Scotland on Sunday reports

Scottish rugby fans will be hurting after national team's latest display

SCOTT HASTINGS
ANOTHER disappointing Saturday afternoon for Scottish fans the world over and the team must know that; they will be hurting.

I was watching closely and what struck me above all else was the lack of any pattern emerging from the mess that was Scotland's supposed game plan. In my day as a player everyone knew what they had to do and we had a simple game structure that we could revert to when things were in danger of running away from us. When in trouble keep it simple, it was almost our motto in the early 1990's. I didn't see any evidence of this Scotland team knowing what to do when they came under pressure. This was pretty important on the day because they seemed to spend much of the match under the Welsh cosh.

For the second weekend in succession the Scots were unable to run through any phases because they couldn't not hold onto the ball for any money. If you want to play a set-piece game then you need a good lineout, but Scotland lost several in the first half alone. Almost worse was the fact that Scots appeared incapable of catching a rugby ball as, once again, we made a huge number of unforced errors. All in all it resulted in another non-performance.

Amazingly, Scotland were still in the game when we were two points down with 20 minutes still to go but I hope that the coaching team do not take that as evidence that their plan was working.

If it's not broken don't fix it but surely after two poor performances Hadden won't make that claim. It doesn't look like the Scottish machinery is running with Swiss precision. Hadden has opted for a slow, deliberate, set-piece type of game plan which simply is not working. The last few minutes I think summed up the entire match for us. We peppered the Welsh try line with big forwards doing their usual pick and drive – there was lots of effort for very little reward – and eventually we lost the turnover again. That pick and drive game is hopelessly laboured and slow, it has all the dynamism of a slug, the Scots went nowhere and we still managed to lose the ball.

I think we need to turn things upside down on their head, the coach needs to undertake a 180 degree about turn and revert to a more unstructured strategy; the only time that Scotland put any pressure on Wales was when we kept the ball in hand and ran at them. Late in the game Hugo Southwell got the ball on the right wing and made good ground before feeding inside to Ross Ford, it resulted in a penalty. Chris Paterson had his moments with the ball in hand and why did Hadden wait until the final seven minutes before changing the halfback combination because Chris Cusiter always looks good when Scotland play running rugby.

It is easy to be critical of the coach. The players are still making too many unforced errors out there and the poor coach can't be held to account for every knock on that happens. He can perhaps be blamed for the mood in the camp and youngsters like Nick De Luca looked very apprehensive out there, almost scared to play.

The centre has plenty of talent and it is important for Scotland that his confidence gets a boost. In what was only his second international you have to wonder if his more experienced inside backs are giving him the helping hand that he needs? Someone threw him a hospital pass with Gavin Henson looming large in his headlights, De Luca dropped it. It was Henson that did for England centre Mathew Tait's career, at least for a while, and we have to hope that De Luca is given another run to establish his credentials.

The elder statesmen out on the field need to take more responsibility and I am not convinced that that is happening. Who was pulling everyone together and laying down the law; I want to be better than my opposite number and win this match, who is with me?

But as well as leaders Scotland need to find more footballers. By that I mean thinking players like the two Williams, Martyn and Shane, in the Welsh ranks. Those two know what to do and when to do it and they seem to know instinctively. I felt a little sorry for John Barclay who played very well, winning several turnovers at the breakdown, and was still overshadowed by his opposite number. It is probably inevitable when one has 78 caps to his name and the other just three.

It is difficult to know where Hadden goes from here, he will tinker with the team but more important than any personnel changes he must offer some structure and purpose to his players who seem to lack both leadership and direction. With those two things Scotland will win close games rather than lose them.

I try and steer clear of the Parks/Paterson debate in normal times but if Scotland are going to revert to playing and attacking with the ball in hand then the coach has no option but to pick the Gala man in the flyhalf role. If nothing else we would all of us at least enjoy the spectacle a lot more even if the results might take a little longer to correct.

This article was posted on 10-Feb-2008, 08:54 by Hugh Barrow.