The New Rules

[Cameo]

Before the season we had a couple of coaches saying that the law changes would help Scotland's game. Having seen them in action, and especially as interpreted by the English and French refs, I am not so sure. In fact, I'm quite concerned we are going to score some great tries but get slowly pummelled by bigger teams with more big ball carriers.

From watching, and playing, if a team decides to keep it really simple and use one out runners (and pick and drives etc.) it is much harder to win turnovers or slow their ball down. We dont have the size to consistently knock teams back in defence so have always relied on getting a bit scrappy. In the last few years we have really suffered when refs havent allowed it (see England last year or Ireland the year before). I think this could be the norm.

I know we will learn to deal with it better and it does have advantages for our attack but Im pretty concerned that it just doesn't favour the forwards we have. I have a bit more faith in Mcfarlane than Humphreys to come up with solutions but in bad conditions especially I think we might suffer.

Any thoughts or ideas on team selections/tactics to combat this?

[General Zod]

Berghan Number 8 and promote fergus Bradbury asap?

More seriously, it’s a good point, but I think some of the defensive issues we’ve seen could be improved with better technique. We’re not going to turn into the Harlem Globetrotters overnight, so chucking daft passes around in the wet and inviting defensive scrums doesn’t help, and nor does seemingly forgetting mall defence from line-outs. This was a weakness a few years ago (think Italy and South Africa defeats at Murrayfield), but seemed to have stopped. If the club teams’ basics are shoddy now, it worries me for autumn.

Not sure where I was going with this, but there are some basics to fix that would help any “smaller” team deal with the new laws.

[Cameo]

True. It's hard not to blame Humphreys for quite a lot of the maul problems. Not seen much of Toolis this year but he does sometimes seem to have a knack of stopping them

[Cameo]

Im just not sure the low tackle and compete at ruck tactic will work with the way some refs are now interpreting it