A Win Is A Win - Even An Ugly One

I WAS RIGHT to be worried about Saturday afternoon's visit to Cardiff. I had a clear vision of us struggling against a Welsh side which is a bit better than Fleet Street or even the Welsh media would have us believe they are. But, in Finn we trust; even when things weren't working for us and we were making unforced errors, I expected MacMessi to come up with something special.

Sure enough he did. That move which led to Darcy Graham's converted try, at the end of the day – that made the difference and turned possible defeat into a narrow victory, keeping the Triple Crow dream alive. However, let's be honest, Finn's restart kick should have been recalled, had the TMO been on his game – it wasn't legal, but, we've maybe been overdue a rub of the green in Cardiff. In truth, this wasn't a great Scottish display – we made things hard for ourselves and, once again, some of our experienced players didn't perform as we know they can.

Still, to win in Cardiff, with several players slightly off is not a typical Scottish move, so, let's be grateful for small mercies. Wales produced the sort of defensive effort I expected from them, but, from start to finish, Scotland produced the better attacking Rugby, showed far-more ambition, but, made too-many mistakes.

The UK media, both print and broadcast, is now so slanted towards what they think up in that there Lunnun. Thus, in the round-up of the two games, that moment of inspiration when Finn and Darcy combined was largely over-looked. If two England players had combined for that try, it would be playing on a TV loop.

My take on things is – we won, it was a tad “ugly” but, given how often we have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in Cardiff in past years – I'll take this one. We all know, probably nobody better than Gregor Townsend, that we will need to be even better next time out, when we face France, but, with arguably our two hardest games to come, we are in not a bad place.

Regular readers will know, I have an aversion to awarding marks out of ten for player performances in games. But, the reality is, few of our XV in Cardiff would have scored more than 7/10 for their performances – we can get better and we will have to.

BEING SCOTTISH, I support two teams – Scotland and whoever is playing against England that weekend. Therefore, on Saturday afternoon, I settled down in front of the TV to cheer-on Ireland at Twickenham.

This is an Irish team in rebuild; one or two of the bulwarks are on the downward slope, while the jury is still out on the newer boys seeking to establish themselves in the team. Pre-game I thought: “Ireland can win this”, mainly because, this English side is grossly over-hyped and not nearly as competent, far less as good, or as well-coached as their media cheer-leaders would have us believe.

Kicking the ball up in the air and chasing it is not the way to win international matches in the 2020s – the sooner English Rugby realises this and finds a new strategy, the better.

Meanwhile, we Scots can enjoy a quiet chuckle at the travails of The Common Enemy.

One final thought from Twickenham. Not since the young David Beckham was breaking through have I seen Fleet Street as besotted with England's Next Big Thing as they currently are with Henry Pollock.

Yes, the kid has talent and potentially a great career ahead of him. However, his inexperience was woefully exposed at Twickenham where he finished well behind the more-experienced and battle-hardened Irish back row.

I couldn't help thinking, young Henry was a bit lucky. I am sure the now-retired Peter O'Mahony would have enjoyed teaching him a few lessons on Saturday.

But, at the end of the day – England lost again: how sad, never mind.

THIS CURRENT French team is, for my money, that wee bit better than all the other Guinness Men's Six Nations teams. Therefore, I rather fancied them to beat Italy on Sunday, so, I opted instead for Livingston v Rangers and the gold medal ice hockey match from the Winter Olympics.

Just one thought from the game, both Italy and Scotland wear Macron kit; so, how come, while Italy came out in that stunning red warm-up top – I want one, badly – we had to wear that disgusting outfit in Rome, whatever colour it was?

Italian pizzaz and style for themselves, any old rubbish will do for Scotland.