Robinson's time now coming to an end?

[Me 1]

Nah their attack is still better than Italy. But that ain't saying much.

Someone didn't watch the France-Italy game

 

[Seaton]

Nah their attack is still better than Italy. But that ain't saying much.

Have Italy failed to score a try in their last 4 games?

 

[welshglory]

Someone didn't watch the France-Italy game

Umm... yes i did actually. It looked to me like they were spreading the ball but they didn't go anywhere most of the time. Its easy to say that they were playing expansively and with pace but if your going sideways and not forwards that ain't saying much. Lets see how Italy's attack goes for for the rest of the 6 nations before we say they are a great attacking team shall we.

 

[Seaton]

Who said Italy were a great attacking team?

 

[welshglory]

Ok Mr.Nitpicker. I still don't see how they attacked well. The Italian attack was fast but it was sideways cant see how that is better than Scotland. At least Scotland made some linebreaks

 

[Seaton]

Nitpicking? :lol:


My question stands, who referred to or even hinted at Italy being a great attacking team?

 

[welshglory]

Ok i admit im wrong no one said they were a great attacking team. Im saying that Scotland are better than Italy in attack and i didn't think Italy's attack was as good as some are making it out to be.

 

[Seaton]

Ok i admit im wrong no one said they were a great attacking team. Im saying that Scotland are better than Italy in attack and i didn't think Italy's attack was as good as some are making it out to be.

There we go, at least you can admit you made a mistake. Would have done AR a world, no solar system, of good to have admitted that he made a mistakes in selection.


But for the record, I don't think anyone was claiming Italy to be the next best thing since sliced bread. In my opinion, Italy would have taken that England team and it's performance to the cleaners.

 

[Me 1]

Umm... yes i did actually. It looked to me like they were spreading the ball but they didn't go anywhere most of the time. Its easy to say that they were playing expansively and with pace but if your going sideways and not forwards that ain't saying much. Lets see how Italy's attack goes for for the rest of the 6 nations before we say they are a great attacking team shall we.

Ok, maybe I should have said something along the lines of 'someone didn't notice parts of the Italian attack' or something like that. But my point still stands, most of the times Italy attacked Burton just kicked it away, sometimes it worked at sometimes it didn't. If Burton had just regathered his chip it could have been a try, although the same is true of Laidlaw. Sometimes he went for the drop goal, it worked but they had a promising attack building up, and he just kicked it. Botes was an improvement when he came on, if his offload to D'Apice had gone to hand it could quite easily have been a try. Botes will surely start next week so there attack should be a lot better. Scotland did make line breaks but in the end they couldn't be finished off either.

An interesting stat as well, at the end of the game they said something like: Ball won in opponents 22: Scotland 32 England 8. Scotland really should have done better with that much chances. Scotland had so many chances but blew them all.

 

[Feicarsinn]

Wow, Gadhlig is an awesome language

I'm always amazed how much of it I understand. It's almost the exact same as Irish.

 

[TRF_heineken]

Can I just say something here which I observed in the England/Scotland game?

Your attack will be much better if your forwards actually commit to the rucks quicker, your scrumhalf on numerous occasions had to call in more guys to clear up the ball... and then what happened was the player at the back of the ruck picks up the ball and pops it to the scrumhalf... That made the English defence charge up earlier and the the ball hasn't even reached the flyhalf.

If you can get quicker ball and the scrummie from the base of the ruck immediately pass the ball to the fly-half, then your backline will be quicker on the draw and have a little bit more time to move.

Now this is a basic skill which has to be learnt at club level. As a neutral, I had to say it was one of the most boring games I ever watched, except when Denton ran with the ball. it's so frustrating to see a team try so hard and not get what they deserved, the Scots was the better team on the field IMO, but they were on the back foot everytime on attack because the forwards were too slow to the rucks and the scrumhalf didn't pick the ball up himself from the base, except when he had a dart himself.

Whether this is a coaching problem or a gameplan problem or a player problem, that can be debatable, but the fact of the matter is, it's a problem.

