Talking rugby with Andy Nicol, Jason White and Calum Crowe
Scotland weren’t clinical enough in key moments against South Africa. This has been a recurring theme for us in big games against the top teams. Does this team have a problem executing under pressure?
Calum Crowe: There are times when players speak about missed opportunities and it feels like a bit of a smokescreen for the wider failings in a performance. But Scotland did blow several good chances to score against South Africa. It was a game they could have won had they shown greater accuracy in attack during the second half.
Collectively, this team make too many mistakes when under pressure. There’s no cold-blooded killer instinct. Finn Russell has been largely non-existent now in two games against South Africa if you take it back to the World Cup last year. Likewise Duhan van der Merwe. Scotland need their star players to step up and deliver when under pressure in these key moments against the top teams.
Blair Kinghorn and Co could not breach the Springboks defence at Murrayfield
Townsend will be keen to sharpen up his team’s attack in the remaining autumn matches
Scotland players leave the field after a frustrating match against the Springboks
Jason White: It is definitely something Gregor Townsend and the players would want to improve upon and they are realistic enough to know that.
One of the challenges against the top three or four teams in the world is, firstly, getting into the scoring zone, and secondly, then capitalising on that territory on the scoreboard.
Historically we have managed to convert against France in terms of tries, but scoring against Ireland and especially South Africa has not been good enough to give us a chance of winning.
Andy Nicol: Scotland have a very good attack, with many options available on any of their strike moves. They have cutting edge in every position in the backs and have forwards that run good lines and make good off-loads.
They also have Finn Russell calling the shots, one of the best when it comes to decision-making and scanning what is happening in defence. So they have all the skills required to score tries against most teams in the world.
The trouble lies when they come up against a defence as good as the Springboks. That is now 160 minutes we have played against them in the last 13 months and not scored one try.
In Marseilles, we had one chance and didn’t take it. On Sunday, we had five encursions into their 22 and didn’t score once. The main reason we didn’t score is more down to South Africa’s outstanding scramble defence rather than any deficiencies in Scotland’s attack.
Is there any way Gregor Townsend and the players can rectify this inability to get over the line?
CC: It comes down to accountability more than anything. It’s an issue of culture. For too long, Scotland’s mentality after losing games like this has been: ‘Oh well, tough luck, we’ll try harder next time’. I’m not saying Gregor Townsend should go and bin half the team. But people should be held accountable for basic mistakes.
Ben White’s try was ruled out because of a knock-on by Huw Jones
Tom Jordan gets past South Africa’s Willie Le Roux during Sunday’s match
Ben White, Matt Fagerson and Huw Jones were all guilty of really basic handling and passing errors at different times. Scotland are too soft with this stuff. They lack accountability and a ruthless edge. They have hired Jess Thom to help with their mental skills. She’s a former figure skater who helped the Team GB squad at the Paris Olympics this year – and has her work cut out with a Scotland squad whose mental frailty was something several players spoke out about during this year’s Six Nations.
JW: I don’t believe there is one specific answer, it is all the little details that add up during a Test match. If you only get four entries in o the opposition’s 22, you need to convert that into points.
As we saw with the Ben White’s try being disallowed for the knock-on, the nature of everything is so specific and picked over. They need to stay patient, they need to improve their ability to make the right decision at the right time when fatigued and when the opposition are defending their line like their lives depend on it.
AN: Not playing the back-to-back world champions will help! The shape in attack is as good as I have seen it so there is no issue with what we are trying to do and how we are trying to do it.
Against a defence not quite as good, we are scoring two or three tries. We also need a bit of luck; Huw Jones not knocking the ball on in the tackle when Ben White scored – or the officials missing it. I expect Scotland to score tries over the next two weeks (against Portugal and Australia) which will breed confidence going in to the Six Nations.
What did you make of Scott Cummings’ red card and, more broadly, the ever-changing nature of rugby’s disciplinary system? It all looks quite messy and confusing.
