David Ferguson: Jerky start to first leg of journey

SCOTLAND coach Andy Robinson compared Saturday’s opening World Cup win over Romania to an Andy Murray tennis match that goes to five sets, before admitting that he does not wish to sit through another one.

Robinson was frustrated by referee Dave Pearson’s decision to deny Scotland a second try early in the game and to not sin-bin infringing Romanians in the second half, but was quick to accept that his side’s fall out of the game either side of half-time was largely of their own making.

“I saw this very much like Andy Murray playing tennis matches when he plays the five sets,” he said. “You get put under that pressure in the second or third set and it’s how you come through it, and then the focus is on the next game.

“There are always challenges put up in front of us and it’s about how we deal with those challenges. In the cold light of day we’ve got five points and we’re looking forward to playing Georgia.

“But what I said to the players is that it’s a real lesson for us about not ever taking anything for granted. One thing we’ve been working and striving for is consistency of performance. Yet in that period [where Romania turned a 15-3 deficit into a 24-21 lead] we under-performed and part of that was taking things for granted. It was disappointing that we had to go through that but it’s part of our journey.

“There can be some outstanding moments but there can be some real scary stuff. We played some outstanding rugby in Paris [in the 2011 Six Nations] and yet conceded five tries that were like schoolboy errors, and that’s what we have to be able to understand and deal with.”

Robinson identified a lack of urgency as a key fault in the Scottish performance after the initial quarter, and a desire to go around the Romanians rather than go directly at them in attack as contributing to game’s momentum shift.

On the controversial refereeing moments, the Scotland coach said: “The referee didn’t sin-bin anybody and in a bigger game you are liable to have sin-bins in the situations we had.

“Also, we’ve looked at the play just before we went into our lull and it was a great ball to Joe Ansbro [a try move pulled back for crossing]. It’s a ball that everybody uses. He received the pass, but the defenders just got caught. It’s not crossing.

“It was exactly the same [as Sonny Bill Williams’ disallowed try for New Zealand on Friday night]. If you can receive the pass it’s not crossing. You can pass behind people; you do it all the time. It’s not a penalty. But things like that happen in a game and they [Romania] then got their territory and got themselves back into the game.”

The focus now switches to Richie Dixon’s Georgia back at Invercargill’s Rugby Park Stadium on Wednesday night.

Romania captain Marius Tincu, who won the Man of the Match award, is acutely aware of the Georgians’ strength, having lost to them in the Nations Cup, and he warned that they have a bigger and stronger scrum than his side.

Scotland are expected to bring back big tighthead Euan Murray and Jim Hamilton, the heaviest man in the squad, to help bolster the scrum, and start with Dan Parks among a handful of pre-planned changes across the squad.

Robinson acknowledged: “It’s going to be tough. We’ve got to control the field position, keep the scoreboard moving and play at a high tempo.

“We put pressure on the Romanians when we got the hit right in the scrum. We had a couple of very good scrums on our ball; it’s just the concentration when you’re five metres from your own line that puts you under pressure, and that’s also credit to the way the Romanians scrum.

“What happened for the middle 60 minutes was very disappointing from us as a side. Those of you who were at the Italy [warm-up] game saw that happen as well, so it’s obviously something that we’ve got to sort out.

“But what a fantastic last ten minutes and you have to give the Scottish players real credit for the way that they were able to put that together and get a bonus point.”

Scotland captain Alastair Kellock added: “We had the ability after the first 15 minutes to really push on and keep going, but the errors we made were basic, simple things: a clear-out at the ruck, urgency to get round the corner, accuracy at the breakdown. These are things that we can fix and will fix.

“When they went [24-21] up we talked about this being a massive moment already in the World Cup, and how we reacted to it would be defining. And we did well. I’m gutted that we put ourselves in that position, but I’m delighted that we managed to pull ourselves out of it.”