Six Nations: Pros and Cons of this Scotland team

SIX SIGNS OF PROGRESS

Tries

After four games with no tries, Scotland broke their duck in Wales through Greig Laidlaw, scored two against France from Lee Jones and Stuart Hogg and Richie Gray scored a stunning try against Ireland. Unfortunately, that run could not be extended in Rome, where Scotland never looked like crossing the Italian line.

Ambition

Andy Robinson’s move to a more skilful, ball-in-hand game to attack sides has improved the threat, but not yet consistently.

David Denton

No 8 has increased Scottish attacking dynamic with power and skill in the loose.

Stuart Hogg

The full-back is still young but has brought more attacking nous to team and threat going forward.

Ross Rennie

Flanker has come back to his best form and was Scotland’s player of the tournament.

New caps

Emergence of debutants Lee Jones, Hogg, Ed Kalman, Matt Scott, Duncan Weir and Jon Welsh is a real positive as, importantly, they all impressed and should be key figures next season

SIX CAUSES FOR CONCERN

Lineout

It deteriorated as the tournament progressed, with six losses in Rome the worst performance for years.

Scrum

It was inconsistent after a decent start against England, taken apart by Ireland, who were, in turn, beaten up by England, and improved finally against Italy.

Restarts

These have become a key weakness that all opponents are targeting, with Ireland reaping particular benefit. This was an obvious problem at the Rugby World Cup, but has not been fixed.

Leadership

Ross Ford stepped in when Kelly Brown was injured, but has to take his share of responsibility for the poor lineout and team showing in Italy, and inexperience showed in Dublin when he took foot off the gas in key period with Ireland under the cosh.

Discipline

Scotland suffered five stupid yellow cards and lacked consistency and accuracy across tournament.

Steven Shingler saga

It was stupid for the SRU to name him in the squad before doing the proper checks, creating an unnecessary distraction and potentially ruining the player’s international career.