Scotland player ratings (61)
- 9 Sep 07, 06:52 PM
Scotland won their opening match of the 2007 World Cup by defeating tournament debutants Portugal 56-10.
The Iberian minnows, only two of whom are professionals, will claim a moral victory after making the Scots work for every score.
Let us know what you make of the ratings, and your views in general of the Scottish performance.
Rory Lamont The full-back was the star of the show for the Scots in the opening 40 minutes. He took his two tries superbly, was a constant threat with the ball in hand and was solid under the high ball - 8
Sean Lamont For once he was outshone by his brother. Scotland struggled to give him much decent ball and he will have more influential games - 6
Marcus di Rollo The outside centre was once brushed off by a Portuguese attacker. His distribution was poor and he failed to impose himself in either attack or defence against limited opposition - 4
Rob Dewey The 17-stone centre made some powerful bursts with the ball in hand and he took his try well, brushing off some ineffective tackling - 6
Simon Webster He had little chance to shine in the first half but got more involved after the break and a couple of good runs created tries - 6
Dan Parks Did his chances of keeping the fly-half role n harm with a controlled display. The fly-half kicked well and he directed play with aplomb - 7
Mike Blair Fumbled away possession a couple of times and although he was otherwise tidy he did not make the most of an easy ride - 5
Simon Taylor He could not stop the half-break which led to Portugal’s try and was fairly anonymous throughout - 6
Ally Hogg Scotland’s back row normally sets the tempo for the side but Hogg was as quiet as his partners – all three will have more influential games - 6
Jason White He won some good line-out ball but he is clearly not yet back to the form which made him one of the most destructive defensive forces in the world game - 6
Scott Murray He had a one fine run in the wide open spaces and the veteran lock was dominant in the line-outs – 7
Nathan Hines He won plenty of line-out ball but never really imposed himself around the park as much as he could have done - 6
Euan Murray Solid but no more than that in the scrums and invisible in the loose - 5
Scot Lawson The hooker took try his try well and produced some good handling in the loose, while he hit his jumpers consistently at the line-out - 7
Alan Jacobsen Did nothing wrong before coming off with a leg injury after 35 minutes – 6
Replacements:
Gavin Kerr Failed to make much of an impression after replacing Jacobsen after 35 mins - 6
Chris Paterson - Kicked well when he came on and had an easy ride as Portugal tired - 6
Hugo Southwell – Did his best to get involved out wide but never managed to break free, bar his late try - 6
Kelly Brown Took his try well but too little time to really shine - 6
Rory Lawson Did nothing wrong after coming on as a late replacement - 6
Ross Ford Another late replacement who will be happy enough to have scored a World Cup try, albeit from a yard and a half - 6
James Standley is a ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sport journalist based in London.
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I thought Scotland played a wonderfully tight game. There was no point playing an open game where we ended up with a Australia vs Japan result. That would not help Scotland in their games to come; or Portugal when they face the All Blacks. Congratulations on an entertaining game.
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Disagree with you James - I was shouting at the TV due to the continuous poor handling from the boys in blue! In the end, 56 points was Ok - and compares well with wales, England and Ireland's first half.
Some curious ratings though...for instance,"Hugo Southwell – Did his best to get involved out wide but never managed to break free...." - that'll be apart from the time he scored the try!
You are also too mean on Simon Webster who, along with Rory L was our best back.
Personally more worried about the way Portugal got through our defence - it was reminiscent of the Italy 6 nations game at times.
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Scotland were very poor throughout, Jason White still does'nt look match fit, Nathan Hines and Simon Taylor were somewhat remote and Marcus Di Rollo played himself onto the bench !!
In summary after that performance I am suddenly more concerned about Romania let alone NZ and Italy !!
Poor...no excuses, bad decision making and some awful ball handling....
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I more or less agree with the ratings. Can't understand why the ever use De Rollo.
