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The bold Scotland claim made by forwards coach John Dalziel

By PA
Scotland players on last Sunday's post-game walk (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

John Dalziel believes Scotland have shown against Ireland and South Africa this year that they are on the right path towards justifying the hype and being able to topple the game’s heavyweights. The Scots have been lauded for the way they play and have proved capable of big results against the likes of England, France, Wales and Australia.

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For all the plaudits they have received and the promise they have shown in recent years, however, they have no major silverware to show for it and have been unable to pull off a victory over any of the current top three in the World Rugby rankings – South Africa, Ireland or New Zealand – since Gregor Townsend took charge seven-and-a-half years ago.

The Scots were well beaten in both of their pool-stage matches against the Springboks and the Irish at the Rugby World Cup in France last year.

But forwards coach Dalziel is adamant they have shown progress since then, most notably in their 17-13 defeat in Dublin in the Six Nations and their spirited display at home to the world champions on Sunday when they got within four points of Rassie Erasmus’ side in the closing quarter before going down 32-15.

“We are on the right path,” said Dalziel. “If you look at even the growth from the World Cup, we were arguably out of the game in periods. We were second fiddle the whole game. We have taken a lot of learnings from that period, from our learnings from the Six Nations.

Team Form

Last 5 Games

4
Wins
1
1
Streak
3
30
Tries Scored
13
114
Points Difference
-96
4/5
First Try
2/5
3/5
First Points
2/5
4/5
Race To 10 Points
1/5

“We’ve also grown the group as well. The summer tour, although people frowned upon what was happening with a lot of younger people, we’ve seen the growth in that, with guys like Gregor Brown, Max Williamson, Will Hurd, Ewan Johnson, all these guys are now in their second involvement and they’re here on merit in a proper Autumn campaign.

“We have grown the group, we are evolving the whole time. We are getting closer, we feel we are getting closer. Our defence improves campaign after campaign, so does our attack and our layers, our physicality.

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“Our forwards in terms of maul defence, we have gone up against the biggest challenges, England, South Africa, France, and we have come through. So we have all the components, we just need to find a way of, once we have worked for 60 minutes to keep ourselves in there, getting over that last hurdle.

“If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. But I definitely feel the Ireland and South Africa game, in the last few Tests we have fronted up and we have shown we can be competitive away from home or at home against the top teams.”

Scotland are set to “freshen up” their team for their third Autumn Test against Portugal at Murrayfield on Saturday. “We want to finish on a high with three wins (out of four from the Autumn Series),” said Dalziel.

“We have got to pay ultimate respect to Portugal. They are coming here for a free swing at a top-tier nation away from home, so the pressure is on us to deliver. We will make changes, but we will make sure we have got a strong enough team to rival the challenge ahead.”

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1 Comment
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BeegMike 8 days ago

Good, now win the Six Nations so everybody else can take you seriously.

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JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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