A to Z of Scotland's 2020 Six Nations

Scotland's final Six Nations match against Wales was postponed just 24 hours before kick-off amid the coronavirus outbreak

Not even Nostradamus on his best day could forecast what's coming next in the world of sport, not that sport is anything other than a tiny dot on the coronavirus landscape right now.

All the great events have been postponed and some may even be binned altogether. So be it. British football and rugby made their move painfully late, but it's done now.

The game in Cardiff between Wales and Scotland was officially declared on around midday on Friday and officially declared off two hours later with thousands of Scots already in the city,

A shambles, but the correct decision even if it was made infuriatingly late.

Everybody is trying to look forward through a fog of uncertainty. Here, with the Six Nations now in abeyance until late October (provisionally) then we may as well look back with an A-Z on a four-game championship that was dramatic in its own way for Scotland, beginning with an abdication and ending with an abandonment.

Aaargh!

The sound made by every Scot when Stuart Hogg dropped the ball just as he was about to score against Ireland in Dublin. Hogg was reminded of it constantly. The good massively outweighed the hapless when it comes to the captain, though. He led with authority, communicated well with referees and galvanised his players behind the scenes. He took to the captaincy really well. His try against Italy was critical and one of his greatest. His performance against France was exceptional. Just a shame he didn't get a crack at Wales in Cardiff. He, more than anybody else, would have wanted to win having experienced so many bad moments there.

Belligerence

From his first press conference in January, Gregor Townsend was delivering a different mantra. Where previously he wanted Scotland to play the fastest rugby they could possibly play, he now did a major U-turn and spoke of trying to make his team hard and physical and direct - "a nightmare to play against", a side that would "stay in the hunt" until the end. Townsend listened to his coaches and players post-World Cup and he changed. Scotland became more attritional. Their defence became a real weapon. In winning two games and losing the other two by a single score there were clear signs of a team, and a coach, finally realising what it takes to succeed in Six Nations rugby. Baby steps, but progress.

Covid-19

The championship will forever be remembered as the COVID championship in the way that 2001 is remembered as the foot and mouth Six Nations. Everybody understands why the tournament was brought to an abrupt halt but what is less understandable is the way things were handled around the Wales versus Scotland game, the communication from both competing unions and from the Six Nations that the game was on until thousands of Scots had arrived in Cardiff, at which point they called it off. Terrible leadership. Travelling fans deserved an awful lot better.

Defence

Steve Tandy came in and suddenly Scotland looked like a team that not only knew how to defend but actually looked like they were enjoying it. In their four games they conceded a total of four tries. Against the same opposition last season they conceded 15. Tandy has delivered tangible results in next to no time, which is a tribute to his coaching and also a sign of the player's work-rate and hunger for knowledge. More time spent working on defence was the big message coming from the players after the World Cup. Townsend listened and appointed the right man.

Eddie Jones

In what is predominantly a Scottish review, we have to take time to mention the England coach and his crass behaviour which culminated in him effectively calling referee Ben O'Keeffe a cheat for (correctly) sending off Manu Tuilagi against Wales. If a player did the same he would have been sanctioned heavily, but the Six Nations seem to have a policy that coaches can say whatever they like without punishment. Jones careered across the line of what is acceptable and didn't even have the grace to apologise. The RFU statement was a cop-out. He should have been carpeted by the Six Nations. They did nothing. Is it now acceptable for coaches to accuse referees of bias?

Finngate

A spectacular beginning to the Six Nations. Given his issues with Gregor Townsend, the fly-half was a reluctant squad member to begin with, then turned up for the first squad get-together with too much drink on board. Things degenerated from there. Russell viciously dynamited Gregor Townsend in an interview and said he couldn't play for him again unless things changed. Many Scotland players, even those who have previously had gripes about Townsend, were angered by Russell's words, deeming them out of touch and unfair. The rapprochement is on, though. Thankfully. Russell has some apologising to do, but the end of the dispute is in sight.

Gregor Townsend

The fallout with Russell was a direct challenge to his authority and the biggest crisis he has faced in coaching. Townsend did try to broker a truce but it didn't pan out. Without his brilliant 10, the coach was in desperate need of some victories to calm the criticism and he got them against Italy and France. After the horror show in Japan, Townsend knew he needed to change his thinking and start listening more. He made great appointments and shifted the emphasis to try and achieve a greater balance between attack and defence. It might not always be pretty, but playing more pragmatic rugby is the way to win championships. Townsend has been on a big coaching journey these past months.

