Scotland fell once again to the Red Rose juggernaut, although an improved second half performance meant they could at least take some pride away from the match. Here are some talking points.
England strike with crushing regularity
England built a huge lead in the first half, amassing a point a minute, and reacting to criticism that they had been slow starters in previous matches. Scotland by contrast still looked a bit low on confidence. There was no mini-collapse like against France, where they shipped three tries in seven minutes. The seven tries instead came with a weird regularity – arriving in the 5th, 16th, 20th, 26th, 33rd and 40th minutes – which probably told the story of the half. Scotland would do some decent defence, slowing England’s ball down by trying to hold up the tackler, and perhaps even have a moment of possession before a mistake or being forced to kick it away, and England would rebuild and score.
Scotland couldn’t get a foothold in the game, and England’s greater power meant they were completely on top at the scrum, and were able to chip away with dominant carries until a forward got over the line or Scotland ran out of defenders. Scotland did show a lot more fight than they had against Italy, and their defence never lacked commitment, but England were just too quick, accurate and strong, and if it hadn’t been for some crucial tackles into touch from the likes of Rhona Lloyd, Emma Orr and Francesa McGhie, the scoreline could have been even worse. In attack though, they were struggling a bit.
Scotland did show they could get go forward, even against the best defence, when they were quick and accurate, but a few times they hesitated, the nearest player hadn’t filled in at scrum half and they were driven off the ball by a powerful counter ruck. Perhaps the most emblematic and frustrating period was either side of Zoe Aldcroft’s interception try. Scotland were having to stand further back from the line to get anything going against an England defence rushing up and so they were passing a bit wider in the hope of a line break. They had a brief decent passage of possession but were perhaps a bit too predictable in that the ball would be going to Helen Nelson and shipped onwards. A couple of running lines looked a little off and Aldcroft read it well but it was also a symptom of Scotland’s attacking struggles. And to continue the frustration, there was a fumbled line out just after the restart, which lead to a scrum, the inevitable penalty and kick to the corner. Although this time Scotland defended well and held the ball up over the line, those couple of minutes really reflected the wider picture of a frustrating first half.
Similar but better in the second half
Scotland will take a lot more heart from the second half, where for 33 minutes it was 7-7 and they manage to put a gap of 25 minutes between England’s 7th and 8th tries. The defensive strategy wasn’t too much different from the first half, with Scotland continuing to try hold England players up and slow their attack down but it seemed to be working more effectively and they were managing to force a few more errors from the Red Roses. Their kicking was also putting England under relatively more pressure, with Orr inches from a 50-22 and England pushed back more, with kicks to touch or to the tramlines. The only problem was this strategy was that, although it largely stopped England from scoring, it was handing possession back to England and there was a worry that Scotland would be shut out for the second year in a row. However, Scotland stayed patient, and eventually saw a good half-break from Orr (who was constantly looking for a good running line, alongside some impressive defence in the game). This pressure got them a penalty kicked to the corner. Now it may not have been the prettiest try this team will ever score, but mauling as powerful a team as England from seven or eight metres is not to be sniffed at. After a poor, weather-affected attacking performance in the reverse fixture last year, it was good to see Scotland on the score sheet.
Benches show difference in depth
A pre-match statistic noted that England had four players on their bench each with more caps than the entire Scotland bench put together, which probably summed up the challenge Scotland face in terms of a difference in depth. Even then, pretty much all those Scotland bench caps belonged to Leah Bartlett and Elis Martin, with all the other players in their first W6N campaign.
To really overegg this contrast, England’s back row, scrum half and centre replacements were 2014 World Cup Winners and multiple Grand Slam winners Alex Matthews, Natasha Hunt and Emily Scarratt, three legendary names. Their counterparts on the Scotland bench were 20-year-old debutant Gemma Bell, 21-year-old debutant Rhea Clarke and 23-year-old debutant Rachel Phillips.
Clarke definitely deservers highlighting, as she looked very assured on debut and managed to really keep the tempo up with excellent service to her team mates. The other two didn’t get to really show what they could do, particularly ball in hand, but this also is unlikely to be their only cap and will have future chances to shine. The three front row replacements, who spanned the scale of experience in terms of caps, all had good games, with Bartlett involved relentlessly as a go-to ball carrier. Martin got around the park well and with some important line out throws, including the one for the try and another long one just before it which set up play which cumulated in the Orr break in the lead up to the try (and included a good carry of her own in the midst of that. Molly Poolman also put in a decent shift, holding up as well as anyone in the scrum despite her youth and showing just how strong she can be driving through contact. The most reassuring thing was that even with a bit more of an injury list, we still have the youngsters coming through to make for a quality 23.
Can Scotland close the gap?
In previous games between these two countries, I’ve tried to do judge whether Scotland have met the standards they would expect of themselves, rather than trying to compare the two teams given the huge difference in circumstances and resources. For this game, Scotland did in that 17-7 second half, but not so much in the first half – and to be fair, the other three teams England have played so far have basically managed one good half and one blowout half. But I think all fans want to feel like Scotland are starting to close the gap a little. Although the majority of the Scotland squad is professional now, it’s not clear if the team are getting any closer to the Red Roses – Scotland are a much-improved team, but then so are England, who somehow keep finding new heights to scale. Scotland are bringing in a few more younger players this campaign and that may help in the medium term. And there should definitely be confidence taken from a superb U18s victory against England in the U18 Six Nations festival.
England and France will always have a big professional or semi-professional group to draw from and a big difference to the men’s side is that the latter can draw their international team from a big pool of fully professional domestic level players (Scotland men must, in theory at least, have over 100 professionals to pick from). The women’s team have a solid core of professional players but supplemented by those who also have a job or are studying. Playing in the PWR is definitely helping a lot of players kick on and improve but it may take Scotland having a pool of 40+ full time players to counter England and France’s resource. Whether that is the best use of the more limited funding is another question. The improved pathways are providing players ready to make the step up, to Celtic Challenge and then internationally, but again we may not see the fruits of that a couple of years or more.
In the short term, perhaps the only quick improvement is to get the best, most experienced coach they can find to replace Fraser Brown when he moves on to Ealing after the tournament and make sure that coach is bedded in well before the World Cup, and to ensure that the team have the resources they need for the best build up to the tournament. In the long term, my hope is that the quality of youngsters coming through and the fact that we have a lot of players in the 20-26 age range with international experience, in many cases as full time professionals, can help us in a few years as a handful of the recent superstars of England rugby start to retire. They’ll have new superstars coming through too (Maddie Feaunati, Emma Sing and Mia Venner all prove that) but their age grade counterparts from Scotland will have had improved pathways and years of top-level experience, rather than starting their careers in very different circumstances.
Maybe it’s clutching at straws, but with such different sizes in populations, there may not be anything else that will put us close to this brilliant Red Rose team.
