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Scotland's away form continues to be a source of worry

Tom English and JJ Williams joined Tuesday's Off the Ball to look back at the opening weekend of ...



Scotland's away form conti...
Rugby

Scotland's away form continues to be a source of worry

Tom English and JJ Williams joined Tuesday's Off the Ball to look back at the opening weekend of the 2018 6 Nations.

Scotland travelled to Cardiff with high hopes only to become undone by a very impressive Welsh side. 

Warren Gatland came in for a lot of criticism in Scotland due to the small number of Scots he considered for the recent Lions Tour but he had previously stated that they had to improve their away form prior to being hammered in last year's 6 Nations in Twickenham.

Those away-day blues came back to haunt Gregor Townsend's side at the weekend when they went down 34-7 at the Principality Stadium. 

"It was a cataclysm for the Scots who would have gone down there feeling pretty good about themselves after the Autumn," English told Joe Molloy.  "They did very well against New Zealand. They did exceptionally well against Australia. Yes, there were yellow cards in those games and a red card against Australia but still, the kind of rugby that Scotland were playing was very good.

"They were getting fast ball, they were looking after it in the Autumn and those were the two things they just didn't do or didn't get in Cardiff.

"I think there was definitely an air of over-confidence and now there's definitely an air of despondency but at the press conference today, Peter Horne, the Scottish centre, my goodness, you could tell there was an honesty session.

"He said the players were embarrassed by what they did in Cardiff and that they were just beaten up and he really put himself through it in front of the journalists and I think they've all put themselves through it. It was really a shocking performance. 

"It was another example of Scotland going on the road and really, really letting themselves down against a Welsh team missing 11 front line players, eight of them Lions, seven of them Test Lions yet those Welsh guys were harder, they looked like they wanted it more - they were just an all round vastly superior unit'" he added.

The full discussion can be heard here:

Scotland's away form continues to be a source of worry

00:00:00 / 00:00:00

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