BuddieInDundee

Is the key question. From what I can see the whole ripping the squad apart shambles stems from a potential paranoia of players' loyalties towards the previous manager. I'm not suggesting for a minute that the squad from last season was of Premiership standard, but a few shrewd additions to a close-knit squad would surely have made more sense than spinning £70K on a centre half who has barely featured and telling one of the best players from last season to f**k off. I'm not one for knee jerk reactions, and we of course weren't expecting much from the Rangers and Aberdeen games, but the body language and attitude from the players in each of them was genuinely scary considering we've just been promoted. As for the Livi game, the way McGinn reacted to Smith coming on pretty much sums up what I think the players think of Stubbs tbh. Early days I know, but this really is beginning to stink of Rae's first full season in charge.

I was having palpitations at that [emoji23] Shows how far we've come that many of the players didn't seem too happy despite the win. Most, you'd imagine, will be simply feeling relieved. In the past this would've almost been celebrated as winning the title.

Absolutely fucking brilliant. Think I'm not alone in having that horrible feeling at half time that we'd shit the bed, especially when England came out flying at the start of the second half. What a pleasant surprise, did absolutely superbly to kill England's momentum. As good as Russell was, my man of the match would have been John Barclay. Made absolute mincemeat of the English back row, which was a huge part of gradually grinding them down in the second half. Yet again, Handsome Hugh Jones...[emoji7][emoji7][emoji7]

Can't wait to see Vunipola's latest technique in the scrum...

Brilliant start, England have been surprisingly poor thus far but I think a lot of that is down to our aggressive defensive line and disruptive work in the breakdown.

Decent options for the Scottish No10 jersey...what a time to be alive.

Laidlaw epitomised the difference today compared to the utter shambles of a performance against Wales. Mix of bad luck but a bit of a shocker for the second French try. However, unlike Price and the rest of team against Wales, didn't let it affect the rest of the performance. The game management stemming from him in the second half was absolutely superb. Goes without saying that we have to be much better against England, especially in the first half. Thought we let our runners get isolated far too easily in midfield, and if we do that against England we won't be allowed to creep our way back in control like we did today. Thought Berghan (sp?), Gilchrist and Wilson had absolutely superb games. What a difference having aggressive ball carriers makes to your overall attacking performance. Watching us half heartedly drift from side to side against Wales was one of the most seethe inducing things I've ever witnessed, but having ball carriers like that making the hard yards allowed guys like Huw Jones pick out some fucking sexy lines. Only real negative talking point is now, surprisingly, Finn Russell. We all know for every five great games he'll have an absolute shocker, but that's two in a row now. Surely won't be dropped for the England game but you've got to worry what might happen to us if he goes into meltdown mode again.

It would be nice if we started committing more than one player to the ruck when in possession

Spot on. Whilst the French are a decidedly average side compared to the sides they used to field, I've got the absolute fear about their pack and ball carriers if our defence vs Wales is anything to go by.

Me too mate. Actually watched a recording of it after the football, f**k knows why I went through the entire 80 minutes. Price, McGuigan, Harris, Russell and Du Preez all stand out for the wrong reasons. Would start with Laidlaw without hesitation for France, he may be an unfashionable scrum half but by Jesus did we miss his leadership yesterday. Think someone asked the question whether we'd have been 14-0 down with him on, and I've got to agree it's very unlikely. Is Strauss injured? Du Preez had the presence of a fucking toddler. Harris was way out of his depth, anyone know of Dunbar/Bennett/Taylor's current fitness? Would also start with Maitland over McGuigan. Whilst McGuigan was feeding off scraps the entire game, his running off decent counter attacking ball was extremely poor.

Tom English has just torn Scotland's performance to shreds in a BBC column this morning. Thoughts? Harsh? Fair? http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/42937248

Don't you need to be a platinum member or something like that to do so? Don't post on here nearly enough to justify spending money on changing it tbh

Very doubtful, they've mused the idea a good couple of times now and each time the (very) rough estimate cost of another loop has been astronomical. I think the absolute clusterfuck that was the Edinburgh tram project has probably buried any ideas for one, future Scottish Governments and Councils would be shitting themselves about a repeat scenario. Been getting the train much more often nowadays since moving back to Glasgow. Ended up selling the motor as the transport here is pretty decent and luckily managed to avoid most of the cretins that get mentioned on this thread. The only thing that has infuriated me thus far are those c***s who tap their tickets off the table for about ten minutes.

Hideously hungover and my throat is ruined from that yesterday, completely worth it! Never in a million years thought we'd see such a free flowing Scotland side, never mind putting 50 points past Australia with nearly half the 1st XV out through injury. All the tools are available to have a serious push for the six nations, and usually I'm a pessimistic b*****d about our chances due to so many false dawns. Special shout out to the boys of the west stand section six, all in fine voice and hip flasks being passed all around!

A wonderful summary of the talent available to us at the time Correct! The way they both handled the ball they may as well have been wearing boxing gloves.

As an outside centre at the time I was starstruck at being able to witness Marcus Di Rollo's twinkling feet in the flesh.

Was using the most recent eras as examples but completely agree with the sentiment. Growing up with Hadden's and Williams' sides as your inspiration was fucking brutal.

Agreed, added to that the amount of high tackles, offsides and blatant killing of the ball on their five metre line it would've been nothing short of a miracle had they avoided a yellow card. Still feels like a bit of an opportunity missed, but comparing this to the side under Johnson and Robinson coupled with the injuries decimating the pack, it's a hell of an achievement.

The vast majority of referees at any level appear to be making it up as they go along when it comes to scrum time. FWIW on the whole I thought he had an okay game.

Perhaps a bit harsh in describing that as a shit the bed effort, especially considering we must've been down to our 3rd/4th choice in the vast majority of positions within the forward pack. As was the case before the series began, Australia will be the acid test to gauge how we should be expecting to do in the 6N.

We've absolutely shat the bed here. As usual our counter attacking play has been good, but our decision making from the third phase onwards has been shite... And now we sxore. It's the hope that kills you.

Cheers lads, very helpful [emoji1303]

Was meaning to ask about this actually, what's it like getting tickets down there if anybody has been before? Assuming it's going to be expensive, but I've heard it's a cracking weekend.

Three Welsh 'regions' dispatched with ease in the opening two weeks. What was it they were complaining about again? The Pro14 isn't a high enough standard for them? Ooft.

It won't even load on my first attempt, bodes well [emoji23]