Haining

Before his elevation to the starting line-up against Ireland, Nick Haining, the Aussie with the Dundee grandmother, could only be classified as a journeyman. He'd played for the Western Force, Jersey Reds and Bristol before Richard Cockerill signed him for Edinburgh He had played only eight games for his new club when Townsend picked him for Dublin. He's big and rough and can play a bit. His aggression is a big plus. Haining started in Ireland and against France and had impact. He's now putting all sorts of pressure on Magnus Bradbury, which is no bad thing.

Ireland

The one that got away. How different the table would look had Scotland taken one or two of the chances they created. Scotland spent nearly six minutes attacking in Ireland's 22 where Ireland spent less than four minutes attacking down the other end. On eight separate occasions they had Ireland in trouble and each time the Irish survived, through Scottish errors or brilliant work at the breakdown. The battle on the floor was won resoundingly by Andy Farrell's team, who won six breakdown steals to Scotland's one. Townsend's side did improve in that department but the feeling persists that Richie Gray, the breakdown specialist coach rather than the player, could have an influence here if he was brought on to the coaching ticket.

Jamie Ritchie

Still only 23, the blindside flanker is beginning to look like a world class player, a hard nut whose work-rate is off the scale. The debate about who finished the championship as the best number six would be hot and heavy but Ritchie's case would be an easy one to argue. He hardly ever plays poorly. His consistency, whether he's playing at home or away, is one of the things that marks him out as a future Lion and a probable future Scotland captain. Watching him develop is going to be fun.

Kudos

Amid the circus of the Finn Russell story, Adam Hastings had to self-isolate himself from the national out-cry that said Scotland simply could not function without the Racing man. Hastings would not be human if some of that stuff didn't puncture the bubble he was living in. He would have been entitled to greet the public despair at Russell's loss with a barb: 'Er, I'm not a complete dummy, you know...' Hastings played well in Dublin, played as well as could have been expected in the monsoon against England, was poor against Italy but bounced back wonderfully to put in what was arguably his best Scotland performance in the game against France. The boy has talent, but he's also got nerve. Fair play to him.

Lions

It couldn't be helped, but it was a shame the Wales match didn't go ahead because Scotland were in form and Wales were in bother and it was a chance for the Scots to show Warren Gatland that they can go away from home and win big games. Gatland needs a lot of convincing - and he's right. Nothing has changed from three years ago in the sense that the Lions coach is only going to pick more Scots when they show they can do it away from the comfort of Murrayfield. The possible cancellation of the summer tour to South Africa and New Zealand reduces the opportunities to impress even further. The trips to Twickenham and Stade de France next year are utterly critical for the Scottish hopefuls.

Missed Tackles

Of the million stats dished out after every game the one about missed tackles is one of the most useless categories. Ireland missed 21 tackles to Scotland's eight and yet won. England missed 21 to Wales' eight and won. France missed 26 in their game in Cardiff and Wales missed 17. France won. Of the eleven games played, the team that missed the most amount of tackles triumphed in eight of them. It's not necessarily how many you miss, it's where and when you miss them.

Nonsense

Back to Eddie Jones. "England dominated the match," he said after the Calcutta Cup. Really? Scotland had more possession and more territory than England, spent more time attacking in England's 22 than England spent attacking in Scotland's 22, made only 95 tackles compared to England 175 and had a top tackler in Hamish Watson on 12 whereas England's top tackler was Maro Itoje on 23. The top five tacklers were all English. They deserved to win, but they didn't dominate.

Odd Life

In the last few months, Scotland have had games impacted by an earthquake and a typhoon in Japan, a monsoon in Murrayfield and a pandemic in Cardiff. What next? The game that everybody thought would get cancelled - against Japan in Yokohama - went ahead and the game that we were assured would go ahead - Wales at the Principality - was cancelled. These are peculiar times.

