Rugby: Shortcomings exposed on the tighthead side of Scottish scrum when Murray missing from action

With Euan Murray unavailable for the second game in succession due to his Christian beliefs about playing on Sundays, Geoff Cross for the most part performed very well in the set-piece and showed his improving ability around the park early on. However, he was under pressure in the scrum and twice penalised and when he was replaced after an hour, Scotland’s thin resources were exposed.

It was unfortunate for Ed Kalman, the Glasgow tighthead, that he came into the fray just ten minutes after France had strengthened their front row, bringing on the 19-stone Clermont loosehead Vincent Debaty and veteran Toulouse hooker William Servat, and those two worked well to give Cross a torrid time and then went to work on Kalman.

It was a crucial point in the game, with the score at 20-17 to France and the Scots needing to get back on the front foot, but the French pack took control. It highlighted how when Scotland field their best 15 they have a chance, but when forced to go beyond that the difference between them and the world’s leading nations only becomes more pronounced.

It says much for the Scottish front five that they never lost a ball against the head, but they could not enjoy a stable platform and Kalman was twice penalised for going in early as he tried to beat the French to the all-important hit. Kalman is a good player, but he has spent most of the past five years playing second fiddle at the Borders and Glasgow and only now, at 29, has he enjoyed a run of starts, with Glasgow’s first choices Moray Low and Michael Cusack suffering injuries.

Low was pushing Murray two years ago but lost form and undoubtedly has the ability to come again when recovered from injury. Cusack is not Scottish-qualified. In the meantime, Jon Welsh has moved across from loosehead at Glasgow and at 6ft 1in, 19 stones and now 25, the former youth boxer may be the best bet to strengthen depth over the next year.

The SRU are working hard to develop young tightheads, notably Lewis Niven at Edinburgh and George Hunter with Glasgow, but Loughborough University’s Alex Allan, who has moved from loosehead to the tight, found himself going backwards at the hands of Scotland U20s’ French counterparts on Friday night.

Scotland may also have lost highly-rated youngster Scott Wilson, the Borderer at Newcastle. He is only 17 but, due to his Berwick-born mother, he this month made his debut for England at under-18 level.

Kalman earned the right to step-up with a fine display for Scotland A in a 35-0 victory over England Saxons, but is expected to drop back out of the squad for the final two matches away to Ireland and then Italy as Murray returns and, while Ireland’s scrum is not as formidable as France’s, probably reclaims the No 3 jersey.

It is not Murray’s fault that the competition is not quite as his level yet in pure scrummaging terms. Cross has worked incredibly hard in the gym over the past year and overtaken Ross Ford as the strongest player in the squad, and he is also fractionally heavier than Murray with Kalman almost a stone heavier.

But as Iain Milne, ‘The Bear’ from Scotland’s 1984 Grand Slam-winning side, pointed out in Saturday’s Scotsman, there is a difference between gym power and raw scrummaging strength and technique under pressure from Frenchmen who have 101 tricks up their sleeve, and a richer experience of scrummaging, to ensure that they dominate every team they face in the set-piece.

Murray has not been idle in the past three weeks, since playing against England, but while he played in Newcastle’s win over London Irish, the Falcons scrum endured some rocky periods in Saturday’s heavy defeat to Leicester. His presence in Dublin in ten days’ time, however, with Cross as back-up could be vital to Scotland’s bid for a first win.