I Can See Disaster For Scotland Coming Early

THIS IS my 65^th year as a Tartan Army foot soldier. I have gone from hero-worshipping Geordie Young, Gordon Smith and Lawrie Reilly in football, Ken Scotland, Arthur Smith and Hugh McLeod in rugby to enjoying watching John McGinn, Billy Gilmour and Craig Gordon with the round ball and Stuart Hogg, Finn Russell and Mark Bennett with the oval one.

Another thing I have learned over my many years being let-down by our national teams failing to match my over-expectations of them is to see, early-on, Disaster For Scotland coming out of left field.

That familiar foreboding struck early on Friday night as I watched the Scotland Under-20s taking on Wales in Colwyn Bay. I actually gave-up on the uber-irritating pro-Wales commentary after half an hour. It hadn't helped that the S4C's Welsh language commentary was coming across the English language iplayer link.

But, even then, with the amount of possession we had had, Scotland should have been at least three tries up, but, they kept butchering great positions and opportunities; while the way, just about the only time he touched the ball, the Welsh 13 cut through our defence like a knife through butter – I just knew, this will not end well.

I then switched to BBC Radio Shortbread, where not even the enthusiasm of talking heads Colin Grigor and Pete Horne, and match caller Paul Mitchell could hide the fact, Glasgow Warriors were making heavy weather of beating Munster. Mind you, even the ultra-fair-minded Grigor was growing exasperated at an Italian referee who appeared to be well out of his depth – so I don't think that helped.

At least, Glasgow won – then Friday night got better, when news came through from Italy of the Italian Under-20s beating England 6-0.

A late night Facebook message from one of the leading Moss Troopers found me agreeing with his message. The Under-20 game had been a tough watch and we really need to get our promising kids playing more rugby. Our team appeared to lack game intelligence – a commodity you only accrue from time on the grass.

IF FRIDAY night was disappointing, Saturday afternoon was torture. I've had enough experience of us losing in Wales, it's a fairly-normal bi-annual occurrence, but, I thought we had a real chance on Saturday against a not very good Welsh squad.

But, if we only scored seven out of ten in beating England, then we were maybe only worth five out of ten in losing to Wales. We seldom breached the gain line on the attack; we made too-many unforced errors and we gave away dumb penalties at dumb times.

I accept Chris Harris is a wonderful defensive centre, but, I want to see a bit more attacking flair from my 13. I still reckon, and I admit my bias in looking at him, although injuries have blunted his pace, Mark Bennett, still runs the best attacking lines of any Scottish centre. If Marko's days as a first-choice are gone, then I would like to see Redpath at 12, with Tuipulotu or Rory Hutchison at 13, to address our lack of midfield threat.

When he first burst onto the scene, we hailed Jonny Gray as a future British and Irish Lion. The 2017 New Zealand Tour perhaps came too soon for him, and we assumed, he would be a shoo-in for the 2021 South African Tour. He didn't get picked. In fact, I fear he has gone backwards since leaving Glasgow for Exeter. He was largely anonymous on Saturday, as were too many of our pack.

We have a forwards squad of nice, competent boys – we lack one or two hard-nosed international beasts and, until we unearth these rarities, I am afraid in the modern game, we are going nowhere.

Could Guinness Six Nations 2022 turn out to be yet another massive Disaster for Scotland? I'm worried now. That's the gloomy stuff, but, for the neutral, it was a most-entertaining game which could well have gone either way – Wales just made fewer mistakes and took their chances better.

But, if we cannot beat that lot, we're in bother, because I don't think the Welsh team which beat us is as good as the England one we beat. We still have to face the two strongest teams in the competition, and go to Rome. I am one Scotsman with a grievance whom you couldn't mistake for a ray of sunshine today.

Gregor Townsend now has a couple of weeks in which to re-set his squad; a lot of hard work will need to be done before we welcome the French to BT Murrayfield.

REVIEWING France's victory over Ireland in Paris, a line of Robert Burns' came to mind: “And forward tho' Ah canna see, Ah guess and fear.” I can see some big problems coming down the road to meet us.

The game in Cardiff was enjoyable, but, the heavyweight clash in Paris was at a higher level of intensity, physicality and skill. We will have to improve greatly from what we have shown in the two games this far if we are to compete with these two sides. Even that may not be enough. We will I feel, also need them to have a bad day at the office if we are to sneak wins over them.

To make it worse, if we play in Rome, the way we played in Cardiff, we could be in bother. I am a tad depressed – again.

SO MUCH for Italy maybe shocking England in Rome this afternoon. Eddie Jones' changes worked, England played a lot better than they had at BT Murrayfield. They got a boost from a fast start and an early score, after which, they never let Italy get a grip of the game.

Significantly, Maro Itoje, who was largely anonymous at Murrayfield, was more like his usual self in England's win. Mind you, worryingly for us, looking ahead to our visit to the Eternal City. I thought the Italian scrum asked more-difficult questions of the England eight than we had.

England were well worth their victory, which enabled Sir Clive Woodward and the other talking heads to be even-more annoying than they usually are – and encouraged me to switch channels right on the final whistle.

FINALLY, as if the weekend wasn't bad enough for Scotland and our leaders at BT Murrayfield, in the early hours of Sunday morning, Austin Gilgronis beat Old Glory, our subsidiary team in the USA, 57-12, as the new season of Major League Rugby got under way. In Scotland – it never rains but it pours.