Scotland: A Review

(c) PA Photos

"I talked about their game plan, their tactics, it's very difficult to see what they're doing" Jeremy Guscott on Scotland.

After watching the Scotland/England round 2 match-up I was very bothered by Scotland's performance because it felt like the first two rounds of the Championship at that time just ran so counter to the performances I remembered from last year. So I started to dig into the numbers a bit more and see just how delusional I had been about what happened last year.

In my 6 Nations preview for Scotland (here) I talked about their improved attack and scoring prowess in last year's tournament, and I was trying to be positive, but I wasn't looking or thinking about the whole picture at the time to understand the flaws in their game. I think as we have seen in their first three games in 2014, that positivity that was even there in the summer tour has mostly disappeared into a big team-wide malaise. Under Scott Johnson the team has secured some memorable wins and had the feeling of an improving side, but like his successor Andy Robinson those wins were built on the flawed performance of the other side (or their kicker *cough*Australia*cough*) and dogged defence by the Scots and when they got the result it was not often because they were the best side on the pitch.