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It was a good game to watch, we Portuguese fighted bravelly but of course we haven't got quality to match Scotland. Altough I can proudly say that we have one thing, heart! Our players gave everything they could and the mistakes they made, even if amateur ones, are understandle. Scotland played well, but they will have to get better if they want to pose a real threat against the All Blacks, and even Italy. Rory Lamont was astonishing, a great player, I was really surprised. Park was very good too, excellet kick/pass for lawson's try. Good luck for Scotland!
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I agree with these ratings, the write understands that Scotland are a top 10 team and Portugal despite playing well are a lesser team in their first WC game. Many ratings throughout the team at 8/9 and this should have been a 100 pointer. Spot on
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re James Brough - I'm sorry, but tell me Portugal are lively after they play NZ. I could name at least a few livelier teams. Leaving aside the top 10 teams in the world, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Canada and the USA are all teams I would fancy to beat Portugal, most of them comfortably. If your point is that Scotland eventually coped with Portugal, fair enough. But to endow them with more than a modicum of ability is a false hope. Watch the Portugal v Italy on 19th September. Then weep.................
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Scotland made mistakes and allowed Portugal to turn them over in midfield. These mistakes will be punished by NZ and Italy. It wasn't as clinical a performance as I would have hoped. Also, when they spin it out the line, players aren't hitting the ball at pace, rather they are taking the ball slow or still and getting wrapped up too easily.
Otherwise fairly solid. Don't think the ABs will worry and Italy will target the backline to steal ball.
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England run in a mere 3 tries while Scotland run in 8 tries, yet the mean Scottish player rating is only 0.3 greater than the mean English player rating.....is guess this equates to reality through rose tinted specs (?)
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I have to agree with #1 the Scotland players played far better than those ratings. OK they did have a few sloppy passes but overall their performance was brilliant. Rory Lamont was by far Scotland's biggest asset on the field along with Dan Park's who put in alot of good accurrate kicking to set up some of the tries. Lets hope they can keep it up and go far in the competition.
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I think the ratings are actually generous.
Taking nothing away from a tremendously spirited performance by Portugal, our execution was poor - far from flawless I'm afraid. Too many mistakes.
Whole team gets a 4 out of ten apart from R Lamont who (again) played superbly and gets a 7. Parks gets a 6. Di Rollo gets 0.
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Fair point Ken (post 3) - duly ammended to include his try!
And surely James (post 1) is being ironic?
Portugal are ranked 22nd in the world and only have a couple of professional players.
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I'm a bit more comfortable than if I was wearing an England shirt but we have to stop the silly stuff. Why was Parks in at 10 from the start after two good warm up games with Paterson at 10. He wasn't dire but felt that with Blair it's where we lost much of the fluidity. Di Rollo needs to find a comfy seat on the bench.
A reasonable start but we need to be much more clinical before we face the All Blacks and the Italians
6 out of 10
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Lets be honest, Scotland struggled to dominate the game. Portugal were very combative & spirited throughout, but as a rugby 'minnow' they should have been dispatched far easier. Scotland lost their structure & the 'go forward' momentum in the second half. A poor outing really, Di Rollo struggled again. R Lamont showed great attacking ability though. Question.....have the Scots been coached NOT to pass out of the tackle?
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Scotland were o.k, not much better than that. Di Rollo had a shocker, and think that he is a weak link in the side.
Positive from Lamont, hope he can maintain that standard and the rest can rise to it.
Tougher tests to come, would like to see more agressive defence in the midfield, would be nice to see a few hard hits knocking opposition backwards, I think we should be doing that especially against teams of Portugals standard.
Think Scotland flow better with Patterson at 10, but Parks kicking game can be useful at times.
Lawson had a decent hit out at hooker, and thi nk the rest of the pack will benefit from having 1 game under their belt.
More to come from the whole side I think... I hope !