CC: It was an absolutely ridiculous decision. Even a yellow card looked fairly harsh, given the mitigation involved in terms of how Cummings was pushed as he landed on Franco Mostert’s leg.
The fact it was then subsequently upgraded to a 20-minute red made it comfortably the worst refereeing decision we’ve seen in this Autumn Series so far.
If ever there was a sport that really didn’t need to further complicate its disciplinary process, it’s rugby. I don’t like the idea of 20-minute reds. All these extra layers in the disciplinary process – which already has TMOs and a bunker system – just confuses matters even further.
It’s also a cop-out for referees to avoid making decisions on the field. Referees should be stronger and make decisions based on what they see and the evidence presented to them by the TMO. We don’t need anything beyond that. It’s messy and a big turn-off to casual rugby fans.
Scott Cummings looks bemused after being sent off for a ‘croc roll’ tackle
Cummings’ yellow card was upgraded to a 20-minute red after a review
JW: I was completely baffled by it, to be honest. When the replays were shown I thought it was Rory Darge who was the culprit, not Cummings.
It looked like a yellow card at worst, but not a 20-minute red card. I am all for improving player welfare, but that felt wrong to me. I am in favour of the 20-minute red but it is harder for those who are not rugby superfans to understand.
AN: I am torn on this one. I am all for player safety, and the croc-roll can cause serious injury to the defender whose studs are stuck in the grass, combined with the twisting nature of taking them to ground.
These can be potentially career-ending injuries so they must be refereed out of the game. In saying that, I do not think Cummings had any intent to inflict serious injury on the defender; he simply got his clear-out slightly wrong.
It was a yellow card not a 20-minute red. The key to all this is consistency because that breeds confidence in the officials on the pitch, the TMO and in the judicial panels. When you see one incident given a red and a similar one a yellow, everyone loses confidence in the system.
Scotland are crying out for greater depth in their front row. We saw the drop-off in levels when Zander Fagerson and Pierre Schoeman went off last Sunday. What can the SRU do to rectify the lack of options available to Gregor Townsend?
CC: Every youngster who plays rugby in Scotland wants to grow up to be the next Finn Russell or Darcy Graham.
With the greatest respect, not many of them want to group up to become the next Zander Fagerson. Prop is just an unfashionable position in the modern game. In a country that doesn’t have a huge talent pool to select from, that’s a problem.
Zander Fagerson is Scotland’s best tighthead but Townsend needs more depth in his squad
The SRU should be doing more to incentivise Glasgow and Edinburgh to develop their own homegrown props from a younger age.
They need greater exposure to senior professional rugby and better coaching. One injury to Fagerson and Scotland would face a full-blown crisis at tighthead.
David Nucifora is supposed to be the man who will shape all strategic and performance decisions over these next couple of years.
Building greater depth in the front row should be top of his to-do list.
JW: Talent identification at a young age is a key one for me. We need to pick up our front-rowers as young as possible and find somewhere for them to play against tough opponents week on week.
I believe the SRU has partnerships with championship clubs in England, there was the French partnership, too.
Having only two professional teams limits our ability to blood youngsters, making the replacement of the Super 6 programme so important.. Players like Fin Richardson and Murphy Walker are around and we must find ways of exposing them.
AN: They can’t suddenly magic a number of huge men out of the system, as they just are not there. We are so reliant on Zander Fagerson and it is just as well that he is so resilient because there is not much below him.
Our international player identification programme should be down in South Africa unearthing some Scottish qualified props if they exist because Zander can’t go on forever.
Andy and Jason, you guys have won major honours throughout your time with top clubs like Bath, Sale and Clermont. Mentally, what does it take to go to that next level and actually win things?
JW: During my time at Sale and Clermont, both teams had won Challenge Cups and played regularly in semi-finals and finals of big competitions.
We got used to the pressure of playing must-win games and had the required self-belief to perform when it mattered. That is why Glasgow winning the URC last season was so important for the national team. We now need Edinburgh to improve and move up the league table.
AN: It is a mental thing, once you know that you have the physical ability to win. I was lucky to join a winning…