 

[smartcooky]

I've always felt that Robinson is an excellent coach, but a poor selector, as shown with his persistence with Parks, de Luca, etc. and I also agree that Townsend should go, as Scotland have the worst attack of any major side in world rugby.

Be honest now, would the other players available for selection really make that much difference?

Teh Mite makes the point earlier that AR doesn't exactly have a wealth of resources available to him. He's got TWO teams in the Celtic League (or whatever they are calling it this year) and a few Scots scattered about other European teams.

IMO, no matter who the Scottish coach is, they will be lucky to beat any team other than Italy in this 6N. England were absolutely dire on Sunday morning, and they could not put them away.

 

[ThatFellowEdwards]

Andy Robinson had little to do with that loss against England. You cannot (and shouldn't have to) teach an International player to catch a rugby ball. The players just aren't good enough, it's as simple as that.

What he CAN influence though is their mentality going forward. Time after time they were coughing it up in the 22.

 

[Olliekooga]

Couldnt agree more with ThatFellowEdwards

AR doesnt cross the white wash his players failed to make chances count because they were/ are not good enough. There are some world class players in Scotland like Richie Gray, Max Evans (had a good game and looked dangerous) but there are some donkeys (Rennie and Parks to name 2) and you are only as strong as your weakest link

 

[Amiga500]

Drop Parks and Scotland will do all right.


OK, they'll still fluff tries, but eventually they'll get used to the concept of taking the ball on a hard run at the gain line.

 

[Seaton]

Be honest now, would the other players available for selection really make that much difference?

Teh Mite makes the point earlier that AR doesn't exactly have a wealth of resources available to him. He's got TWO teams in the Celtic League (or whatever they are calling it this year) and a few Scots scattered about other European teams.

IMO, no matter who the Scottish coach is, they will be lucky to beat any team other than Italy in this 6N. England were absolutely dire on Sunday morning, and they could not put them away.

Largely, yes.

But he selected players not on form, but to a gameplan.

Rory Lamont, Chris Custier/ Dan Parks and to an extent Sean Lamont were far from their best form, whilst youngsters Stuart Hogg, Duncan Weir/ Greig Laidlaw and Matt Scott were having excellend seasons.

He could do nothing about the front row, those were the best players we have, and disappointingly the best performing ones as well.

It is Robinson's fault for selecting out of form players, and then taking 60 minutes to change it. It is also the coaches fault for the tactics chosen. Whenever the ball was marginally slowed on attack, a forward would come in and protect Cusiter before he tried to move it on. Result is that England had time to reset and realign in those precious few seconds.

 

[smartcooky]

Largely, yes.

But he selected players not on form, but to a gameplan.

Rory Lamont, Chris Custier/ Dan Parks and to an extent Sean Lamont were far from their best form, whilst youngsters Stuart Hogg, Duncan Weir/ Greig Laidlaw and Matt Scott were having excellend seasons.

He could do nothing about the front row, those were the best players we have, and disappointingly the best performing ones as well.

It is Robinson's fault for selecting out of form players, and then taking 60 minutes to change it. It is also the coaches fault for the tactics chosen. Whenever the ball was marginally slowed on attack, a forward would come in and protect Cusiter before he tried to move it on. Result is that England had time to reset and realign in those precious few seconds.

Perhaps he should just have swapped his "A" side for his top side. They thrashed England Saxons 35-0, running in four tries in the process!!

 

[Seaton]

Perhaps he should just have swapped his "A" side for his top side. They thrashed England Saxons 35-0, running in four tries in the process!!

And who were the main players and scorers in that game?...

Hint hint for the oblivious, look at players who most think should have started the main game.

We avoid these things for too long, don't know why, unoriginal but all too true:


Scottish players couldn't score in a brothel.

 

[smartcooky]

Stuart Hogg, Rory Lawson Mat Scott and Duncan Weir scored the tries, Weir added 3 conversions and three penalty goals


I haven't see then game but from what accounts I have read, Simon Danielli and Weir played well, as did Ed kalman before he was subbed.

 

[Dougydeluxe]

I still have faith in AR, I hope he uses this early loss as an excuse to try some new things on the international stage.