Illicit Pleasures Part Two, Beating the English, or, Oh Calcutta!

[f4f3]

Scotland beat England at rugby yesterday. They beat a heavier, technically more accomplished side by confronting them with spirit, hunger to win and the absolute refusal to break, even when bent so far back they could have seen their own heels.

I couldn't actually watch the game, but I listened on extremely crackly medium-wave between Invergordon and Drumnadrochit and, to be honest, I listened with a lump in my throat. Our line outs were terrible, our scrums just about adequate, and we didn't score a try, but that didn't matter. England came to play to their strengths, and when they couldn't batter or bully their way through they became baffled and, I would have to say, they went down to defeat tamely.

The English coach said that they would have to go home and do some thinking. The Corries couldn't have put it better.

Oh, and Chickenfeet, you owe me a dollar...

Comments

[pigeonhed.livejournal.com]

I watched the game and whilst England played poorly in a lot of ways and the Scots defended desperately I am not sure that 'tamely' is fair. Ben Cohen dropped a pass that was a certain try, and the referee missed a quite blatant late block when Mark Cueto kicked down the wing and would have been likely to score. The ref also warned the Scots several times about collapsing scrums and coming in at the wrong angle when England had them pinned to the line, and surely came close to awarding a penalty try or sinbinning the Scots prop. Scotland on the other hand had a brief spell of pressure leading up to Grewcock's silly sinbinning and then spent the ten minutes advantage defending on their line.

As Jose Mourinho said about Tottenham: 'They parked their bus in front of the goal.'

This was not a game Scotland won, more a game England lost by a few silly mistakes (the dropped pass, too many turnovers, crucial penalties --one of which looked very harsh, but thats life).

England lack a little imagination, the link between Forwards and Backs just isnt there often enough and quick enough, but they tried to win whereas Scotland tried not to lose.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

When i said tamely, i was being nice. England just didn't have a clue what to do when plan A didn't work, and they were faced with doing something other than sticking the ball up their jumpers. It wasn't so much that they lacked imagination, as that they lacked any evidence of cogitation - I mean, kicking a penalty when there's 4 minutes left and your six points down? Did anyone think to explain that a penalty is only worth 3 points? that was either tame or stupid, and, as I say, I'd rather be nice about it.

To say that their defeat was down to a few silly mistakes is a harsh judgement on the world champions - they were unable to capitalise on their height and weight advantage, and showed no sign of doing anything else.

And it was obvious throughout the game that Scotland just wanted the win more than England. To say that they tried not to lose is just silly - very few team go out and try to lose. They won by playing a better game of rugby, against a much more fancied team, and, much as that sticks in the craw, you should be as quick to acknowledge that as the English team and their management were.

[pigeonhed.livejournal.com]

I think you are wrong about Scotland wanting the win more than England, I watched the game and Scotland did NOTHING positive throughout the game. Each England attack was rebuffed and they regrouped to face another expected attack. I don't think Scotland had a single serious attack apart from the incident that led to Grewcock's yellow card. And they didn't do anything with that, or the subsequent man advantage.

The penalty at the end would have been fine if England had followed it up with possession and pressure to get within range for another kick, instead they made a hash of the restart. It summed up the England performance, clumsy, careless and inexcusable. They could have won, and should have won.

That England were so bad doesn't mean that Scotland played better, they didn't. The victory is nothing to gloat about and probably hides as many flaws in the Scottish performance as in the English.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Gloat? Me? Nope, just celebrating. I seem to remember mentioing our line out and scum frailities. But it does seem that Scottish rugby is improving while England are going backwards at a rate of knots that I'd find worrying.

Still, next year at Twickers will be fun...