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Scotland were frustrating to watch, Dan Parks played well but Paterson would have set a tempo that the Portugese wouldn't have lived with. DiRollo played himself of the bench the team and hopefully the squad. If Henderson is not fit then start Webster at 13, we should have put 70 points on them all we needed was creativity in key areas. Forwards should have bust a gut to tear through Portugal early on and destroy them quickly. If we get turned over by Portugal that easily New Zealand will put more scores passed us than letters on the team sheet.
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Personally thought Scotland looked pretty average today. There were times when I just couldn't believe the lack basic skill eg. so many dropped balls, Portugal splitting the defence open easily.
Still, to beat any team by 46 points is nothing too be scoffed at, and it shows we are improving if we can rack up that scoreline despite, being honest, being on the back foot for 20 mins of the second half. Think we could have had a bit more problems if that interception try had been given.............
As for the next games, hopefully all we can do is improve. Romania shouldn't pose too much of a threat, but will have more than Portugal. Being at Murrayfield, I would expect a sound victory there. The All Blacks will have seen nothing today against Portugal that will worry them.
Italy?? I am getting worried. They scored 2, should have had 3 against the All Blacks, and seem to be getting better faster than us. Think they will trounce Portugal. Think it is going to be VERY close when we play Italy, and I can see us losing, but also I can see us winning
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Just kind of curious throughout. They seemed to be enjoying it, which is a good thing. Yes they CAN play better and with more oomph, but will they, when it matters? And those miss-moves... Yes, it was nearly Italy again. Portugal had an intercept try chalked off, and there were a couple of other close calls with long passes which went wrong. Why not put the ball through the hands fast and get the players up and involved? The long, looping (and slow) passes just throw away good overlaps which the team has worked hard to set up. Keep it simple, lads.
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Sorry, at no point did i say porutgal were good. as you appear to think. i said they were lively. the fact that they kept pushing the rules (and rightly so) was why there were so many errors. scotland have never been technically brilliant. but the gamplan was to go out and win comprehensively and they did that. Rory L i think was outstanding. and his performance would have troubled the best of sides. i disagree with Ken (point 3). Webster was anonymous the whole of the first half and didnt break through the defence effectively. i reckon di rollo was the only starter who deserved under a 7. He shouldnt be in the squad
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Im with the general consesus.... we did ok but far too many errors in the backs, di rollo must now be on the bench... parks had a good game by his standards,(can patterson kick with such accuracy??), but will that be a high enough standard against italy and the all blacks?
Lawson was the only forward who stood out.
The match against italy is going to be legendary, the italians showed speed against the all blacks and took their opportunities well, i can only hope we improve against romania and dont recieve to many injuries against n.z.
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Think the ratings are fair except Di Rollo, why did he even get rated?! A very rusty performance, where was the oomph from the forwards that we saw against Ireland in the warm-up match?!?! Looks like a lot of improvement to make if we're going to beat Italy and make the 1/4 finals!
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All his career Di Rollo has been getting picked for squads he is no where near good enough for. Yes, he is keen and willing, but is also probably the very worst player ever to get a run of games for Scotland (Rowan Shepherd might have run him close but only because of his 'goal' kicking). Let's never see him in a blue jersey again!
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the ratings aren't too bad. I Assume 6 is the average score? Not many of the players were that far above average in all honesty. I thought dan parks had a solid no-nonsense game as fly half, but with patterson on, we would have opened up portugal more times i reckon. De Rollo has always been a liability, we know now not to play him, plus southwell has a very good boot. I think we will improve on this performance though. Who wants to start perfectly? I think New Zealand are going to burn out in the semi's!
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I think we showed a 'decent' performance though nothing to cause NZ any worries! Unless they tidy up the rough edges of their game, Italy will beat them. Far too many errors as has been the case recently. Attacking, they looked pretty good but, as we saw against Springboks, they'll struggle against a strong well-organised defence. I think Italy will be fancying their chances. I hope I am wrong though!!!
