Scotland Six Nations squad 2022

[retired9]

Right time to get the excitement built up again, however optimistic it might be!
Hoping for a bit of a reaction from Scotland this weekend, neither game so far has seen us play at our best so now would be a good time to turn it on.
What changes would we like to see from the 23 that faced Wales?

 

[AlRums]

Lost Gray now

Jonny Gray ruled out of the rest of the Six Nations

Lock Jonny Gray has handed Scotland a major set back in the build up to their Six Nations clash with France.

rugbypass.com

 

[thejackal]

Big loss that. He would've been useful against those very small men in the French pack. Cam Redpath also back to Bath, not ideal.

 

[retired9]

That was a tough watch on Saturday very very frustrating that Scotland cannot keep their discipline long enough to capitilise. France were very good and yet I feel they didn't have to play a lot of rugby to get their scores, so much was fast accurate counter attack after a Scottish balls up. A good 20-25 minutes of the first half we kept France under control and didn't gift them the ball - things looked OK-ish apart from the squandered scoring opportunities.

I feel like there is a strong call to change things up for Italy, Hastings in for Russell, Jiffy made the observation on the Beeb2 highlights show where these constant big long looping passes from 10 are failing to engage the defense effectively to open up space. It works once youve sucked them all in tight but all the time is counter productive.

I don't think Scotland need to change much, but the potency of attack has gone and this needs adapted (one of Russells big weaknesses Internationally for me), Finn gets too 1 dimensional when sometimes banging a few good kicks off plan into the corners would make all the difference.

 

[retired9]

Well with some time to reflect on Saturday where does this leave Scotland for the Dublin trip this weekend?

Mixed bag in Rome, some really good performances from individuals and collectively on occasion, also some inaccuracies still creep in now and again with a fairly high penalty count by 2021 standards.

The good:

Schoeman had another really great game he is a real athlete and has played his heart out lately.

Watson and Darge is quite a combo, Matt Fagerson too and this is before we consider there was no Richie. The pack are in decent ish shape for the future I think.

Price was great, excellent vision and turn of pace to be a real nuisance when he turns it on. Vellacott looked electric also I want to see more of him.

Russell was much improved for me and although nowhere near what we need from him he was far more involved in this game. Think the lazy tag from Hartley/JD1 has stung a bit I saw him tackling and getting back in the defencive line much more vigoursely than previous games. His choice of passing was better, not looping them everytime.

Johnson was a welcome return, he works hard in that shirt every game. Redpath will be the future I think, but Sam certainly has a place and with Harris the pairing is better than the others seen so far. He also plays off Finn better.

The Bad:

Zander has to sort out his open play game, the guy consistently loses the ball in contact or gets pinged at ruck time (in from side etc). It's a real annoyance because he a great scrummager and quite hard to replace in the current setup.

Hogg, something just isn't working at the moment for me with him. He is not playing anywhere near his potential, probably pressure on himself and the team to be fair. I wonder if he was relieved of captaincy it might rejuvenate him a bit, Richie if fit would be a contender I think, McInally has done it before too.

As it has been all along, our penalty count is really not helping and some of last years defensive stability is desperately needed.

 

[Jakedood]

Well with some time to reflect on Saturday where does this leave Scotland for the Dublin trip this weekend?

Mixed bag in Rome, some really good performances from individuals and collectively on occasion, also some inaccuracies still creep in now and again with a fairly high penalty count by 2021 standards.

The good:

Schoeman had another really great game he is a real athlete and has played his heart out lately.

Watson and Darge is quite a combo, Matt Fagerson too and this is before we consider there was no Richie. The pack are in decent ish shape for the future I think.

Price was great, excellent vision and turn of pace to be a real nuisance when he turns it on. Vellacott looked electric also I want to see more of him.

Russell was much improved for me and although nowhere near what we need from him he was far more involved in this game. Think the lazy tag from Hartley/JD1 has stung a bit I saw him tackling and getting back in the defencive line much more vigoursely than previous games. His choice of passing was better, not looping them everytime.

Johnson was a welcome return, he works hard in that shirt every game. Redpath will be the future I think, but Sam certainly has a place and with Harris the pairing is better than the others seen so far. He also plays off Finn better.

The Bad:

Zander has to sort out his open play game, the guy consistently loses the ball in contact or gets pinged at ruck time (in from side etc). It's a real annoyance because he a great scrummager and quite hard to replace in the current setup.

