- 81% of ruck clearance vs 60% for us: so where do you see us superior in rucks ?
- 108 balls won in open play vs 77,
- 37 balls won in opponent's territory vs 14,
- we did twice their number of errors in kicking.

We essentially beat them on scrum stats and of course points, as well as tackles.
Those stats reflects that the game was a tense one, no team really took control and each remain dangerous until the end even if the 1st half is "for" Scotland globally and the 2nd "for" France.

 

[Scotsmanslanj]

I neither have the feeling to be "nice" with the scots, or negative as you said before about french team. I rather have the feeling that you take your impressions for a fact but this is denied by the stats. So we have "crushed" the scots in "most areas" of the game:
- twice our possesion in the first half for them (18-19mn vs 9mn),
- they beat us in territory on both halves,
- they won all their lineouts and stole 2 of ours,
- twice our number of line breaks,
- 81% of ruck clearance vs 60% for us: so where do you see us superior in rucks ?
- 108 balls won in open play vs 77,
- 37 balls won in opponent's territory vs 14,
- we did twice their number of errors in kicking.

We essentially beat them on scrum stats and of course points, as well as tackles.
Those stats reflects that the game was a tense one, no team really took control and each remain dangerous until the end even if the 1st half is "for" Scotland globally and the 2nd "for" France.

I would agree with that. I think the Scots played with more aggression and dynamism than they have done in a long time, but absolutely chock full of errors, and so slow to recycle the ball the French could just stroll back into a reset defence. The attack still needs more teeth, and watching Blair and Hogg break away with absolutely no one ready to support was just painful. That's basic stuff - someone needs to be ready to receive the bl**dy ball.
I moaned a little when Cusiter came on and what happened? He started booting the ball straight down the French backs' throat for absolutely no reason I could make sense of.
Plus the Scots eased off the gas as usual, making far less of an impact in the second half.
The French - destroyed the scrum, quick hands and far better at getting the ball out of the back of the ruck. But this side is capable of so much more and they'll need to step up for the next 3 weeks or it's going to be ugly. I thought the score line was quite fair. Close match, but the Scots stopped playing early, were absolutely beasted in the scrum and France kept their heads for the win...

 

[barthelemy]

I neither have the feeling to be "nice" with the scots, or negative as you said before about french team. I rather have the feeling that you take your impressions for a fact but this is denied by the stats. So we have "crushed" the scots in "most areas" of the game:
- twice our possesion in the first half for them (18-19mn vs 9mn),
- they beat us in territory on both halves,
- they won all their lineouts and stole 2 of ours,
- twice our number of line breaks,
- 81% of ruck clearance vs 60% for us: so where do you see us superior in rucks ?
- 108 balls won in open play vs 77,
- 37 balls won in opponent's territory vs 14,
- we did twice their number of errors in kicking.

We essentially beat them on scrum stats and of course points, as well as tackles.
Those stats reflects that the game was a tense one, no team really took control and each remain dangerous until the end even if the 1st half is "for" Scotland globally and the 2nd "for" France.

Maybe you should show the numbers of turn-overs (specificaly in the second half) to have a pretty good idea on how good we have been on ruck phases (or open scrums phases)....Turn-overs being like a breakpoint for Tennis, shoud I remind you...Often happening when a team is under great pressure...

anyway you can study a match with numbers but you can also link numbers with the impression you had all along the match..And my impression was the french was ahead of the scottish.

 

[Thingimubob]

In all fairness, wasn;t as if Scotland weren't turning the ball over all over the place too? Rennie was superb in this aspect, very impressed with hi,m tbf! Barnes missed a hell of a lot in the game, the high tackle on Weir for one (though that said, Barnes might be forgiven due to the fact that Weir has no neck ) and a fair new ruck infringements all during a perios of Scottish pressure when they were 3 behind.
Scary thing about the French though is how they can just turn it on every now and then and score 2 fantastic tries...

 

[Seaton]

the high tackle on Weir for one (though that said, Barnes might be forgiven due to the fact that Weir has no neck )

This!


Weir has one of the weirdest body types/ figures I have ever seen, no doubt at some stage someone is going to say he is unfit or something.

One of the types of people* who can put on or lose several kilos but has very little effect on his/ her overall speed/ agility.


*Can't think of the correct grammar/ concord to use in this situation, please excuse my ignorance.

 

[jaunard06]

Maybe you should show the numbers of turn-overs (specificaly in the second half) to have a pretty good idea on how good we have been on ruck phases (or open scrums phases)....Turn-overs being like a breakpoint for Tennis, shoud I remind you...Often happening when a team is under great pressure...

