Scotland embarrassed by Canadians



Published Date: 06 March 2009
By Gareth Black
SCOTLAND crashed to an embarrassing defeat to Canada after being left 33-0 down at half-time in the opening session of the 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens in Dubai to shatter any hopes of finishing in the top eight for tomorrow's knockout stages.
Only by defeating both Japan and South Africa in the two remaining pool matches can Scotland be in the frame for the Cup quarter-finals, but it would take a minor miracle to upset the Springboks, who have ambitions of winning the world title.


The 33-14 loss to Canada follows other embarrassing defeats by Kenya, Fiji and Zimbabwe in competitions earlier in the season, which also included a narrow 19-14 win over Arabian Gulf in November.

Arguably, it might have been a matter of selection. Coach Stephen Gemmell took a gamble on Roland Reid and Rob Dewey and it backfired.

Reid in particular was costly at the restarts, failing to take the high ball on three occasions, which, ultimately, led to tries, while Dewey, with little experience at this level, looked out of tune with the sevens game.

The scoreline might have been a lot worse given that the Canadians led 33-0 at half-time after what Scotland coach Gemmell described as an "embarrassing" first-half performance.

But Gemmell insisted the humbling defeat at the hands of the Canadians was a "collective failure".

He said: "The first-half display was simply unacceptable. We conceded an early try after we lost possession and the heads seemed to go down. I'm not pointing the blame at any particular players. This was a collective failure by everyone including the management."

The Canadians could have hardly believed their good fortune as Scotland mistakes contributed to tries by James Pritchard, Justin Mensah-Coker, Ciaran Hearn, Neil Meechan and Dth van der Merwe, four of the scores converted by the Canucks' playmaker Phil Mack.

Scotland brought on Colin Shaw, James Thompson and the hard-working Roddy Grant for the second half and that transformed the Scots' play. They began to force turnovers, they moved the ball well and showed the attacking game that has been their recent hallmark. The result was two converted tries by Colin Gregor in the second half.

SCOTLAND SEVENS SQUAD

Colin Gregor (Glasgow Warriors, capt), Mike Adamson (Glasgow Warriors), Rob Dewey (Ulster), Andrew Easson (Edinburgh), Scott Forrest (Ayr), Roddy Grant (West of Scotland), Rory Hutton (Hawick), Roland Reid (Edinburgh), Scott Riddell (Blaydon), Colin Shaw (Glasgow Warriors), Jim Thompson (Edinburgh), Andrew Turnbull (Edinburgh).

This article was posted on 6-Mar-2009, 08:27 by Hugh Barrow.