SATURDAY’S historic humiliation at Twickenham is gone now, indelibly inked into the record books as the most points ever conceded by Scotland in a Calcutta Cup match.
We can only hope it will not be superseded any time soon.
What made the 61-21 defeat especially hard to take was the fact that the team had travelled south in good form and an optimistic frame of mind. Having had a few days to put it into perspective, however, we should probably find solace in that fact, as it makes this particular loss look more like an aberrant result rather than one that fits into a pattern of poor performances.
In that, it is a stark contrast to the early days of professional rugby union, when Scotland ran up record defeats with bewildering regularity.
In the 1997 Twickenham match, for instance – the first in the fixture after the sport went open – Scotland lost 41-13. It was the first time they had conceded more than 30 points to their oldest rivals, and it would not be the last. In 2001 the score was 43-3 –
the record margin for a loss that was equalled on Saturday – then two years later it was 40-9.
By then, Scotland had already suffered some of the heaviest defeats in their history against other nations too, notably New Zealand and South Africa. In the first Test on their 1996 tour to the former country, they lost 62-31 at Carisbrook in Dunedin, while back at the same venue four years later, they were beaten 69-20. The 1997 defeat by the Springboks was around the same magnitude at 68-10, although it felt a lot worse because Scotland were at home.
Clearly, parts of the late 1990s and the early years of this century were difficult, occasionally embarrassing times for Scottish rugby, in part because some of the major rugby-playing nations had adapted to professionalism more quickly and were beginning to make use of their far superior manpower. In retrospect, however, the encouraging thing about that earlier period at least was how quickly the national team recovered – and not only to the point of mid-table respectability in the Five Nations, but actually becoming the last champions before the addition of Italy.
There were changes to both the playing squad and the coaching team, of course, with Jim Telfer resuming the reins in 1998 and key assets such as John Leslie joining the ranks. But there was a fair element of continuity too: for instance, of the players who suffered that heavy loss to the South Africans, the likes of Gary Armstrong, Gregor Townsend and Gordon Bulloch went on to play leading roles in 1999.
In other words, there are indeed times when the darkest hour is just before dawn. To an extent the England game highlighted some shortcomings in the operation of Scotland’s defensive system and perhaps in the make-up of some players too, but there were also aspects of the Scottish performance
in that match which would not be repeated were the same teams to meet at the same venue this weekend.
So the damage is done, but
Scotland can recover from it quickly. They remain a team who are relatively inexperienced in international terms, but one that is improving. They have not suffered any sort of irreparable reverse, no matter how traumatic Twickenham was, and they can prove as much against Italy in three days’ time with a display which could yet see them finish as runners-up to England.
What is unlikely to be recovered, however, is the Lions hopes of several of those who were involved against the champions. On a visit to Edinburgh last week, Warren Gatland made it plain that, while head-to-head match-ups during the Six Nations would influence his selection for the tour to New Zealand, the ability to travel well was also important.
“You’ve got to think about the Lions being away from home, against one of the best teams in the world,” the tourists’ head coach said. “So I’m looking at it from a Scottish point of view and seeing that they’ve got two wins at home.
“I’ll be looking at a lot of things. How players perform. You want players playing on the edge – but you want them keeping their discipline, as well. They have to be able to control their emotions.”
Stuart Hogg, having played so little of the game before going off injured, should be an exception to the general marking-down of Scots by Gatland.
So too should Greig Laidlaw, out injured since the France match, and
a player whom the coach might well have had in mind when he said the following: “There may be one or two where we have the conversation where we say, ‘at the moment, I don’t see you as a Test player, but as someone who will be brilliant gelling the team, playing midweek games, bringing experience, whatever’.”
Beyond those two, the likes of Jonny Gray should still be in with a shout. But in his case, and that of other Glasgow players, a big game against Saracens at the start of next month is likely to do more for his chances than a win against Italy, no matter how convincing.
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