Seriously, is no-one else seeing there’s a pattern here?
Scotland should already be in the quarter-finals of the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand even before they have to play the hosts in their final pool game. But instead they need to beat the Black Ferns to avoid going home.
Saturday morning’s 14-12 to Australia might have been the worst of this current series of defeats snatched from the jaws of victory the Scots have been enduring.
Nothing could be worse than a last kick, added-time penalty to lose like last week against Wales, right? Wrong.
12-0 with the elements
For those just waking up back home, Scotland gave their all in a closely fought battle with Australia but suffered a narrow defeat in Whangarei.
Read the match report ➡️ https://t.co/upAx8dTt0S
Watch the full match replay on STV Player. pic.twitter.com/tyXqQjKs6A
— Scottish Rugby (@Scotlandteam) October 15, 2022
They were 12-0 to the good at half-time and it probably should have been more. The windy nature of Whangerei (welcome to New Zealand) unquestionably meant there’d be a balancing in the second half when the Wallaroos had the elements in their favour.
But even allowing for the Australians going ahead, the Scots had a two player advantage at the death. And still they couldn’t make it count.
Scotland have a well-drilled pack to match any in the competition, other than England and France. Sarah Bonar and Emma Wassell have been outstanding in the second row.
Jade Konkel-Roberts is one of the best carriers in world rugby. Caity Mattinson has been a real find at scrum-half.
The scrum and lineout have been superb. But the Scots seem incapable of scoring against a 15×15 situation unless it’s a driving maul.
Both Scots tries came that way this week again. Lana Skeldon would probably have had two tries had the maul not been illegally hauled down the second time and a penalty try given.
Once more, the penalty count was massively lopsided in favour of Scotland. Two red cards resulted.
As an aside, the amount of high-hitting from the Wallaroos worrying illustrates just how little importance the game there is lending towards protection of the head area. The card count was actually generous to the winners.
Coulda, woulda, shoulda, but…
26' | TRY! After repeated infringements from Australia, Scotland are awarded a penalty try.
🏴 12-0 🇦🇺#AsOne | #SCOvAUS pic.twitter.com/vf4lKosHAp
— Scottish Rugby (@Scotlandteam) October 15, 2022
Ball and territory were at a premium for the Scots in the second half but they were still able to force enough pressure to reduce Australia to 13. Yet even two to the good they couldn’t force a winner.
If you take out the England and France games in the Six Nations – they are some away ahead of the pack, even New Zealand – then Scotland might easily have won their last six games against other opposition.
Coulda, woulda, shoulda, okay. But every one of those games has been lost by a single score. The Scots have conceded the crucial points in the final ten minutes in all of them.
The effort, application and desire of the team is not in question. But there comes a time when all these near misses mount up to a definite pattern instead of just rank bad luck.