Scotland Autumn Series thread

[Big D]

So Russell and Hogg punished for piss up, but 50 cap international and leadership group member Price not sanctioned really. Very inconsistent.

Hogg probably can't be capped because this game its outside of the International window.

He has lost the captaincy.

[Big D]

So Russell and Hogg punished for piss up, but 50 cap international and leadership group member Price not sanctioned really. Very inconsistent.

I'm not sure they are still being punished for that (Russell maybe but that's more of a long running thing).

Like the team generally. Excited for Ollie Smith. Bench looks a bit weak but I'm not sure there is much we can do about that.

Of course they are. You don't strip your captain of the role 12 months out from a world cup unless something has gone on, which we know it did - the Edinburgh 6.

[Mikey Brown]

I’m sure that didn’t help, but it wouldn’t surprise me if GT just wants to shift focus. Having a fullback as captain has never made much sense to me.

[Cameo]

With Cummings now out, this series is a huge opportunity for Skinner. We need more dynamism than a Gilchrist/Gray partnership.

[Adder]

They talk about Finn in the French Rugby Podcast (Rory Teague is the attack coach at Racing 92.

[Cameo]

What are anyone's thoughts on this one? I feel it is kind of a 5050 game. I'd be reasonably confident with everyone available but Australia aren't a bad side and have played a lot more recently together than us. I'm not that confident if our bench need to come on and turn things around.

I think it could be quite an important game though. Three wins in this series will feel quite good. Two will feel below par. Not completely writing of the ABs game, but clearly will go into that one with hope rather than any expectation.

[Donny osmond]

Reasonable enough side given the restrictions I guess.

Feel the same as everyone else on Tuipulotu. I guess Cherry makes sense with the Edinburgh locks. I like McClean but Hoyland is a more rounded player at this point and didn’t he score 3 tries last time he played?

Shame for Cummings.

Also Donny I wasn’t being facetious at all. Was a sincere question from someone who’s also found themselves drinking in the middle of the day.

No worries mate didn't take it as such, I was on holiday in Cyprus so early evening drinking and taking advantage of the all inc price tag.

[switchskier]

What are anyone's thoughts on this one? I feel it is kind of a 5050 game. I'd be reasonably confident with everyone available but Australia aren't a bad side and have played a lot more recently together than us. I'm not that confident if our bench need to come on and turn things around.

I think it could be quite an important game though. Three wins in this series will feel quite good. Two will feel below par. Not completely writing of the ABs game, but clearly will go into that one with hope rather than any expectation.

Got a bad feeling about this one. Either we will try play too much rugby from deep and hooper will have a field day and/or the Aussies will find lots of space in our midfield to attack. I don't see us being athletically outclassed these days and think we might score a nice try but the Australian backs will be slicker, their set piece will be better and we'll lose by around 9.

[switchskier]

As my brother just said - we never score in that position. Which has been true for the last 20 years now

[Donny osmond]

Need more possession, otherwise a no bad 1st half

[Donny osmond]

Need more possession, otherwise a no bad 1st half

I'm so good at this, stats show we have had more possession! Doesn't feel like that, but then I wonder if the Aussie fans are feeling the same way?

Anyway, either get more possession or do more with the possession you've got, otherwise a no bad first half.

[Mr Mwenda]

Aus shouldn't be this close, very yellow that.

[Donny osmond]

Ah well. Decent performance, shame about the penas and that last kick, but overall not unhappy.

[switchskier]

For fecks sake. I should be ok because I thought that we'd get smashed but that was utterly thrown away. Multiple times. Completely self-inflicted defeat.

[AL.]

Well, that was fucking painful.

[BaldiePete]

Just in from the game. Gutted, we really should have won that.I was up in the south west corner and everyone round there thought the kick was going over and were celebrating while it was in the air. That’s a fucking hard feeling when you realise it had missed. Should probably have got George Horne to take the kick, he’s been kicking well for Glasgow. Place kicking aside Kinghorn was OK. Also, I don’t reckon any of the other Scottish stand-offs would have scored that try, they’re simply not fast enough. Having said that, let’s have Hastings next week and have Kinghorn on the bench. Definitely we suffer from not having variety in attack and an inability to bring Darcy and Duhan into the game.

[Cameo]

Frustrating.

Penalties killed us. We were great at the breakdown and sometimes that comes at the cost of giving away penalties but I don't think that was really the case today. A lot of the penalties seemed quite random (Watson was very unlucky - Tupou and White hadn't been part of that maul for some time, no way was he offside).

