Allan Massie: Follow the Welsh lead and put faith in talented youth

“This match will surely mark the end of Dan Parks’ international career. I would throw Stuart Hogg in at the deep end in Cardiff and expect him to swim”

MIRROR image. In 2006 Scotland beat England at Murrayfield in a desperately close match thanks to a superb defensive display and the numerous mistakes made by an England team that was on top most of the time. On Saturday England beat Scotland at Murrayfield in a desperately close match thanks to a superb defensive display and the numerous mistakes made by a Scotland team that was on top most of the time.

The worst of these mistakes was Ross Rennie’s delaying of his pass which , if properly timed and delivered, would have put Mike Blair in under the posts. This was as uncharacteristic as it was sad, for Rennie, who otherwise had an outstanding game, is perhaps the best off-loader and passer of the ball out of the tackle in Scotland today. Still, before we dwell on our errors and deficiencies, we should acknowledge the high quality of the English defence, well-organized, brave and utterly determined.

What was most evidently lacking in the Scottish performance was anticipation.

On half-a-dozen occasions, from the first minutes of the game when Jim Hamilton went careering into the England 22, a player would make a break, or at least half-break, and find himself isolated, with the support too far behind. That, for instance, was why Richie Gray had to attempt a very risky off-load to Alastair Strokosch who was at least a yard behind him instead of being on his shoulder. If Gray had been playing in an All Black strip he would have had a player on either side ready to receive the ball. You can’t coach the sort of awareness that intelligent support play demands; you can only encourage it .What must be especially frustrating for Andy Robinson and Gregor Townsend, both of whom in their playing days were adept at reading the game, is that Edinburgh in their Heineken Cup run have excelled in support play and off-loading. So, why can’t Scotland do as well? On Saturday better anticipation and a greater awareness shown by ball-carriers and support runners would have resulted in a comfortable Scottish victory, perhaps by as much as 20 points. To make matters worse England’s three scores were all made possible by Scottish mistakes. A mix-up between the Lamont brothers led to Owen Farrell’s first penalty, Alastair Kellock’s ill-judged run across field to his second, while the charge-down of Dan Parks’s clearance kick needs little comment beyond the observation that there can be scarcely any international fly-half who hasn’t suffered a charge-down. Ask, for instance, Ronan O’Gara, or even Dan Carter. Nevertheless this match will surely mark the end of Parks’ international career. Though some of his distribution in the second quarter of the match was good, his kicking from hand in the first 20 minutes was dreadfully poor, and made it impossible for Scotland to put a raw English side under pressure early on. So it is surely time to say “thank you and goodbye”.

One assumes that the Edinburgh pairing of Mike Blair and Greig Laidlaw will start at half-back against Wales. Chris Cusiter did some very good things on Saturday – his snaffling of Chris Ashton which led to our second penalty goal was Cusiter at his terrier-like best and he made three or four sniping runs. But if Laidlaw is to be at fly-half, then his club partner should be with him. Duncan Weir, who had a very fine second half, after an indifferent first 40 against the Saxons on Friday, is waiting in the wings, but Laidlaw is surely ready to take centre-stage. His alertness brought him closer to scoring than any of his team-mates. I wasn’t sure that he beat Ben Youngs to that touchdown, but one has seen flakier tries awarded.

The two Six Nations debutants, David Denton and Lee Jones, did well, Denton being outstanding. If they have television in Heaven, Scotland’s greatest back-row forward Douglas Elliott must surely have lifted a glass of whatever they drink there in approval, for Denton rampaged all over the field just as Elliott himself used to. Jones was lively, adventurous and sound. England put their most prolific try-scorer, Chris Ashton, on the left wing to test the newcomer, and he got no change from the Edinburgh winger.

Experience is invaluable, as we know, but other countries, notably Wales, have shown themselves more willing than Scotland to trust in youth, and perhaps we should now be ready to do the same.

Nineteen-year-old Stuart Hogg scored a marvellous try against the Saxons, perhaps because it didn’t occur to him that he couldn’t. It was the kind of try that Andy Irvine or the young Chris Paterson used to score. I would throw him in at the deep end in Cardiff and expect him to swim. There are other youngsters pushing hard for a place: Matt Scott, Stuart McInally and Rob Harley, for instance. Any one of them might come in, if not this week, then before the end of the tournament. That said, it would be no surprise if the only change to the starting XV in Cardiff was at half-back. The Millennium Stadium is a tough place to make your international bow, and Wales are in rampant form. They were magnificent in Dublin, both adventurous and efficient; they scarcely dropped a ball all afternoon. It will take a tremendous effort from the Scottish forwards to subdue them, and even if they manage to do that, this Welsh three-quarter line looks sure to score two or three tries a game against anybody. So I would expect Andy Robinson to give the bulk of the team another chance, and hope that this time – at last – the good leading-up work and line-breaks will be rewarded with tries. After the first weekend the championship already seems to be between Wales and France. Ireland haven’t won in Paris since Brian O’Driscoll’s first match there. It will be an astonishing turn-up if we win in Cardiff, and England will have to play a lot better than they did at Murrayfield if they are to beat Italy in Rome.