Iain Morrison: Where the match was won and lost

ANDY Robinson came to New Zealand with a lean, mean squad intent on running the ball and scoring tries; it never happened. It may have been the wet weather which made it difficult to put the ball through the hands with accuracy and speed or it may simply have come down to the fact that World Cup rugby is a different animal; the tension ratchets up and a safety first approach is endemic.

Ahead of this World Cup Jim Telfer suggested that Scotland had a forward pack capable of standing toe-to-toe with England’s but it wasn’t the one that took to the park on Saturday. Nathan Hines would have brought beef and balance to the second row and Johnnie Beattie offers more muscle than Richie Vernon. Even the relatively lightweight eight that Scotland fielded managed to give England a fright so imagine the hurry-up that a pack of hard-nosed bruisers might have given them.

With the exception of four against Romania this squad didn’t muster a try between them so the suspicion remains that Robinson pursued an expansive game plan while lacking the personnel to fulfil his own ambitions.

SCRUM

THIS match was a perfect illustration of the importance of the set scrum because the advantage see-sawed first one way and then the other and almost always in favour of the side who held the whip hand in the bump and grind department. South Africa won the last World Cup at the first scrum when they nudged the colossus Andrew Sheridan backwards, if only by a matter of inches. Take away England’s set scrum and the entire team is emasculated, and Scotland did exactly that in the first half.

The balance shifted after the break when England won one against the head on 47 minutes. It could have proved the turning point in the game but no, the Scots bounced back and Chris Paterson gave them that magical nine-point lead on 55 minutes from a penalty won at a set scrum five metres from the England line. Might they have called for a reset and attempted to win a penalty try?

It never happened. England’s big men regrouped, recovered and by the time Allan Jacobsen was brought off there was little prospect of the Scots winning because the rotund figure took whatever slight edge that Scotland enjoyed in the scrum with him. His replacement Ally Dickinson was penalised in his very first engagement.

RESTARTS

THIS area has been a problem going back to Frank Hadden’s era; it cost Scotland dear in the Argentina match and again yesterday.

It was 55 minutes into the match and Scotland had just nosed nine points in front. Now was the time to press home the advantage. Now Scotland needed to turn the screw and watch England chase the game. Now the Scots needed to give nothing away. Instead the Scots came over all charitable.

England kicked the restart straight ahead and high. John Barclay and Ross Ford took up a watching brief while Manu Tuilagi calmly recovered the uncontested ball and England set about marching up-field for Jonny Wilkinson to drop the goal that swung the momentum back to them.

Scotland had enjoyed their precious nine-point lead for less time than it takes to burn the toast.

DISCIPLINE

IT’S worth remembering that had Jonny Wilkinson brought his kicking boots with him, or failing that his favourite ball, Scotland would have been trailing going in at half-time. The English fly-half fluffed three consecutive kicks at goal between the 19th and 23rd minutes which would have put a different complexion on proceedings had even one or two slipped over the bar.

England gave up penalties in the first half, which Dan Parks and Chris Paterson took advantage of, but the Scots failed to get a single kick at goal after Paterson gave them a 12-3 lead on 55 minutes. England’s forwards dominated the second half in a way the Scots had bossed the first so the game was increasingly being played in the blue half. Players don’t give away penalties for fun but some of those that Scotland conceded in the second half were pretty dumb.

CHANCES

IF you don’t carpe the diem then the opposition will. Scotland have butchered any number of scoring chances in this World Cup but few were as costly as the one they squandered yesterday.

With the match finely poised at 9-3 in the Scots’ favour England turned over the ball deep inside their own half and the Scots shifted it to the left. It got to winger Simon Danielli who plonked it on to his left foot, nudged it towards the English line and took off after it. Chris Ashton looked to have momentarily obstructed him but Ben Foden performed heroics to back track, dive and get one outstretched hand on the ball to prevent Danielli hacking it over the line for a score. Still the ball was in play and Nick De Luca was first on the scene with Jonny Wilkinson covering across. The ball was just five yards from the try line and the replacement must have weighed up what to do in his mind... pick up... hack ahead... pick up... hack ahead? He picked up and knocked on. The agony writ large on the centre’s face was mirrored by every Scottish supporter.

Argentina took their one chance, England grabbed their lifeline late in the game but, on the rare occasions they manufactured an opportunity to score, the Scots resolutely refused to put the ball in the back of the net.