CENTURIES ago the French used to have a saying about the pride of their partners in the Auld Alliance.
“Fier comme un Ecossais” they would remark –, as proud as a Scot – and we had every right to be proud given how often we stopped the French from getting a complete doing on the battlefield from the English.
Pride is one of the seven deadly sins, of course, and so is envy, and it is the latter rather than the former which was most often displayed by Scottish rugby fans in recent years.
Yet everyone in Scottish rugby had every right to be proud at the weekend when things finally fell right for the national team and we proved that, on our day, Scotland can compete and beat the top teams in the world.
It is for the others to envy our terrific play against Australia that followed just a week after we came so agonisingly close to beating the All Blacks for the first time.
The whole Autumn Test series was a joy to watch, and the brand of exciting play shown by Scotland is making the world sit up and notice.
My only comment on Scotland’s great win over the Wallabies is about yet another refereeing cock up. When Tommy Seymour knocked on after 36 minutes and supposedly gifted the try, why did nobody in officialdom notice that Marika Koroibete tackled Seymour into touch well after the ball was away and thus gave Bernard Foley the space to run into for him to make the try for Tevita Kuridrana. Watch it on Youtube and you’ll see. Thankfully this time an umpiring blunder didn’t cost Scotland victory over Australia.
Yet there is another occasional Scottish trait which we must avoid come the Six Nations. It goes by the Greek name of hubris and it basically describes excessive pride – and as we all know, pride comes before a fall.
The Autumn Tests have taught us much, and thankfully it is nearly all positive. For years Vern Cotter and Gregor Townsend preached the virtue of strength in depth and the efficacy of that philosophy was never better proven that on Saturday.
The injury list was long and in times gone by, it would have seen Scotland struggle to compete, but even missing the likes of Stuart Hogg, WP Nel, Greig Laidlaw, Richie Gray, Josh Strauss, Alisdair Dickinson, Ross Ford, Tim Swinson, Luke Hamilton and Dave Denton – all of whom might have started – Scotland had the resources to pull off a famous victory.
The men who stepped up to the mark proved more than adequate replacements and now Townsend has a real problem but one he will be delighted to confront.
For how do you drop the likes of Ali Price, Stuart McInally, Zander Fagerson, Ben Toolis, and above all the new guys Darryl Marpho, Jamie Bhatti and Byron McGuigan when they have shown such determination and skill?
Let’s all enjoy Christmas and Ne’erday for the Six Nations is just around the corner.
And please let us not get ahead of ourselves. Not yet.
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