A lot of credit must go to Portugal for performing much better than many expected. A very spirited performance from the new-comers!
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To be honest, we were always going to win this game, and our real objective was to get the four-try bonus point. Whether this took us twenty minutes or eighty is inconsequential. I'm quite happy for Parks to play in Paterson's stead for games like this. It was never vital for Paterson to get more match practice, but it was vital for Hadden to see how Parks' game has improved, and Dan really showed his skill today.
I am a bit worried about some of our handling errors, and how we got turned over in midfield, but I think that an eight-try rout is a pretty respectable achievement for a semi-second-string squad for their opening game. Scotland will improve, and I reckon that players like Parks, Murrey, and Rory Lawson, when they get brought on after 60 minutes againt the Italians, will totally turn the game in our favour. If we can get through the Romania game with a bonus point and no injuries, and then have a respectable defeat to the All Blacks, we'll be in a fantastic position with a fit starting squad, match-experienced subs, and a real fire our loins (sorry... hearts.).
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Portugal is an amateur team with two professional players. The rest of the team has a normal job as you and me...
Best Player of the game (By the tournament organization): J Uva, Portuguese, amateur...with pleasure to play Rugby and attitude!
Scotland...no flame, disappointing!
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DiRollo had a rubbish game but he is not helped by Dewey. He either gets bypassed or a late pass from 12. Plus it was his first game in about half a year. He is signing for Toulouse, surely he cant be that bad?
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Scotland very poor today and lets not get carried away by the score.Basics were lacking in all areas-poor handling with many knock-ons often from poor passes,poor spacial awareness-whatever happened to drawing a man and passing out,out muscled at times and defensive weakness.The whole team and coaches should watch SA v Samoa to show how to defeat a team being in your face and aggressive.On this showing Italy have nothing to fear neither do NZs 5th strength team!!
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Decent enough performance and agree with the ratings on the whole. Good line out ball and should have driven it a bit more from back of line to suck in their defence before spinning wide. Back row was quiet today but there quality will show through later.
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no hopers.
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it has been a bad weekend for all of the home nations.
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I agree with the ratings. Not Scotland's finest hour. But watching the condensed highlights later (without the dropped passes) they executed their tries well and kicked flawlessly. At 21-0 they relaxed and that was it. There's a lot more in the tank and at least the game was beyond doubt early on.
Thought Parks needed the run out but there's no way he's going to start at 10 against AB and Italy is there? Patterson surely has that sewn up.
I'm worried about the schedule though and will be totally gutted if I turn up to Murrayfield to see a 2nd string fielded against the AB. Italy will have nearly 2 weeks to prepare for us! There has to be something wrong there!
btw... great chance of getting to the semis with France being nobbled. Or am I getting ahead of myself? Come on boys!
(Oh and congratulations to the Portuguese bloggers. Your boys were comparatively excellent and scored a try that any nation would be proud of.)
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Generally agree with the assessments except in the case of Dan Parks; yes he kicked well but he insists on using the long floated pass which slows the game and is always susceptible to an interception. He was very lucky that the referee called off-side when that happened.
Chris Paterson offers so much more; faster, stronger tackler, stastically the best place kicker in the game at the moment and much less likely to give the ball away.
Portugal did very well but Scotland admittedly in a "no-win" gme were disappointing. However good to get the win and hopefully a big improvement for the next game.
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NZ took apart, with clinical efficiency I thought, a 6N team that beat Scotland earlier this year. Yet there are Kiwis that still grumble that there were still areas of improvement.
And yet there are those trying to convince this forum that Scotland played better than the ratings suggest.
Scotland stuggled for 10 mins before the break and at about 15 mins after the break, most of this period against a 14 man Portugal. A debut team in the RWC and whose Captain won man of the match.
