Scotland’s Autumn 2017 International Series

Scotland went into their 2017 Autumn International series with high hopes following their Summer tour and with Gregor Townsend in charge to continue the good work started by his predecessor, Vern Cotter, could the National side now play with the big boys?

The three-match series was put into some jeopardy in the week prior to the first match with Samoa Rugby Union announcing that they were bankrupt and couldn’t pay the players, but the rugby community rallied round as ever, and some financial assistance was forthcoming.

The One We Could Have Lost.

Samoa were seen as the warm-up match by many, the big tests coming against New Zealand and Australia, but history has always had a habit of tripping the Scots up – Italy 2007 anyone? – in ‘dead cert’ games, so how would this series opener go?

A try after three minutes gave the Scots an early lead and had the ‘experts’ nodding knowingly, but, by the half hour mark, Samoa had closed up to 13-10 giving all those same experts a bit of food for thought.

However, it was back on track by the half time whistle as two further tries for the home side opened up a comfortable 25-10 lead.

Just after the break, Scotland saw their fourth try, which was converted for 32-10 and things were looking a bit more on track for the win. However, by the hour mark, Samoa had crept closer once again with two tries of their own to keep the pressure on at 32-24.

By 70 minutes another try apiece had made it 37-31 as the visitors hung on to the coat tails of the Scots, with a converted try all that was needed for the lead. But Scotland knocked that one on the head with a solo effort from Horne which looked like the winner and, despite Samoa scoring in the final few minutes, that’s what it proved to be.

So the final score of 44-38 provided the crowd with a fantastic opener to the series, but could it get better?

The One We Should Have Won.

New Zealand. The All Blacks. World Champions. With a record of winning in over 77% of all matches, the men NZ are, probably rightly, considered to be the best sporting team in the World. Ever… So how would Scotland fair? Their record wasn’t great with two drawn matches in the 30 played, but with new confidence in the side, coupled with the Blacks coming off a long domestic and International season, could this be the one?

Scotland dominated proceedings in the first half, keeping the opposition pinned in their 22 for a fair length of time and defending well on the odd occasions that they came under pressure. A seventh minute penalty had given Scotland the lead early on, but New Zealand had ‘managed’ to draw level at 3-3 just before the break.

By 52 minutes, it seemed to be back to the script as a couple of tries from the visitors opened the gap to 15-3, with the Scots just about keeping things from running away. But, as the hour mark ticked over, New Zealand lost a player to a yellow, immediately handing the Scots a man advantage which they drove home with a converted try for a 15-10 score.

Despite being a man down, the Blacks kept a now resurgent Scots team at bay and turned up the wick a touch to drive into opposition territory and notch up their third try of the match.

With the score now 22-10 and still 10 minutes left, it looked to be all over bar further additions to the All Blacks score. However, the only addition they saw was another man in the bin, thus handing Scotland a two man advantage for around two minutes of play. Now the ‘Best team in the World’ showed why they are and held the Scots out and even turned the ball over to clear their decks.

With less than five minutes left, New Zealand started to play ‘keep ball’, but fell foul of the referee, handing possession of the ball back, which Scotland turned into a converted try with a pitch length break to leave the final score at an, oh so close, 22-17. Match of the series? Maybe…

The One Where We Hammered Them.

Scotland has a much more successful record against the ‘other’ Antipodean side, Australia, winning around a third of matches between the teams with the most recent being in the Aussie’s back yard in the summer where the Scots recorded ‘new’ boy’, Gregor Townsend’s, second win on the trot – the first being in his first match in charge against Italy in Singapore.

Scotland had never beaten Australia by more than a single score since 1981, but, given the showing against New Zealand the previous week, anything was now possible. And that’s just about how it turned out…

Scotland were 10-0 ahead before the first 20 minutes had been played via a penalty and a kick-and-chase converted try. This they followed up with a ‘second’ try a couple of minutes later, but the TMO pulled the plug on that one after review.

However, despite thing being fairly even match-wise, the score deficit was something the Aussies weren’t happy with and two tries in the final five minutes of the half put them ahead 12-10. Unfortunately, they were soon behind again, but in the personnel stakes, as a red card for foul play in the final seconds before the break saw them down to 14 players for the rest of the match. Unlike in the previous match, the Scots were able to take full advantage of the extra man and scored a converted try before the whistle and a 17-12 lead.

Australia, like New Zealand, didn’t seem to see the shortage of players to be an issue, but, unlike New Zealand, they scored with a try three minutes after the restart to draw level.

But it’s a game of numbers at times and Scotland put their numbers to good use and, by 55 minutes, had scored three tries for 34-17, then ran in a sixth just after Australian talisman, Stephen Moore, took his final bow on the International stage. No sentimentality there, then.

With just over 10 minutes left, the Aussies scored to bring about a 39-24 score line, but the Scots were far from finished and scored two further tries in the final five minutes to finish off a fine Autumn Series with a record win over Australia at 53-24.

Next up is the 2018 Six Nations and, funnily enough, Scots’ confidence is high, with Townsend reckoning they can win the title. With Wales not playing too well at the moment, Irish domestic rugby going great in Europe but we beat the National side last time out and France in turmoil with the recent sacking of their head coach, Guy Noves, what could possibly go wrong?

England, that’s what could, and probably will, go wrong. After two years of Eddie Jones’ stewardship, England have lost one match – against Ireland – from 24 played. So, love them or loath them, credit must be handed out to where credit is due.

Could all be down to us or them, though… Just saying.

John Preece

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