WELL you can’t say The Rucker didn’t tell you – Samoa were no pushovers and it would have been no great surprise had they got a late seven-pointer and pipped Scotland at the post.
They would not have deserved a victory because Scotland played the better rugby over the piece, and the result possibly flattered Samoa, though not by much.
Just as in the World Cup in 2015, they were tough, fast and skilful, and worryingly for Gregor Townsend, the Samoans exposed a slew of defensive frailties which better teams would exploit to punish Scotland.
Speaking of which, there’s a considerably better team coming up on Saturday when Scotland take the field against the mighty All Blacks.
Firstly, however, what a belter of a game Australia had with Wales at the weekend
Wales were very good, but I think they showed Australia too much respect and that’s why they ended up losing their 13th match against Australia in a row.
We need to be looking at Australia and how they played against Wales if we are to have the ghost of a chance of beating New Zealand on Saturday.
Yes, I know the All Blacks thumped the Wallabies during the summer, but Australia came back last month to end their seven match losing streak against the world champions with a dogged 23-18 victory
We must not do what the Welsh did against Australia.
When Wales went on the attack they made ground most times, but too often they went laterally and that gave the Wallabies the time to line up their opposite numbers and get in the tough tackles that stopped the Welsh in their tracks.
New Zealand will do exactly the same to Scotland if we play the same tactics, so why not play Aussie style with ball in hand?
We cannot let New Zealand dominate on Saturday. Scotland need to get up early and get into the faces of New Zealand’s powerful pack, especially that superb back row, but also be aware of what the All Blacks can do when they go wide.
Our backs had better be prepared to tackle like thunder, because they are going to be doing a lot of it, and I would love to see our backs running at angles at the All Black defence.
Sadly we have lost W.P. Nel whose physical presence in the scrummage on Saturday was inspirational, and the absence of Rob Harley and Tim Swinson will test Scotland’s strength in depth again.
If I was Townsend, having made such a good start to his career as national head coach, I would throw caution to the wind and put the team out to play a similar game as we did against Samoa – fast and furious and the de’il tak the hindmost.
Chances are we are going to get stuffed anyway, so why not throw and kick the ball around and entertain the full house at Murrayfield.
I have been saying to anyone who will listen that we have no chance of beating New Zealand, yet there is every hope that Scotland can make a game of it on Saturday.
And then there is only the small matter of Australia to deal with the following week.
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