Hogg, something just isn't working at the moment for me with him. He is not playing anywhere near his potential, probably pressure on himself and the team to be fair. I wonder if he was relieved of captaincy it might rejuvenate him a bit, Richie if fit would be a contender I think, McInally has done it before too.

As it has been all along, our penalty count is really not helping and some of last years defensive stability is desperately needed.

I'd actually have to disagree on Hogg

I mean he's lost half a yard of pace with age, that's to be expected, but his decision making was absolutely impeccable on Saturday
I actually thought Russell & Harris were okay but not great, Harris scored two tries but they werent exactly difficult finishes, and didnt do much else ball in hand, defensively a very solid player but needs to up the side of his game with ball in hand

 

[retired9]

I'd actually have to disagree on Hogg

I mean he's lost half a yard of pace with age, that's to be expected, but his decision making was absolutely impeccable on Saturday
I actually thought Russell & Harris were okay but not great, Harris scored two tries but they werent exactly difficult finishes, and didnt do much else ball in hand, defensively a very solid player but needs to up the side of his game with ball in hand

Maybe I'm a bit harsh on Hogg he was much better in this game to be fair. Although the defence of Italy's first half try was suspect and there was a pass to Steyn that went to ground (possibly Steyn's fault though). Right now he is the best we have available which I am ok with, Maitland is one of the few I would trust in place of Hogg right now.

 

[retired9]

Another 6N is over and it has really been disappointing in terms of results for Scotland. I felt that on last years tournament and an OK ish Autumn we could have been a decent 3rd placed team maybe second with the bounce of the ball. France and Ireland were always going to be especially difficult but after the opening win over England we really threw away the chance to beat Wales too.

The defence has been off compared to a year ago (where it was exceptionally good), and the unforced errors and cheap penalties really quite worrying - it suggests an attitude or concentration problem.

There are 2 distinct sides of the same coin, the Team and Townsend. What I don't know is are they both compatible now for future success, there seems to be a problem with Finn and Hogg is not at the best he can be. Combined with Beergate there has to be a culture problem amongst some of the senior players that they are above the team - maybe because they haven't been seriously challenged for their positions this tournament.

Toonie is capable of more, I think the issue is that he is much earlier in his coaching career internationally than some others and needs to be much tougher on under achievers. If Price and Russell were seriously battling for selection every week and they knew that Toonie could drop them I think we may have got more from those guys. To be fair Ali has been decent, but White and Vellacott have been really sharp too. Finn suddenly got stuck in after the defense debarcle V France and being dropped against Ireland had wiped the smirk away, he was on a mission when he came on.

As I said above, the Hogg scenario is much more challenging, I think taking the captaincy away would be a better option, partly because we don't have a replacement waiting and also it will dent his ego enough to get the best from him. Ireland was infuriating, he did so much well before the tackle the easy pass was all that remained. Partly it will be him trying to make amends for the week (if he had scored it would be a wonder try), but also his trait for Scotland has been to create something from nothing so he must fix his blinkers quickly - we can't miss walk-in tries in future. Maitland is the only proven back up with a bit of ability at 15 so we really need a decent answer for selection options.

Another thing I don't like is the very PR bland approach to interviews (I know they all do it but the script is boring and smacks of repetitive lies when not performing), a little more realism would be better. The media have tried to make it sound like Scotland were expecting a tournament win which I don't think anyone ever was, yes it is our best squad in 20 odd years but we really are not performing well enough to do it.

For now I have faith in Gregor to go away and improve himself and his coaching, he has done it before. I don't know who could replace him anyway, does Gats want a job?

 

[g6mcg]

Do you think another coach would get more out of this squad? They probably should have beaten Wales in Cardiff, but I think they're a long way off the Irish and French. Probably a moot point anyway as I doubt the SRU have the money to pay him off.

 

[retired9]

Do you think another coach would get more out of this squad? They probably should have beaten Wales in Cardiff, but I think they're a long way off the Irish and French. Probably a moot point anyway as I doubt the SRU have the money to pay him off.

I maybe didn't word my last paragraph quite right, I think Gregor will learn a lot from this tournament (I'm sounding like Toonie now!) and genuinely make changes to himself. I'm not sure there is necessarily a realistic alternative going around at the moment, I do think Hoggs captaincy is over going by the interviews since the weekend.