By Mitch Phillips
MARSEILLE, France (Reuters) – Scotland always faced a monumental challenge to get out of a daunting World Cup pool but, having lost to defending champions South Africa on Sunday, nothing has really changed – they will just probably need to beat the world’s number one team to avoid an early exit.
The Scots, ranked fifth in the world and the team to have suffered most from World Rugby’s ludicrous decision to make the draw three years ago, arrived in France full of hope and ambition that they could unseat one, if not both of the pool favourites.
However, despite trailing only 6-3 at halftime, they never looked able to make the world champions uncomfortable and slipped to a hugely disappointing 18-3 defeat while barely firing an attacking shot.
Now, assuming they can negotiate their way past Tonga and Romania, they will almost certainly have to beat Ireland to have a chance of progressing to the quarter-finals.
“We have plenty of time to dust ourselves off. It was a bit of a setback today but all the hard work we have put in over the last couple of months has not gone away. It is one setback but we have loads to play for,” said captain Jamie Ritchie.
“Ireland was always going to be an important game for us but all the games are must-win now.”
Coach Gregor Townsend bemoaned his team’s errors, not least six lost lineouts, which meant they were never really able to exert any sustained pressure.
“I’m disappointed really, we were slow to get going, there was inaccuracy in our play,” he said.
“We had a couple of opportunities, not many, in attack in the first half but we started the second with some inaccuracy and it became difficult and risky to play from deep. Defensively I was reasonably satisfied but we have to improve in attack – it’s unusual for us to score only three points.”
Townsend was also frustrated that a collision involving South Africa’s Jesse Kriel and Jack Dempsey which was not referred to the TMO a day after a seemingly similar offence by England’s Tom Curry earned a TMO red card upgrade.
“It did look like head on head and I was expecting TMO to come in,” he said. “There are still inconsistencies when there has been a head contact. We’re frustrated with that but we are more frustrated with our own performance.”
(Reporting by Mitch Phillips, editing by Toby Davis)