Kinghorn went quite well in open play but isn't a top level kicker. The first missed conversion was straightforward and the last pen wasn't too tough.

Back row is nailed on first choice for me (Darge can get a lookin every now and then but otherwise I don't think anyone is really challenging these three).

It didn't seem like we wanted to give the ball to our wings for some reason today.

Only slightly connected but I was delighted for Smith with his try. I really rate him but don't actually think it was his most rounded performance today. He looked like he was scrambling to get into position a few times having not anticipated chips etc.. He also should have passed a few times including before his try.

Lineout was a big issue too.

[Big D]

Apparently Duhan and Darcy had a combined 8 carries yesterday. Not fact checked the journalist but that's shooting ourselves in the foot. They're our two most potent threats.

[switchskier]

Apparently Duhan and Darcy had a combined 8 carries yesterday. Not fact checked the journalist but that's shooting ourselves in the foot. They're our two most potent threats.

There was a point in the sound half where Graham evidently got bored and popped up in midfield to truck up ball into a bunch of Aussie forwards. Was one of the best carries of the day.

If our strengths are in the back 3 then we do benefit I think from having a second distributor in midfield would really help. But all of the options have flaws. Lang has yet to nail the Edinburgh shirt, McDowell is behind Johnson at Glasgow and Hutchinson is seemingly regarded as too much of a defensive liability. Have to admit I don't know the solution, unless...

Did anyone watch Smith yesterday and feel like he looked more like an outside centre rather than a full-back?

[Cameo]

Apparently Duhan and Darcy had a combined 8 carries yesterday. Not fact checked the journalist but that's shooting ourselves in the foot. They're our two most potent threats.

There was a point in the sound half where Graham evidently got bored and popped up in midfield to truck up ball into a bunch of Aussie forwards. Was one of the best carries of the day.

If our strengths are in the back 3 then we do benefit I think from having a second distributor in midfield would really help. But all of the options have flaws. Lang has yet to nail the Edinburgh shirt, McDowell is behind Johnson at Glasgow and Hutchinson is seemingly regarded as too much of a defensive liability. Have to admit I don't know the solution, unless...

Did anyone watch Smith yesterday and feel like he looked more like an outside centre rather than a full-back?

I did actually think that about Smith. He has played there too. Let's leave him where he is for now though while he gets established at Glasgow.

Your list of centres ignores Redpath. If he can stay fit he is the messiah (although he has never stayed fit for long enough for me to have actually seen enough to make this judgement)

[Mikey Brown]

Redpath has looked good this season, he is undoubtedly the the ideal solution if he can maintain his fitness.

Bizarrely I’m feeling like Lang may be the next best bet after that given Hutchinson just isn’t trusted.

Smith moving to 13 surely doesn’t solve anything, though it would be nice to know he has the versatility.

I really wish we’d seen whether Kinghorn can cope with the defensive requirements of playing centre because he seems infinitely more suited to that than 10, IMO. Too late now though. Edinburgh have committed to the project and Scotland are seemingly happy to use test matches to get him up to speed there.

[Big D]

Sonny Bill Dean was very good today.

[Big D]

Apparently Duhan and Darcy had a combined 8 carries yesterday. Not fact checked the journalist but that's shooting ourselves in the foot. They're our two most potent threats.

There was a point in the sound half where Graham evidently got bored and popped up in midfield to truck up ball into a bunch of Aussie forwards. Was one of the best carries of the day.

If our strengths are in the back 3 then we do benefit I think from having a second distributor in midfield would really help. But all of the options have flaws. Lang has yet to nail the Edinburgh shirt, McDowell is behind Johnson at Glasgow and Hutchinson is seemingly regarded as too much of a defensive liability. Have to admit I don't know the solution, unless...

Did anyone watch Smith yesterday and feel like he looked more like an outside centre rather than a full-back?

Smith played well but even his well taken try should have been a simple pass to put the winger in really.

[Mikey Brown]

I didn't manage to see the game and it was hard to bring myself to watch the full thing back after I'd seen the highlights. Any sings we're really making any strides in our attacking/supporting game? Sounds like our discipline was typically shonky.

Anybody even excited about this Fiji game?

Did Bennet do enough to hold on to the shirt? Is he trusted with the defence in the same way Harris has been? I can imagine if Townsend brings Redpath back that he may want to reintroduce Harris too.

[Tobylerone]

If Fiji can get all of their players available (can they?) this game could be quite exciting, but not in a good way.