I agree with you on that point but official RBS 6N stats don't show it, which is is a pain.
Still I don't remember that France dominated in that area, on the other side I perfectly remember Hari being "robbed" by a scotish player. These are just feelings (as yours) and cannot be relevant anyway.

But saying that we crushed Scotland is a little bit too much IMHO, especially looking at the final score, and I don't understand why you say scots were "lucky": France didn't get many additional opportunities to score, we've been dramatically realistic.

 

[barthelemy]

In all fairness, wasn;t as if Scotland weren't turning the ball over all over the place too? Rennie was superb in this aspect, very impressed with hi,m tbf! Barnes missed a hell of a lot in the game, the high tackle on Weir for one (though that said, Barnes might be forgiven due to the fact that Weir has no neck ) and a fair new ruck infringements all during a perios of Scottish pressure when they were 3 behind.
Scary thing about the French though is how they can just turn it on every now and then and score 2 fantastic tries...

Yes I agree, the scots turned over severall ball in the first half..but if you look in details, the turn-overs of the first half were much more silly mistake from the French (Silly lineouts) or Frenchies not able to keep ball properly in hands than big defense pressure from the scots, as it seems to me that in the second half, the frenchies turned over the ball much more because they were putting a lot of pressure on the scottish ball carrier in Rucks or open scrum phases. Lets say that the French turn overs were much more result of a defensive pressure than the scot turn-over..and this is saying something about the French match overall.

And I agree with you on the last point as quite surprisingly, before When France started to take tries against them in the past, they had difficulties to come back into the game. yesterday, they really turned on when it was needed, Seems they are able to control themselves much more about this.

Everything is not perfect definitly and I would like to see France playing a much more open game that this minimalist game they played yesterday...

 

[French TommyGun]

. Oi jaunard06 I'm not liking your attitude mate! give France a break will ya! We won didn't we?! We got 2 beautiful tries in, made a s***t load of tackles, a lot of turn over ball and all in all it was quite an exciting game to watch! What else do you want?! If you want perfection go support the All Blacks! Allez Les Bleus!!

 

[jaunard06]

. Oi jaunard06 I'm not liking your attitude mate! give France a break will ya! We won didn't we?! We got 2 beautiful tries in, made a s***t load of tackles, a lot of turn over ball and all in all it was quite an exciting game to watch! What else do you want?! If you want perfection go support the All Blacks! Allez Les Bleus!!

What else do I want...winning the tournament maybe ? Because if we play the same way against any of the three upcoming opponents this will never happen.
Where do you see perfection in All Blacks' game ? Especially after that infamous WC final ?!?

 

[French TommyGun]

. Ok jaujau calm down buddy I was only joking around its just everyone is so quick to criticize the French and I would like to see a bit more support from its own fans that's all. It wasn't all bad though there's some positives to take from yesterdays game, I think our defence was solid, what we lacked in aggression we made up in composure, resolve and determination and taking in account that we hadn't played in 3 weeks I for one was satisfied with they're performance. (espérons qu'ils avaient juste besoin de se dégourdir les pattes) ;-)

 

[coonor]

Ohhh what a weekend!!! I was supposed to be in Glasgow by Friday evening but then fog descended on Guernsey...... We ended up getting into Edinburgh an hour before the game and made a mad dash to get to the stadium. But it was so worth it!!! I loved the game and I don't even support either team (obviously wanted Scotland to win). I would go through it all again just to hear The Flower of Scotland

 

[jaunard06]

. Ok jaujau calm down buddy I was only joking around its just everyone is so quick to criticize the French and I would like to see a bit more support from its own fans that's all. It wasn't all bad though there's some positives to take from yesterdays game, I think our defence was solid, what we lacked in aggression we made up in composure, resolve and determination and taking in account that we hadn't played in 3 weeks I for one was satisfied with they're performance. (espérons qu'ils avaient juste besoin de se dégourdir les pattes) ;-)

That's I guess what makes the difference b/t a "fan" and a supporter...
I criticize them because I like "my" team and want them to go as far as possible. You talked about the ABs, when you see France's performance during the WC final you realize that they can do much, much better that what we saw last sunday ! And this was IMO due to a little bit of arrogance and understimation of that excellent scottish team.
Let's hope that we will see more engagement for the next match or otherwise......

 

[mightwin... winnawin]

Thought Scotland played reasonably well and their performance most certainly affected the way France played... Andy Robinson in my opinion is gradually building a half decent squad and I feel they team will be heading to Dublin and healthy state of mind. France just seemed to more agressive and street wise at the breakdown. Hopefully the Scots forwards can learn from this. When a line break is made the support is just not good enough... but definately an improvement on the English and Welsh matches.