How Scotland’s rugby players can recover from their Italian disaster

 The immediate reaction is blame. It usually comes after the shame and the humiliation. But there is a rational explanation for Scotland’s disastrous performance at Murrayfield on Saturday. When you strip away the emotion and disbelief at how the spectacle unfolded, the underlying reasons have very little to do with the techniques of rugby – but more to do with speed of execution, self-confidence and inch-perfect judgement.
 
Of course, the facts are stark: Scotland’s professional rugby players let themselves down with an atrocious opening six minutes against Italy.  It was the worst case of self-destruct in the history of the Six Nations and exposed a terrible hole in an improving side that will need extensive rebuilding.
 
Captain Chris Paterson’s haunted look at the after-match press conference told the story.  He sat poker-faced, staring straight out in front, unable to fathom the enormity of the situation. Paterson was at least one of the Scots who still displayed the “Warrior Spirit” right to the dying minutes of the game. On any other day, his try after 64 minutes might have been hailed as a superb solo feat and, at half-time, there was the prospect that Scotland might have been able to overturn their abysmal start.
 
But Frank Hadden, Scotland’s coach, speaking at the after-match conference, was honest.  “As you can imagine the whole team in the dressing room is absolutely shell-shocked. I take full responsibility. We wanted to have a high tempo start. We felt it was absolutely vital to get the crowd on the edge of their seats from the start. Sadly, the execution went pear-shaped and we found ourselves in a surreal atmosphere.”
 
After such a debacle, Frank Hadden defended the team’s decision not to go for points on the board with penalties but push for tries that could be converted. “It’s hard to claw back this deficit in multiples of three,” he said to those who thought Scotland should have taken more points. It was a fair comment.
 
But there needs to be some kind of analysis and explanation of why it went so badly wrong. The 50,000 spectators who witnessed five minutes and 50 seconds of Scotland’s most tragic rugby deserve to understand how Italy managed to touch down three tries with a series of interceptions.
 
The nightmare began with Phil Godman’s attempt to chip Italy’s backline only eighteen seconds into the game. It was a disastrous start as Mauro Bergamasco charged down the kick and launched himself for the line. This is something that will surely haunt the Edinburgh player for the rest of his international rugby career. Then Chris Cusiter, at scrum half, handed a short pass to the Italian No 10 Andrea Scanavacca, who then sprinted through to score. Worse followed when, from a Scottish line-out, Cusiter’s stringy pass out to Hugo Southwell was intercepted by the winger Keine Robertson, who stormed over for the third try.
 
After this it was a question of how could Scotland claw their way back? Italy were impressive and fought hard, and were able to add two more tries and conversions to seal Scotland’s agony with the final score of Scotland 17 Italy 37.
 
But there is a common thread about those early mistakes. And here there is something positive that Scotland’s rugby players might learn from. The three fatal movements all had similar reasons for failure: they were executed too slowly, giving the opposition plenty of time to react.
 
The actions of Phil Godman and Chris Cusiter, both members of the Scottish Institute of Sport, were not decisive enough and this gave the Italians a fleeting moment to anticipate and intercept. The game was only minutes old and the Italian adrenaline was pumping – this is a crucial time when a player’s reactions are at an optimum level. As the game goes on and tiredness and fatigue sets in it becomes increasingly difficult to anticipate an opponent’s intention. So the Scots should have been aware that taking high tempo risk was a highly dangerous strategy.
 
What the crowd witnessed from Scotland were good enough ideas which were not executed fast enough or with enough precision. Neat chips and passes might work on the training ground but in the heat of battle it must be much faster. Ronan O’Gara for Ireland in his demolition of England proved that chipping technique and millimetre perfect precision is the difference between success and failure at this level of professional rugby. Phil Godman’s error as the stand-off was that he attempted a manoeuvre at a time when the opponents were fired up and ready. It had a smattering of nonchalant complacency about it. But his intention was signalled to the on-rushing Italians and he was severely punished. He was guilty of not anticipating the speed and movement of the on-coming opponents. That was fatal. The sports psychologists say that a player must be sharp enough not only to undertake the action, but to quickly comprehend the battle situation.  It is how a player responds at the moments of extreme pressure which define high performance. And Phil Godman’s action displayed an early lapse in this high level of performance. As a young player with only eight caps under his belt, he will learn from this. He must learn from the mistake and change his habit to ensure that he is more aware of the speed and acceleration of his opponents. He must also pay more respect to his opponent’s abilities.
 
Chris Cusiter demonstrated exactly the same failings. Again it was split-second lapses which allowed the Italians, in a high state of excitement and exuberance, to punish the error. Cusiter flunked a simple shuttling of the ball to Rob Dewey because of a momentary drop in concentration, when his eyes and brain were not watching the oncoming situation.
 
His second error, only minutes later, was also a desperate lapse of concentration and thinking while he saw Hugo Southwell he was unaware of the actual position of the oncoming Italians. This move was undertaken as a result of anxiety, frustration and desperation to get back into the game. Scotland were in a state of shell-shock when Italy were applying maximum physical pressure and were again fired up by excitement and self-belief. In a true battle situation, it is a time when armies and defenders are often over-run.
 
Scotland’s players will recover from this. But they must learn that the rugby field is a battleground where split-second actions define the course of events.

KK

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