OPINION – Scotland navigated a potential storm against Japan at Kingsholm on Wednesday after fearing their worst nightmare when the Brave Blossoms upset South Africa on Saturday. By many accounts, it was job done and job done well.
But parts of yesterday’s performance will concern coach Vern Cotter with Scotland still very much facing a fight to get out of pool B with upcoming matches against South Africa and Samoa respectively, particularly after having some rough moments against a Japan team fighting a four day match turnaround.
Many were impressed with Scotland’s game style, their defensive structure and their ability to suck in Japanese defenders and exploit the space created outside. And while the score reflects their dominance, their attacking prowess and their well structured defensive line-up, it won’t be lost on Cotter that until four days ago, Scotland were always expected to win Wednesday’s encounter and win it well.
Throughout yesterday’s performance, it was clear that Scotland had done a lot of work on their defence. And with David Denton, John Hardie and Ryan Wilson enforcing the law at the breakdown, Scotland has gone some way to lay down the foundations for a campaign that will go deep into October.
However, Cotter has cause to be very worried on attack as it was only when Japan seemed to tire that Scotland was able to gain the ascendancy with ball in hand.
Whether or not it was part of the game plan, Scotland with Greig Laidlaw the main culprit kicked the ball away and if it wasn’t for Japan’s poor handling skills at a blustery Kingsholm, one expects the plan wouldn’t have been successful. If you were a Scotland fan, you would hope that Cotter would know this and have a more solid game style prepared moving forward.
You would think that a match against a tiring Japan would be the perfect platform to try out a game plan that would challenge the Springboks or Samoa, perhaps a game style that was closer to Japan’s – after all that was the game plan that they looked to employ in the World Cup warm-up matches. But for whatever reason, the cards were seemingly kept very close to their chests as Scotland were content in kicking the ball.
While it’s unfair to scoff at Scotland scoring five tries in the final half hour of the match; at the end of the day, a team can only play the team in front of them – you can expect that Cotter wouldn’t be all too pleased with what he saw from his team, especially in the first 50 minutes of the game.
It is still 10 days until they will likely hit their first test against South Africa in Newcastle, but you would hope that Vern Cotter would show a little more of his hand against the USA in order to prepare for their matches against the big boys. At the end of the day, it’s only going to be Scotland’s best that gets them through to the quarter finals.
And it is then when the Rugby World Cup really begins.