One would have hoped that Scotland would have been more clinical than that (given that Scotland are made up of pro players, given the amount of training and preparation that has been carried out as well as games against Ireland and SA). So yes the ratings do reflect the way Scotland played; to compare Scotland against the performances of other home nation teams is pointless (why do we care how about Ireland, Wales or England), surely it's how we compare to the southern hemisphere teams, as they are the ones who are contenders for RWC.
And on the back of the game against Portugual, I retract my comments in an earlier blog about the possibilities against NZ. Quite frankly (no pun intended) Hadden has a big job in getting Scotland prepared for a crack against ABs and Italy.
Other than di Rollo (awful again), the bulk of yesterday's team will up against ABs and Italy as first choices.
So, why would one give them a higher rating than that given by the initiator of the blog?
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I think -4 is about right for Di Rollo.
The rest of the team were stuttering a bit. There was some excellent play and some pretty dire play. Webster was terrific when he moved into outside centre and Lamont (R) looks to be the kind of full back we've not had since the days of Andy Irvine.
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Scotland were so poor until lawson and paterson can on, they must start as a pair in the big games
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Can't see why there's so much negativity. Scotland were never anywhere near playing at full-tilt and were never anywhere near going to get beat. It happens that stronger sides do 'come down to the level' of lesser sides (see USA, Namibia, Canada). Italy were annihilated by NZ, NZ will not have it as easy v. Scotland. As for Italy soundly beating Scotland - think again - Scotland won't make the same mistake as the 6N. Arg. in the semis however is a different proposition tho.!
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marcus 'die and roll over'. nick de luca shud be in that squad in his place.
remember it was only portugal and the players wont hav been switched on as much as they will be for italy and new zealand
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Agree with sam's comment on di rollo. Never understood what Hadden sees in him; no way near an international player! Time we considered, even at this stage, a Dewey/Webster or Henderson/Webster centre pairing. We need that incisive running at outside centre.
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OK, there's a lot of high's and low's here, but that's to be expected with the nerves of a 1st world cup game. Scotland did not perform as well as they can and Portugal lifted there game for the occasion. It matters not where you are in the rankings, a match like this is why you play the game. It happens so often, that in that weird round balled game, they have a term..giant-killers. It's not so easy to do in rugby, but Portugal did well.
The rankings are fair, maybe 1 up or down for the odd plyer, but we don't deserve higher. This can be based on the most disappointing aspect of the game. We didn't carry on the skills and momentum that we gained in the warm up matches. We excelled out of the tackle in both matches and yesterday, we stopped playing on instinct and started thinking the game through. It will come as nerves abate and the focus sharpens.
A final point....Di Rollo....it's time to take a seat, son. You're not international class.
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Somewhat lethargic effort, particularly from an out of sorts back row thus highlighting the need for Scotland to play a proper openside; whilst Hogg is an outstanding all-round backrower he fails to get to the breakdown quick enough. Consequently, we should move White into lock and play Barclay - the pack remains bulky but also a little more dynamic which is what we need if we are to realistically challenge the top sides. Also, surely the selectors will finally realise the need to dispense with Di Rollo, who has never possessed the pace or cool decision-making of a 13 at international level, and will Frank Hadden be bold enough to start with Webster at 13 - made a huge impact moving inside yesterday - and thus give us some penetration out wide? Maybe a bit early to highlight but slightly perturbing to see the lack of quality on show from the Six Nations outfits whilst the 'SH Big Three' all looked ominous - a sign of things to come?
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Best of the home nations games i think, but very thankful that we didn't face Italy or New Zealand first. There were just too many errors, and bad choices made. Rory Lamont was our only attacking threat, and the forwards seemed to be non existant in the loose.
I thought Parks had a good game (can't believe i actually said that!), and Patterson played well when he came on. They are 2 very different types of stand-off and i hope they can learn from each other.... I think things will improve against Romania so that we at least get some momentum up... Scotland to reach the Semi's i reckon!
