AFTER a thumping win for Glasgow Warriors on Friday night, and what was, after a somewhat nervy first half, a morale-boosting victory for Edinburgh on Saturday night, the feelgood factor is definitely high in professional Scottish Rugby Union.
Warriors are, I would suggest, becoming – along with Toulouse – the “Brazil of Rugby Union”; this is in the sense that it used to be said of Brazilian football teams – such as the immortal 1970 team of Pelé, Arlos Alberta and Jairzinho, their thought process was: “You score four goals – we will score five”; the team motto was: “The cry was no defenders” and it was said: “No young Brazilian wants to be a goalkeeper”.
I often use Brazil as an example when trying to explain Warriors' current attraction to the locals here in Orange County, East Ayrshire. Their Friday night win over Zebre I tell them, should be looked-at as an 5-0 win – I count tries in Rugby Union as akin to goals in Football.
So, a 5-0 home win, on the back of 13 goals scored in 80-plus minutes in their previous match – roughly one every six minutes, that equates to the crowds watching Warriors being roaylly entertained. The Scottish Rugby Union should be shouting from the rooftops: “Come to Scotstoun – it's the most-exciting show in town”.
We Rugby People all know the truth of the statement: Forwards win games – the backs decide by how much”. Huw Jones – 'Man of the Match' on Friday night, the likes of rested Sione Tuipulotu, Jamie Dobie and Kyle Rowe may be hogging the headlines in the early part of the season,m but, praise ought to go to to the big guys doing the heavy lifting: the likes of Scott Cummings, Gregor Brown and Jack Dempsey, whose drive and energy had so-much to do with Warriors' wins this far.
A year or five back, it was said, the two Scottish sides had packs who were, in world terms: “Soft”; this is no longer the case; there is now an acceptance, our forwards are as hard-nosed as any and our world-class backs are thriving on the back of their hard work.
I would hesitate to single-out individual forwards, but, I have to ask, has any nation been as wrong in writing-off a player as Australia was in dumping Jack Dempsey?
The pressure on Glasgow is now set to ramp-up, as they head for South Africa and back-to-back meetings with Hollywoodbest Sharks in Durban and DHL Stormers in Cape Town. The timing for Warriors is good, since the two Saffa sides will be minus their Springboks.
Not that winning there will be easy, what happened the last time the Warriors ventured south of the Zambezi River, when they beat The Bulls to win the BKT United Rugby Championship last season. Thus, the South African sides know how dangerous the Weegies can be and how hard they will be, even with home advantage, to beat.
GLASGOW'S win over Zebre was a given, Edinburgh's win over DHL Stormers less than 24 hours later was more of a welcome surprise. We all felt Edinburgh could win, indeed, we all perhaps accepted, they had to win, if only to banish the hangover from their battering in Johanesburg. But, I can say, anyone who expected them to beat their visitors by five tries to nil, was seriously deluded.
But, that's what happened and we should be happy to acknowledge what a terrific win this was. After the debacle of the first half against The Lions, some were calling for a clear-out of some of the older Edinburgh players and giving the young guns more of a say in the recovery.
Sean Everitt however, knew his men better and he got the reaction and result he wanted – for evidence of which, just consider the Captain's role which Grant Gilchrist played in the win.
Ali Price, another player who has been under something of a cloud since he decamped along the M8, had probablky his best game in an Edinburgh shirt, while, just as Rory Darge has already done, since moving in the opposite dirtection, Ross Thompson might make his former management rue their decision to allow him to jump ship.
For me, however, the biggest boost to Edinburgh over the second half in Jo'burg and back at The Hive on Saturday has been the effect on games of the club's very own “Bomb Squad” - replacement props Boan Venter and D'Arcy Rae.
If the Saffas weren't such a Boerish lot, maybe one of them might have written a parody of one of The Boss's biggest hits – calling it: “Born to Scrum”. Our friends from the so-called “Rainbow Nation” do love a scrum and, this season, Venter has sbown he has been brought up in the faith.
Full Disclosure: I have long been a D'Arcy Rae fan – Ah kent his Faither (in the good sense) and I have long felt his virtues have been under-appreciated around EH12.
English cap Paul Hill has shown himself to be a worthy replacement for the now-retired WP Nel, but his arrival has brought the best out of D'Arcy, who must surely be back in Gregor Townsend's thoughts as to which player backs-up Zander Fagerson in the Scotland squad for the November internationals.
I know Scotland has plenty of back row options, but Ben Muncaster didn't half boost his profile on Saturday.
I took one other interesting little vignette from the Edinburgh win. What about that try-saving intervention from Duhan van der Merwe – when he slid across from the left to carry a grubber through into touch and deny Stormers a potential try.
Yes, we know vdM has defensive weaknesses, but that was a pleasing recognition on his part, of the fact he has to do more than carry the ball and run-in tries. I would, however, like to see Edinburgh's midfield backs doing more to giv e him useable ball. OK, none of them comes close to the Russell/Tuipulotu Senr. axis as providers of chances, but, that is something to work on.
Next up for Edinburgh is Cardiff, a team which, like Warriors, has an attitude of: “You score four tries – we score five” - out-scoring, far less beating Cardiff, even with home advantage, will be a major coup for Edinburgh.
No comments:
Post a Comment