GAD

Magnificent from Porteous.

Scotland always get the short straw on that one We do now anyway with it being on Amazon. They've obviously decided we are the warm up act to the "big games". I won't be the same in the 6 nations though. Doesn't really bother me when playing Tonga or Japan, but Scotland V Oz, or SA has got to be a Saturday afternoon or evening for me.

And another thing that might sound a bit stupid, but I 100% think contributed to the "meh" factor of this series was the kick off times. Playing at Murrayfield at 1 pm in the afternoon, or 2pm on the Sunday is a completely different prospect to a 5.30 kick off under the lights with a baying, drunken crowd. It probably shouldn't make much difference, but I really think it does.

It's been a pretty underwhelming autumn really. 3/4 wins is decent enough on paper I suppose, but I don't think we've really looked particularly good at any point. I think as well, our performances have looked a good step down from those of Ireland, France and England in particular. We've scored some nice tries, but the attack has looked disjointed at times. The defence still looks good, but the discipline at times has been horrendous, and we still can't adapt to shit refereeing like yesterday. Set piece has been poor at times as well. Some of the new players who came in had pretty tough times, and a few of the more established players look a bit off form at the moment, particularly Zander, Price, McInally and Ritchie for me, and we've still not really got a decent No 8. Russell and Hogg have been pretty patchy as well to be brutally honest, but I also feel even when not at their best they've managed to drag us through most games anyway. Will need a big improvement for the 6 nations, that's for sure.

Team for Saturday. Looks to me like a stronger team than the one we put out against the world champions, though I'd have Schoeman in for Bhatti.

The reaction to the Euros was pretty over the top to be fair. I can understand people's disappointment, but if the Euros (and by extension the playoffs) had actually taken place when they were supposed to rather than in 2021 then I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have even been there. We must have been one of the lowest ranked teams there, maybe only North Macedonia ranked lower? Kazakhstan beat us 3-0 in March of 2019. 2 years and 9 months later we've been to our first major tournament in 23 years, qualified for the world cup playoffs, are selling out Hampden again and have a young and pretty exciting team to watch. The progression under Clarke has been amazing.

What a night that was! Hampden was amazing, and reading through this thread today has fair soothed my hangover. I thought that was a real "coming of age" game for this team. I know we shouldn't get too carried away, but that was such a fantastic, mature performance for a team that know exactly what's expected of them, have confidence in the system and each other and they are so fucking brave on the ball as well. I don't think it can be overstated just how well they controlled that match. The whole game was played on Scotland's terms. When we needed to score in the first we put the foot on their throat till the pressure broke them, with Schmeichael flapping at crosses, screaming at the ref and his defenders because he couldn't cope being a glorious sight. When we needed to defend we did so on our terms, with Denmark only really being allowed to play where Scotland let them, and during that period we counted brilliantly, always looked dangerous, and in reality, always looked way more likely to score a second than Denmark did to equalise. Everyone played their part, everyone was brilliant. I'm just gutted we now have to wait so long to see this team again. I wish the playoffs were tomorrow!

Oh Fiji, please please do this.

I keep thinking about that game and how much Toony fucked it now. It's not just Maitland and Cherry, but imagine how much better it would have felt to have Wilson and Ritchie Gray starting, or coming off the bench? I know we have to build "depth" but you do that against Tonga, Japan and even Oz. World champions at home in a game you realistically can win? Play your best fucking team, like Ireland did.

Yeah, just been stewing on it a bit myself. Maitland is an obvious one that should have been playing. I sometimes wonder if Townsend has a problem with him, or if it's all to do with age. We missed guys like Gray, Cummings and Sutherland as well. Last week had me thinking we had a bit more depth there now, but it was brutally exposed when SA brought the subs on today. We've just not got that.

I mean, what the f**k was that kick?

New Zealand have been very poor here.

NZ are getting fucking pumped here, this could be a big score if Ireland can keep this up.

The game has been very similar pattern to the Scotland one, with NZ being Scotland....

New Zealand's kicking here has been shocking!

Some ad agency is throwing everything at it thinking rugby fans are a core target demographic. Bizarre.

Also, maybe I'm being a bit chippy here, but when Lowe scored, the fact he's a Kiwi was never mentioned. Do you think the same would have happened if DVM had scored today?

Furlongs efforts at the NZ try are genuinely hilarious. A traffic cone would have done more.

Yeah, sometimes you think we are building a bit of depth, then today we are missing Sam Johnson and it's a fucking disaster. SA were missing Faf and Kolbe and you wouldn't have noticed. The players they brought off the bench made them better as well, whereas ours made us poorer. Hoggy is gutted.

Yeah, far too much of that was self inflicted.

That's so shite

Yeah, it's a wee bit death by 1000 cuts though. Very hard to see how we win this right now.

We need these kicks from Russell. He's normally better than this.

That was fucking brilliant!

This is almost game over if he kicks this.