This Is A Good Day To Be A Scottish Rugby Supporter

THIS post is being written mid-morning on Sunday, 26 February, and, it's a great time to be alive, if you are a Scottish rugby supporter. We live off the occasional crumbs of comfort we get from results such as yesterday's defeat of Wales. For once, cautious optimism rather than dread will be our mindset as we head for Twickenham in two weeks' time.

Of course, in my 70-years on this Earth, I have only seen us win twice at the headquarters of English rugby; thus, I lang syne learned never to be too-confident going there, but, we have a chance this year.

Any way, that's to come. I have long been an advocate of Willie-John McBride's mantra of not looking back at history; we've played Wales and beaten them, finished, move-on. But, before we go, some observations.

I have long held the Welsh squad to be over-rated, the Taffia of Welsh rugby writers in “Fleet Street” have long talked-up their heroes. We Scots see the bulk of their squad close-up in the Guinness PRO12 – we know they are not that good. Yesterday, the team remembered this and beat them.

But, our performance was not perfect. There is still work to be done on our props. Zander Fagerson is still making technical mistakes; he was found-out against France, but, the Welsh props were not good enough to exploit this. I am, of course, biased in favour of Mark Bennett, but, I feel his greater pace and sharper running lines, not to say his familiarity with Alex Dunbar, should earn him a start ahead of Huw Jones at Twickenham.

 Mark Bennett - would be in my Twickenham team

I always felt, Wales would lift their game against England, and come down a shade against us. If we can harness “the England effect” - the harder desire to defeat the common enemy, then we can beat an English team which, while it has been winning, has not been winning well.

At Twickenham, we will be playing for the Calcutta Cup, the Triple Crown and, a first win there for 34-years, we will also be seeking to deny England a Tier One, world record-equalling 18^th win. What more inspiration do we need to finally post that elusive Twickenham win?

Peter Dods - 11 points the last time we won at Twickenham

OUR joy at the Murrayfield win should be tempered, however, by the realisation, we still lack depth in Scottish rugby. A huge well-done by the way to our Women, who scraped past Wales to post their first Women's Six Nations win since 2011. The Welsh were, apparently incandescent with rage at losing to Scotland. Maybe over-confidence got to them.

Every journey begins with a first step, so, hopefully this first win will see big Shade Munro lead our Women to better days.

Our Under-20 team lost heavily to their Welsh opponents on Friday night, while our Club XV lost to England at Moseley. Can I make another plea for more Club XV games, our play for fun club guys deserve this.