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There were way to many handling errors and loose balls by the Scots yesterday. We were just lucky that an inexperienced team like Portugal could not capitalise on it.
The good thing is that it happened against a lesser team and not the All Blacks. We won't be so lucky next time.
I was actually quite pleased with Portugal they made the Scots fight every inch of the way and good luck to them in their next match, they will certainly need it.
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I don't think Scotland came out to trample Portugal, I think they were more worried about avoiding injuries and maybe even not show too much.
They were playing at 80%, if that. I do find some of the errors that were made quite serious though, too many knock-ons, etc... and I'm sure the players will get some hard time for that.
You should have seen my jump when Portugal scored the try ;)
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Hmm...
Not good and if I were a backs or forwards coach (unless on the Portugal side) I would find it hard to find any positives.
Felt Scotland thought they had the game sewn up before they got on the pitch. Good for Portugal for reminding them that you actually have to beat the other side and stealing Scotland's premier tool, passion..
Rory Lamont was grood, loved his incisive running angles - at last some has realised angles are better than straight lines.. DP is beginning to look a bit happier at 10, that said, a certain NZ no.7 will eat him up for brekkie if he doesn't ship the ball faster.
Oh and since when has it been acceptable to pass either behind the player, at their head, two feet above their head, or at their feet? If Scotland want to master this so called expansive play, they could do well to look at the ´óÏó´«Ã½ academy for passing (and catching). I am fast coming to the conclusion that it is Scotland's over eagerness to get the ball wide, that causes the ball to go astray. Less haste more speed...
Finally, a big pat on the back to Portugal. Good to have you guys a the tournament.
Muito obrigado!
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"He is signing for Toulouse, surely he cant be that bad?"
- I thought Toulouse were still denying that.
But, yes, he can be that bad - look I have nothing against Marcus, but the vast majority of Scottish fans don't rate him and his performances in most of his Scotland (and Edinburgh) appearances have been at the poor-to-average end of the scale.
It isn't his fault that he keeps getting selected, but that only shows our lack of strength in depth.
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Rory Lamont was without a doubt the best player on the pitch and I though Dan Parks was pretth decent as well. Simon WEbster was very good as well and at least two the tries came from him. Marcus Di Rolllo was a joke....thank goodness he was only playing because of Andy Henderson's injury....The rest were all okay and I am disapointed that Allan Jacobsen is out.
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Pitiful performance against most amateur team in RWC - Portugal played their hearts out but we made them look like pros.
Parks is frightened to tackle and cant run - kicking and throwing out floaty passes are all he can do; no way was he first choice but FH at least had sense to keep CP for Romania and Italy.
As for AB game its ludicrous to give any of our top players a game as all that will matter is the game 6 days later v Italy.
Midfield a total shambles and error count ridiculously high for a good dry day.
Off to France next week but have no confidence about our game v Italy - so hope I am wrong.
But if Scots do prove me wrong a likely semi v Argentina (weren't Ireland and France woeful) is a massive prize and a great chance for a place in the last 4.
What an opportunity for these guys.
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can someone explain to me how Marcus 'oh please dont hit me hard' de rollo got into the team bearing in mind he was not in the equation for the WIN again Ireland and the event against South Africa. if you watch the footage, when he went in for a tackle he looked like he was in pain before he got hit. not impressed and agree that a -4 should have been his grade for this game.
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Personaly rather dissapointed with the game. Once again too many unforced handling errors. when I seen the Irish warm up match I saw a bit of the old teams who played for the shirt and country with all their heart and body, taking them on up front and straight at them. I was so proud of them. I have always said that when we play "in their faces" we can give anyone a game that they know they have been in. Lets have more of the old spirit lads but I am still 100% behind you.
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Di Rollo is just Rollocks. Why he is even considered for Scotland amazes me.
We have plenty of strenght in that area whcih Hadden refuses to acknowledge. De Luca, Robbie Kydd? To name a few. Even Webster looked better.