Paywall

The Six Nations is for sale and the people running it look set to sell it off to the highest bidders, taking some or all of it off terrestrial television where the viewing figures remain fantastically high. The concern is that if you make the championship available only by subscription then the game will lose viewers and participants in great numbers, as cricket did when they sold the game to Sky. Professional rugby has become a ferociously expensive sport to run, so you can see the need for more money coming in, but at what cost? This is a major dilemma for the game.

Quality

Was there a better story anywhere in the championship than Rory Sutherland's renaissance after three and a half years away from Test rugby, part of that time spent worrying about whether he would ever play the game again? Sutherland had been playing well for Edinburgh but his selection against Ireland was still a minor surprise. He has been nothing short of immense. His scrummaging and carrying and all-round influence made him one of the championship's top looseheads. Another year of this and he might be a Lion.

Rome

Scotland just about managed to get in and out before the country went into lockdown. A blessing, but also a very difficult game to watch. Bizarrely, it was the Scots second biggest win on the road in the history of the Five or Six Nations, but it was no classic. Lawrence Dallaglio said that for the first time in his life he fell asleep during a rugby match. He may not have been alone in that. Still, Scotland won.

Scrap

When the aggro kicked-off just before half-time in Scotland's game against France it was hard to know where to look - at Mohamed Haouas punching Jamie Ritchie and the subsequent pile-up at the posts or at Peter Wright on the commentary gantry as he watched the fight with undisguised glee. It took the big fella back to the glory days of his own playing career when such dust-ups were commonplace. Wrighty loved it.

Tries

Seven in four games with four of the seven being scored while Italy and then France were down to 14 men. It's not a great return, although Scotland created many, many more chances to score. They're a team transitioning from (too much) adventure to pragmatism and are still looking for the right balance. Russell's return would give them more flair, more defence-busting brilliance and more tries, but would his risk-reward game compromise the stability they've had in defence over the course of the last four games?

Under-20s

Their victory over the Welsh in Colwyn Park on Friday night was astonishing, a brilliant performance that was the perfect blend between forward dominance and guile in the backline. Fly-half Nathan Chamberlain scored a hat-trick and converted all seven tries. Wonderful. The Scotland U20s had a torrid 2019, finishing winless in the Six Nations and failing dismally at the World Cup, but this was a special night for this crop of players, especially the survivors from last season.

Vapour Trail

As in the white smoke that Hogg left behind him as he accelerated away from the Italian defence to score the try that gave Scotland their first try of the day and of the championship, a try that did a lot to settle some early nerves. It was Hogg at his vintage best. The full-back ran for almost 150 metres in Rome in what was his first win as Scotland captain at the third attempt in the championship and the fourth attempt if you include the loss to America a few summers ago.

Watson

Hamish Watson, that is. There are a few contenders for Scotland's player of the championship to date, but Watson would probably sneak it. He won some massively important turnovers and produced some key carries against France and made 22 tackles into the bargain. He had a huge influence in Rome as well - 13 carries and 19 tackles. Watson was flying and that made the cancellation in Cardiff all the more frustrating. Watching him go up against Justin Tipuric would have been a treat.

X-rated

Joe Marler's bout of testicle-tickling in the game against Wales was met with a robust response - a 10-week ban. Some have sympathy for the self-appointed japester of the England team, but he was asking for trouble. The punishment could only be seen as unfair if you set it alongside the three weeks doled out to Haouas for landing a punch to Jamie Ritchie's face. A bit of a let-off for the prop who picked up a yellow and a red in his last two games.

Yellow Cards

Scotland and Wales were the only teams who avoided a yellow card. Keeping 15 men on the field at all times isn't a bad idea. The championship saw ill-discipline being capitalised on. Scotland punished Italy with seven points when Federico Zani was binned and drove home the advantage when Haouas walked at Murrayfield, scoring 22 points after he departed. Wales scored seven against Ireland when CJ Stander was yellow carded and 14 points against France and England when they were down to 14 and 13 men respectively.

Zander

The tighthead always had the attributes to become a world class tighthead and now he's beginning to show what he's made of. Credit to Pieter de Villiers for the work he's done on reinventing the Scottish scrum - give him a longer contract now - but Fagerson has taken his game to a new level. He's a huge man, powerful as you like and capable of becoming a Test Lion even though the competition from Kyle Sinckler and Tadhg Furlong, to name just two, is going to be severe. If he drives on, the big man won't be far away.