Rugby Union

[Guest Bob Mahelp]

58 minutes ago, jaggyness said:

2 hours ago, Bob Mahelp said:

I was stunned to see that Townsend has the best percentage win record of any Scotland coach since the beginning of the 70's  (with the exception of Ian McGeeghan at the end of the 80's) with something like 55% of matches being wins. 
I've tried to think back over the last 2 games in my head.  The conditions dictated everything on Saturday, and despite a litany of basic errors, we were never, ever going to beat England in a forward dominated arm-wrestle for a whole 80 minutes. 
I actually thought we were much, much better against Ireland than Wales were on Saturday, and were only a few moments of poor decision making away from a famous (and deserved) win. Or at least a draw.
We have a chance over the next 2 fixtures to at least show we can play rugby and win games.  Do that and go to Cardiff against a Wales team that has maybe just lost to England and has no chance of winning the Championship, and let's see what happens.
 

Some of his win percentage can be attributed to the summer tours to North America and the likes of NZ and SA not seeing us as attractive enough opposition in the autumn and us filling up the schedule with games against Fiji and Tonga etc

True, but in the modern era no Scottish rugby coach has really been able to win games with any consistency. In the last 50 years it's rare for us to even win 2 games in a row, never mind Grand Slams or Championships.

The SRU will look at Townsend's record and determine that he's doing at least as well as anybody else. On top of that, Murrayfield sells out for every game, so why change ? 

Changes will only be made when the SRU are hit in the pocket.  Until that point, I would reckon Townsend is pretty safe in his job. 

 

[Savage Henry]

True, but in the modern era no Scottish rugby coach has really been able to win games with any consistency. In the last 50 years it's rare for us to even win 2 games in a row, never mind Grand Slams or Championships.
The SRU will look at Townsend's record and determine that he's doing at least as well as anybody else. On top of that, Murrayfield sells out for every game, so why change ? 
Changes will only be made when the SRU are hit in the pocket.  Until that point, I would reckon Townsend is pretty safe in his job. 
 

It’s only since Cotter that home games have consistently sold out. That guy made the team at least attempt to believe in itself. Some of the Williams/Hadden/Robinson home games had extra tickets issued to away fans.

[peasy23]

It’s only since Cotter that home games have consistently sold out. That guy made the team at least attempt to believe in itself. Some of the Williams/Hadden/Robinson home games had extra tickets issued to away fans.

I can remember they did some Groupon deals for home games pre Cotter, my in laws got 2 for 1 for an Italy match.

[ajwffc]

Jonny Gray has been ruled out of the remainder of Scotland's Six Nations campaign because of injury.

[peasy23]

Jonny Gray has been ruled out of the remainder of Scotland's Six Nations campaign because of injury.

Ouch. Another big loss.

[topcat(The most tip top)]

16 hours ago, honestly united said:

Unless i've missed something we've been fairly woefull for the entire 20 years of the 6 nations.

Although we were the worst performing team for the 9 decades of the five nations as well.

Much of the criticism of whoever happens to be Scotland's head coach at any given time is merited

But a lot of it is from people my age who saw two grand slams as adolescents and grew up thinking that was normal

 

 

Edited February 10, 2020 by topcat(The most tip top)

[peasy23]

Although we were the worst performing team for the 9 decades of the five nations as well.
Much of the criticism of whoever happens to be Scotland's head coach at any given time is merited
But a lot of it is from people my age who saw two grand slams as adolescents and grew up thinking that was normal
 
 

Think that is definitely a big part of it, the two slams in 84 and 90 definitely made me think we were among the best in the world, and we were capable of beating all the other nations on a fairly regular basis. We seem to have struggled in the 20+ years since the game went professional. We have had spells where we have had a brilliant set of forwards, but mediocre backs, and vice versa. Biggest criticism of the last few years is that Scotland have rarely performed at a high level for a full 80 minutes.

Watched the women get their annual gubbing from England. Plenty of effort, but in terms of physicality I would imagine it would look pretty similar to the Warriors playing a full strength side against Allan Glens.

[GNU_Linux]

I don't follow rugby but how has the Super 6 thingy fared so far?

[flyingscot]

This is all getting rather undignified. 

[Detournement]

General platitudes there with no specifics.

Obviously getting it out so when the press question him he'll just say he made his statement and has nothing to add. 

Good media tactics. Hopefully his tactics for the  Italy game match up. 

[John Lambies Doos]

Would be interesting to hear Richie Gray's take on Townsend

[ddfg]

Or Duncan Weir's

Would be interesting to hear Richie Gray's take on Townsend

[Guest Bob Mahelp]

4 hours ago, flyingscot said:

This is all getting rather undignified. 

 

I think that we've missed the turn off for Undignified, next stop Embarrassment, with the final destination being fucked up shambles. 

 

[peasy23]

You would presume at age 27 and with 40 odd caps, that Russell would be part of any senior players group. He's quite right to be pissed off if they have set up all the rules without any input from him.

I can't for the life of me understand why Russell and Maitland were expected to train on the Monday after playing on Sunday afternoon and travelling up straight after. Surely it wasn't too much to let them have a few beers, the same as the rest of the squad did on the Saturday, then have Monday off?

I do think the bulk of the squad feel more loyalty to their employers, whereas Finn has gone to France and realised there is more than one way to manage players after 7 or 8 years under Townsend.

[honestly united]

what has happened to Johnny Gray, I thought he played the full 80 minutes on saturday?

[John Lambies Doos]

what has happened to Johnny Gray, I thought he played the full 80 minutes on saturday?

Hand injury I believe

[Jaggy Snake]

1 hour ago, peasy23 said:

I can't for the life of me understand why Russell and Maitland were expected to train on the Monday after playing on Sunday afternoon and travelling up straight after.

It's not about training. Finn didn't turn up for a team meeting, which he even admitted in his interview was a mistake.

Edited February 10, 2020 by Jaggy Snake

[peasy23]

It's not about training. Finn didn't turn up for a team meeting, which he even admitted in his interview was a mistake.

Just one of many reports to reference him missing training on the Monday.

[Jim McLean's Ghost]

7 minutes ago, peasy23 said:

Just one of many reports to reference him missing training on the Monday.

But he had played the day before so he wouldn't necessarily have been scheduled to train on the Monday.

Sean Maitland wasn't going to train on the Monday

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/51125848

Quote

"We're training five sessions from Monday 20 January to Monday 27 and those Saracens players can only make one of those sessions," Townsend said.

 

[Virtual Insanity]

I don't think either of them come out particularly well from this dispute, but ultimately only one of them is employed to win Scotland rugby matches. Ultimately his intransigence is going to be partially responsible for him losing his job, but until then we all have to watch a decent rugby team desperately short of the exact creativity Russell brings.