Scotland Have An Outside Chance Of A Grand Slam

Scotland Have An Outside Chance Of A Grand Slam

THE outright winners from the Autumn series are Scotland, especially as England and Ireland were pretty well nailed-on to have strong campaigns with teams like Argentina, Samoa, South Africa and Fiji as their opponents.

The Scots, by contrast, had New Zealand and Australia to contend with, and they had an opportunity to win against the All Blacks. They kept themselves in the chase long enough to take a late lead, and although they could not hang onto it there was plenty of evidence of the improvement in their attack since Gregor Townsend became coach.

Scotland backed it up with another strong performance against Australia, and they would probably have won even if prop Sekope Kepu’s red card had not meant they were playing against 14 men for the best part of the match.

The Scots are playing pretty directly, and they are doing it with the pace that enabled them to put New Zealand and Australia on the back foot for long periods. There is real industry in their pack, and with John Barclay and Hamish Watson as the back row spearheads they contest hard at the tackle and the breakdown.

Ali Price is a busy scrum-half, although he has to learn to pass faster rather than always looking at whether there is anything on for him. If he doesn’t get out of the habit, he will find himself getting clipped on a regular basis.