SCOTLAND have a better record against South Africa than against New Zealand. Yet perhaps because the second international I ever saw at Murrayfield was that 44-0 South Africa gave us in November 1951, I have always regarded the Springboks with an even greater degree of awe than the All Blacks. To lose 44-0 was an extraordinary score in those days when international sides very rarely scored as many as 20 points in a match, and single-figure tallies were common.
A try was worth only three points then, and they scored, I think, nine of them. So with today's score values, the final result would have been 62-0.
That was, admittedly, one of South Africa's greatest ever teams. They lost only one game – to Lond
on Counties -in more than 30 matches on tour. Well, South Africa come to Scotland today as World champions, and, if their form has dipped a bit since the cup last autumn, they remain formidable.
If we are honest with ourselves, we have to admit that there's a deep and wide gulf between Scotland and the Big Three from the southern hemisphere. If we were engaged in a quadrilateral series of home-and-away matches against them, we would do very well to come away with a single victory – and few would bet on that.
It can't be said too often that we are struggling to cling by our fingertips to our place in the top ten of world rugby. Given the paucity of our resources, the surprise is that we haven't tumbled into the abyss.
Those who criticise coaches and players would do well to remember just how heavily the odds are stacked against them when we come up against South Africa, New Zealand and Australia – England and France too, for that matter. One hopes always for a win, sometimes thinks it possible, but should realise that it's improbable.
How many Scottish players would get into a South Africa or New Zealand touring squad, let alone their first XV? That's the case not only today. It's been true all my lifetime.
The Scotland team humiliated by the Springboks in 1951 had been cobbled together just before the game, a run-around on the Friday afternoon their only preparation. In this respect at least things are better today. The task is still formidable, all the more so perhaps because the Springboks were very disappointed by their performance against Wales last week, and will be looking to raise their game several notches. Nor are they likely to be deceived by Saturday's scoreline at Murrayfield into thinking they will have an easy time of it this afternoon. They will have looked at the video and seen how close Scotland came to scoring several times against the All Blacks, and they will also have remarked the element of fortune in the New Zealand tries. So we can't hope that they will be complacent. They will expect to win, but will also expect a hard match.
If we are to win, then somehow or other we have to find a way to score tries – a knack which has eluded us recently, even at Murrayfield. Failure to score tries last week owed more, one has to say, to the quality of the New Zealand defence than to Scottish incapacity and mistakes. As the French rugby newspaper Midi-Olympique put it, "time and again Paterson, Blair, De Luca or Ford pierced the first All Black curtain, and time and again the net closed upon them."
It wasn't always a case of there being no supporting runner, rather that the pass to him was invariably blocked. When, for instance, Ross Ford made that great charge through the middle, Paterson was there in support, trying first right, then left, to get into a position where Ford could pass to him, only to find that either side the pass was blocked by New Zealanders running back in defence. Easy to blame the Scots for failing to capitalise on their nine line-breaks; fairer to acknowledge the quality and tenacity of the All Blacks' "scramble-defence".
That said, it was the failure to protect and retain the ball taken into the tackle and defensive errors which cost us dear last week. In which connection I owe an apology to Sean Lamont for my criticism of his positioning which made the first New Zealand try so easy. I had forgotten that Donald's diagonal kick came when New Zealand won possession from a Scottish line-out.
Despite the score, there were more good things than bad in last week's game. The Scottish front five did excellently. They will have to repeat that performance this afternoon if we are to have any chance of victory. And we have to take our chances, even half-chances, and tighten up the defence. Easier said than done at this level of intensity. Beyond that, we must hope that this is one game when luck – and the bounce of the ball – go our way.
Victory is possible, however improbable. Yet if we do win, we shouldn't fool ourselves into supposing that the problems of the game here in Scotland can be forgotten. These problems are deep and structural. If we lose, even heavily, then critics of the coach and players should look reality in the face. They might then realise just how tough things are for us. This isn't new. Even when our domestic game was comparatively stronger than it is now, we suffered heavy defeats to southern hemisphere countries. A final thought: South Africa have five professional teams in the Super 14; we have two in the Magners League, which is itself of a lower standard.
The full article contains 966 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