On the whole the performance was slightly above avaerage. A sufficient points margin, good displays from sum, but I'm putting this slightly lack-lustre display due to it being the first game.
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di rollo was so bad, why oh why was he picked? what has he ever done to deserve it? HE SUCKS.
back line for romania
9. Blair/Lawson
10. Paterson/Parks
11. S. Lamont
12. Henderson
13. Webster
14. R. Lamont
15. Southwell
o and by the way all of you talking about scotland struggling against romania, get a grip. we played at about %80, we were always going to beat them so why go flat out against them and risk injury?
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Webster at centre? hmm! Why not try mossy at outside centre and parks at flyhalf for the romania game.
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Rory on the wing? im pretty sure he's cemented his place at full-back, though i am a fan of southwell. surely he couldnt be much worse than Di Rollo at centre?
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I really want MDR to play well. Hadden is clearly a fan of his reputed ability to spread the ball wide. Alas, I've not seen it at international level. And his defence isn't up to much either.
The centres are a problem for us. Dewey isn't ideal at outside either, seems less effective with ball in hand, and not sure of his positioning defensively. Oh, and while I'm at it, I'd still rather we had a proper No 7 at the breakdown. MacFadgen when fully match fit is as destructive as anyone after McCaw.
MDR though, should be finding a comfy seat in the stand. Maybe Webster is the answer, with Walker on the wing.
As to the performance as a whole. Think it was OK in the end. I think the Scots were probably looser than usual because of the opposition; I expect them to tighten up from Rumania onwards.
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I was at the game in St. Etienne and it seemed to me that Scotland played well against fierce opposition.The Scottish kicking was superb, the lineouts and scrums adequate and the mauls and tackling unsatisfactory. There were one or two surprising turnovers at the breakdown which went against Scotland. It should be remembered that Scotland had 70% of possession! The Scots will undoubtedly get stuffed by NZ,have a hard job beating Italy and will probably deal comfortably with Romania.Excellent performances by the fullback and the flyhalves.Congratulations to the Portuguese squad who battled magnificently throughout.
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erm i dont actually know anything about rugby. my 2nd cousin was the one who messed things up. oh well.
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I agree it was a bad weekend for the 6 nations teams. The France Argentina result is very interesting. I assume (fingers crossed) that Scotland will finish second to NZ in the group. But who will win the French group now is a complete mystery. If we improve and hey the Portugal match was a warm up where we could try things rather than have a set plan (v Italy), then we hav a great chance of reaching the Semis by beating the dodgy winners of the French/Ireland/Argy group. C'mon Ireland.
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Agree with most of what is being said - Di Rollo is awful and lucky to be in the squad - hopefully Portugal performance consigns him to the bench at best.
A quick note though on Portugal. I think they played really well, and there are a couple of guys in their team that would not disgrace a decent proffessional club side. Their captain and fly half I thought were standout - clearly very good players. Portugal look not a million miles away from Italy 8 years ago - who are now a good team with some resulkts under their belt. I hope portugal progress as far just as quickly.
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Terrible performance from Scotland. No domination, aggression, limited organisation etc etc. I really do feel for the Lamont brothers. Inorder for the ball to get to them it has to go through Di Rollo and Dewey's hands....it's like watching school rugby. Di Rollo is the worst player to ever pull on a scottish rugby shirt.
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Just a thought on centres.
If Hadden is intent on playing Dewey (and I wouldn't like to be the one to tell him he's been dropped!!) at inside centre, why not play Southwell at outside?
When Scotland are deep in their own half, he could swap with Dewey, come into the inside spot and take the pressure off Paterson clearing wise.
The guy likes to run with ball (he is no slouch) in hand and isn't bad at shipping it in the tackle. Plus he has played in this position before.
Just a thought, but when you can boot the ball as well as he can, you can quickly turn defence into attack, especially with our lineout.
Thoughts?
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