Allan Massie: Unrealistic expectations explain lambasting of Scotland’s talent

By ALLAN MASSIE
Published on Saturday 18 February 2012 00:00

IT IS depressing to read of the abuse Nick De Luca has suffered in the form of internet posts from people who would doubtless describe themselves as Scottish supporters.

De Luca may not have achieved as much for Scotland as one would wish – not yet anyway – but anyone who has watched him play for Edinburgh knows that he is very talented. Unfortunately it is often the talented who find themselves objects of criticism. Scotland’s attack coach, Gregor Townsend, could tell De Luca something about that. So too could Marcus Di Rollo and, obviously, Dan Parks.

In De Luca’s case one wonders how much his failure to be as effective for Scotland as he regularly is for Edinburgh is the result of playing most of his international career outside either Graeme Morrison or Sean Lamont whose many admirable qualities don’t include the ability regularly to pass the ball well. That said, De Luca’s own hands and passing too often let him down.

After Cardiff a lot of criticism has also been directed at the referee, Romain Poite – and not only for his mistake in disallowing Stuart Hogg’s try, a mistake for which he has had the decency to apologise.

This incident has provoked the question of just when and in what circumstances the referee is entitled to consult the Television Match Official. There isn’t actually any easy answer. How far back in a movement is it reasonable to go?

In the quarter-final of the 2007 World Cup, France beat New Zealand thanks partly to a brilliant try, the result of a movement started in their own 22. There was almost certainly one forward pass. Should the TMO have been asked to adjudicate on that, given that the pass in question was delivered a long way short of the try-line? Pose the question and you see that it is capable of almost infinite extension. There are surely enough stoppages in a game already, what with reset scrums, injuries and water-carriers rushing on to the field, to make it undesirable to call for more. The other complaint directed at Mr Poite related to his laissez-faire refereeing of the breakdown, something of which both teams took advantage, Wales arguably more profitably than Scotland. Perhaps he should have been stricter. That said, we did get a fine flowing and exciting game. One has every sympathy with referees in their attempt to police this area.

If any referee applied the letter of the law consistently there would be a penalty at every tackle-point until there was no contest for possession. The Law may read well enough, and it may make sense to legislators in the comfort of a committee room, but it invariably breaks down in practice. Theoretically the tackled player must release the ball and get out of the way, the tackler must roll away, and there should be no other players on the ground. Pull the other one! Very often the tackled player can’t release the ball because the first opposition player up gets hold of his hands, and the tackler can’t roll away because someone is pinning him to the floor. Players go off their feet all the time, not always deliberately. Pity the poor referee.

Two-fifths through the tournament we are very evidently not where we hoped to be. Failure to beat a poor England side at Murrayfield will rankle for a long time.

One may think we are a better team than results suggest, but eventually a team is judged by results. England, playing poorly and without enterprise, have played two, won two. Scotland, displaying more enterprise, have been beaten twice. We would be quite happy if we were in England’s position. They may have been boring, but they’ve got the points, and they are likely to improve now that injured players , notably Toby Flood, Manu Tuilaigi and Courtney Lawes, are available again.

Nevertheless, we do have some reasons to feel more optimistic than the bare results of our first two matches would seem to justify. The forwards have been good, and Andy Robinson has successfully introduced four new players – Greig Laidlaw, Lee Jones, David Denton and Hogg – who are free of the burden of our poor record over the last few seasons. This is important because losing becomes a habit. No matter how self-confident and sure of their ability players may be, repeated defeats must take their toll.

That said, many of us have unrealistic expectations. It is always an uphill struggle for Scotland. Throughout my lifetime poor or unsuccessful seasons have heavily outnumbered successful ones. We won the Five Nations title outright only three times between its resumption in 1947 and 2000 when Italy entered the tournament. We have never won the Six Nations or come close to doing so. We flourished from 1984-90 when we had stolen a march on England, Wales and Ireland by having a properly competitive domestic league. Even then we had a couple of very disappointing seasons. Subsequently we adapted to the demands of professionalism more slowly and less effectively than any of our rivals. The wonder is that we have not done even worse. If. however. the professional game is at last looking up here, then the prospects for the next few years may be somewhat brighter.

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Venachar

Saturday, February 18, 2012 at 12:10 PM

#3 I did not say they players were rubbish I said selecting those players was rubbish. How do you justify selecting R Lamont when he's hardly played since christmas and Hogg has been doing well at Glasgow and the A team. The form halfbacks have been Mike Blair and Greig Laidlaw who have worked Edinburgh into a home HC quarterfinal. That is where the expectation has come from that and Glasgows decent form in the league. The subsequent performances at halfback and fullback have been better with the newer players and will get better barring injury if the coach is brave enough to pick them. All that needs done now is to get Matt Scott into inside centre then NDL might just get the ball that little bit sooner.

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HZ

Saturday, February 18, 2012 at 02:53 AM

#1 So, the article starts off with a comment regarding the unfair criticism of one player on the internet and your response is instead to dismiss 4 players as 'rubbish'. Actually 6 if you include the fact he played with 2 srumhalfs and 2 fullbacks that match. Six players that include four of the backs that have best served the Scotland team over the last 6-7 years (alongside Mossy, Parksy & Southwell) and the two exciting emerging players that look key to solving the try scoring problem. Will we ever frigging learn?!

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Saltireblue

Saturday, February 18, 2012 at 02:03 AM

The sad thing about these abusers is that they seemingly are incapable of offering constructive criticism about a player and a player’s possible shortcomings, without lambasting that player with abuse. On more than one occasion, I have challenged abusers on the Scotsman feedback threads and they usually respond to me by saying something like..."I'm free to offer an opinion" ect.etc. not seemingly realising that one can offer an opinion without being abusive. My guess is that those who abuse Nick and, before him, Dan Parks is that, like bullies, they are likely to be cowards.

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Venachar

Saturday, February 18, 2012 at 01:25 AM

Unrealistic expectations, don't think so. More like rubbish selection at scrumhalf, #10, inside centre and fullback. NDL has been in fine form this season and although I'd prefer a fit Ben Cairns at 13 NDL deserves to be where he is in the team. Won't mention the intentional knock on immediately before NDL's yellow card.

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