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kiwififer

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Japan are a seriously useful outfit- they're not the biggest but they use what power and speed they have very effectively. I feel the Kiwis, English and South Africans could do them with smart corner kicking, think that's the only real weakness I see in them.

We were just beaten by a better side today.

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14 minutes ago, Jim McLean's Ghost said:

The plan to kick the ball away was fucking woeful. Not even smart enough to kick to touch and put pressure on their line out.

For all the talk of competition at Centre both of them were shocking with no creativity or power. Harris did better on the wing o perhaps the tactics were the issue. Not passing the ball from 10 to 12 and opening up the game.

Harris is firmly in the Pete Horne category of not being a bad player but offering nothing at this level.

Still, given a straight choice, I’d have him in the second row over Gilchrist.

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7 minutes ago, Dunning1874 said:

Harris is firmly in the Pete Horne category of not being a bad player but offering nothing at this level.

Still, given a straight choice, I’d have him in the second row over Gilchrist.

I genuinely have no idea what Gilchrist offers.

At least with all the others, they have some sort of positive that they bring.

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On the balance of what we saw in the World Cup Townsend should be resigning. Planning to play fast rugby but sticking with Laidlaw. Playing Taylor and Barclay despite them both being completely done. Switching from a midfield oriented attack that was effective to an absolutely hopeless kicking game which saw us only get 25% possession in the first half.

We are shot of Laidlaw which solves one problem and Gilchrist should be emergencies only from now on.

 

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Hardly ever watch rugby but I watched the game today.  It seemed to me that Scotland are lacking in the basic technique of simply passing and catching the ball at pace under pressure.

Exemplified by a forward pass made by one of the players just after the 60 minute mark, when a legal pass would have given the player receiving the ball a glorious chance to score. The pundit co-commentating said something along the lines that it would’ve been a wonder pass if it had come off, but to me it looked like it should’ve been a fairly straightforward pass for a player at a high level.

I got the impression that the wind was taken out of Scotland’s sails at that moment , and it also gave the Japanese the belief that they’d be able to cope with anything Scotland could throw at them.

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A key difference between Cotters team and this one is that Cotters team occasionally had a bit of pragmatism about them. With this one it's either scoring the perfect try or being utterly toothless which isn't a good quality for an international team that should be competing and looking to kick on at this level. Also it turns out that changing coach midway during a world cup cycle when they're building something because you're panicking about losing the "golden boy" coach for a couple of years wasn't such a good idea after all.

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The least gracious rugby fans in my opinion are the Welsh, if we are stereotyping them all together. The Irish can be cocky too, and forget they were hopeless in the 80s and 90s ; but NZ - what a fecking place though, brilliant people and lovely - rugby fans are probably the worst e.g imagine the least tasteless Welshman on speed for arrogance at rugby. You could argue they have a right to of late, but being there before the 2011 World Cup and yes - we are pish - but the tasteless way they talked of us (in a rugby sense) they like us as people ; I'll have to be behind my fellow Gaels and hope Ireland can beat them.

Be some fairy-tale if Japan could get by SA, but fear today's tough match and SA being a better team than us, they'll probably bow out.

England should be Australia ; and who knows what French side will turn up (or Welsh one - not great against Fiji or Uruguay - but then again got the job done).

From a Scottish perspective, I actually found myself willing Japan's defence to hold tonight. I couldn't take another gallus defeat - if we had scored to make it 28-28 and then nicking another one before the end to win 35-28, would be unbelievably Scottish, so in away it's nice to go out as losers rather than the plucky glorious failure often our teams will do.

I'd imagine Toonie will get the next 6 Nations, but not convinced at all. Russell is an infuriating player at times. I don't watch or know enough about the game really, but every game I've seen Kinghorn in he's looked very good and surprised he hasn't played more or started more games - then again, I don't know enough really about the game.

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9 minutes ago, Kejan said:

The least gracious rugby fans in my opinion are the Welsh, if we are stereotyping them all together. The Irish can be cocky too, and forget they were hopeless in the 80s and 90s ; but NZ - what a fecking place though, brilliant people and lovely - rugby fans are probably the worst e.g imagine the least tasteless Welshman on speed for arrogance at rugby. You could argue they have a right to of late, but being there before the 2011 World Cup and yes - we are pish - but the tasteless way they talked of us (in a rugby sense) they like us as people ; I'll have to be behind my fellow Gaels and hope Ireland can beat them.

Be some fairy-tale if Japan could get by SA, but fear today's tough match and SA being a better team than us, they'll probably bow out.

England should be Australia ; and who knows what French side will turn up (or Welsh one - not great against Fiji or Uruguay - but then again got the job done).

From a Scottish perspective, I actually found myself willing Japan's defence to hold tonight. I couldn't take another gallus defeat - if we had scored to make it 28-28 and then nicking another one before the end to win 35-28, would be unbelievably Scottish, so in away it's nice to go out as losers rather than the plucky glorious failure often our teams will do.

I'd imagine Toonie will get the next 6 Nations, but not convinced at all. Russell is an infuriating player at times. I don't watch or know enough about the game really, but every game I've seen Kinghorn in he's looked very good and surprised he hasn't played more or started more games - then again, I don't know enough really about the game.

Kinghorn is more solid but Russell can pretty much win a match by himself when he's in the mood.

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Second half felt like a bit if a watershed, a changing of the guard if you like. Guys like Horne, Fagerson, Ritchie and Cummings stepped up where their more experienced counterparts failed. I expect Hutchison will be a starter come the 6 nations as well. Townsend might be done as well. A disappointing end for sure, but at least we went out on the pitch.

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As for Russell, well he was better when it was do or die and he had to force it A bit. He's a decent kicker, but he's not a kicking fly half. We need to build it round him going forward, and accept the player he is.

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Guest Bob Mahelp

It sounds almost daft to say it, but I thought Jamie Ritchie put in one of the all time great Scotland flanker performances today. 

He was everywhere. Winning turnover ball, head on tackles, carrying ball forward, in Japanese faces. He didn't deserve to be on the losing side.

In a disappointing tournament, his performances (and those of Bradbury) were diamonds in amongst the turds. At least that's something to hold on to. 

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