Flash
1. Italy - terrible, should have lost, backline neutralised because of slow ball and flat positions vs the blitz
There's no way we would have lost to Italy. We never looked like losing. You're not one of these people who take the disputed tries out and say 'look, we would have lost', are you? Even if you are it's worth noting that both tries have since been proved valid tries and even if Bowe's wasn't given the ref was playing a penalty advantage. It's also worth noting that the ref wasn't doing either side any favours. There really should have been at least one or two Italians in the bin for persistent infringing at the breakdown.
2. France - murdered by the French by the blitz;
That's stretching it to the extreme. We regularily made ground in the first half while only 1 of the tries could be put down to blitz defence and even then it was our own players who handicapped us.
played 30 minutes without a game plan
We played the exact same way in the first half. It's bizarre that you can't see it. We made as many errors and mistakes in the last 30 mins as we did in the first 50. It's just that where before those errors were bouncing the French way they started going our way. Good example is when a backline move broke down due to a dropped pass near the touchline. Heymans, I think it was, hacked on. Ball bounced into touch instead of down the pitch as it would have in the first half. 3 of our tries in that game were off quick tap penalties with the first one being a carbon copy of what we attempted in the first 5 mins of the match.
Of course we can't play with complete abandon but it's worth noting that when you watch the game ROG did kick when the kick was the right choice (as it was when he was blocked but he was hampered by D'Arcy putting the French 2 metres closer to ROG and Murphy standing in front of his kicking line) but by and large we always made ground with ball in hand and only lost the ball due to our own poor execution. D'Arcy had 7 errors, all handling I think. That doesn't happen often and can't solely be put down to pressure. So the question is, why can't we play the way we tried to against France? The only way we're going to get that increase in ability is to keep playing that way. We certainly need more composure near the line and I think this is our main weakness. Once there is no space to exploit and teams are able to have a flat defence without risk we find it hard to create the openings. So my opinion is that our approach play is just fine and we should continue the promise shown against France but that we need to work very hard on actually getting over the line.
3. Wales - Wales were appalling and their game fell appart when Jones went off.....
I said after the Welsh game that I thought we'd regressed. We went a little back into our shell of conservatism. It won us the game, as it always will against a team as weakened as Wales and would probably be enough for tomorrow too but it's just threading water, no more.
On balance, I feel Scotland have a better pack
Can't see that at all. The only area Scotland are marginally better is the backrow. Our front five is much better, especially our front row with Scotland and Aus the only sides that we can actually look down on when it comes to scrummaging.
Which means it could come down to kicks, and if we look at form this season, Patterson is ahead.....
Ah come on! 12/14 versus 17/21. Not really much in it.
There is no reason why we shouldn't win this game by 20 but Scotland have surprised me all season so it could be tighter. But it shouldn't be.
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