The plucky Scottish with a dazzling attack put on a masterclass The hard work put in by support runners securing the victory. Whist at the end of the day, the bonus point meant little, put out of the tournament on the Sunday by Japan, it is the style in which the bonus point was secured that Townsend and his team must take solace in.
Take a look at their first try. A simple set piece move which tears open the Russian defence as everyone succeeds in their role. By splitting the defence with two hard lines, Hastings takes the ball on the arc and eases over.
As you can see from this camera shot, all the Scottish players are in motion. This leads to russia becoming fractured with 1 defender shooting on to Horne whos been given the ball from the base. The simple pass out the back leaves Hastings with a wide open flank in which he can send the ball.
The scottish attack has held its width with 2 runners in the 15m wide channel. Whilst russia are still scrambling to cover it. This scrambling is what enables hastings to easily step inside the sweeper who has pushed over to aggressively. The line opens and he is able to easily beat the covering defender.
Then in the next example, Scotland have retrieved the ball from a kick in their 15m channel. But the response comes not from the catcher but also the ther 2 closest scots. By forming an arow head formation it enables them to stretch the defence in the most efficent way.
It is easy to expose the edge of the defence because the wider runner holds his width. This means that when the russian winger turns his shoulders inward, Scotland can expose the 5m channel.
However it’s the work by George Horne that really makes the try. He immediately attacks and then continues to run in support when it may be easier to let his team finish it. The pass from his brother into the centre of the field slightly wider than the scottish 9 also prevents Russia from just pushing Scotland in field and making a side on tackle.
This is also prevented as Horne, changes his line attacking back towards the touchline, accelerating into a wider channel and giving his assiter enough time to make a simple and leave Horne, the finish.
These examples of support and hard work is what make scotland so exciting and effective. However, it is therefore a shock why they kicked so much ball away. They are so deadly with ball in hand and creating opportunities with well chosen angles such as the Barclay try in this game.
Scotland kicked on average against Tier One sides 67% of their possession away. Against Japan they kept the ball in hand 27% of the time. These two stats show the underwhelming nature of the kilted warriors at this world cup. In attack stunning but sadly driven seemingly by a game plan which restricted rather than utilised their talents.
The Analysis Guy 