
15. Stuart Hogg – 8
Showed the way in terms of commitment and dedication, though he could maybe have hit Pierre Bruno harder in the lead up to Calum Braley’s try. Aggressive ball in hand when on the front foot but preferred to kick long from deep – and whilst he generally came out on top in the consequent aerial ping-pong, he will find Jonnny Sexton, Hugo Keenan, Andrew Conway and James Lowe to be much more accomplished kickers than anything Italy had on offer.
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14. Darcy Graham – 8
The game did not really run his way but he scored a brilliant try and was the essential link in the move which led to Sam Johnson’s opening try. Brave and tidy in defence.
13. Chris Harris – 7
Marshalled the defence effectively – but was presumably responsible for the careless second minute penalty for encroaching. More involved ball-in-hand, he scored two tries, attacking the ball hard and running a great line for his second one. Key man in Dublin next week when the Irish attack will be asking some tough questions.
12. Sam Johnson – 8
Took his try well and looked the part both sides of the ball – so much so, that you have to wonder about the logic of dumping him after his similarly polished performance at Twickenham.
11. Kyle Steyn – 6
Looked good for an hour, showing great game awareness to set up Chris Harris’ first try – but fell off his bike in the final quarter, with a couple of unforced errors, an unnecessary penalty and a wanton disregard of the off-side line.
10. Finn Russell – 8
Maybe still not firing on all cylinders and lucky to get away with telegraphing an interception to Toa Halafihi with the score still at 5-3. The bits and pieces were, however, all there – with the superb long pass for Sam Johnson’s try and the sublime hands that led to Darcy Graham’s try ample evidence of what he can do with a bit of space and some front-foot ball. The challenge is to find him that space and front-foot ball in Dublin. Kicked four out of five goals.
9. Ali Price – 9
Man-of-the-Match in his 50th international. He was into everything – a focal point in terms of game management and the catalyst for four of the five tries. Constantly under-rated, and sometimes abused on social media, he has maybe now given the chattering classes pause for thought.
1. Pierre Schoeman – 8
Another fine game. Comfortable in the scrum and put himself about the park enthusiastically – hard working in defence, dynamic ball-in-hand, and occasionally showing surprisingly deft hands.
2. George Turner – 9
A big game. No problem in the scrum – great darts, particularly to the tail – and explosive about the field, with his initial surge setting up Sam Johnson’s all important first try.
3. Zander Fagerson – 6
Solid enough, but really has not got his head around the fact the needless penalties kill rugby teams.
4. Sam Skinner – 8
Gets better and better with every international game he plays in the second-row. Comfortable in the line-out, tremendous work-rate and a couple of huge hits.
5. Grant Gilchrist – 8
Another big shift from a big player, though he appeared to struggle with a couple of the line-out plays.
6. Rory Darge – 7
Caught the eye with several explosive carries and covered the park several times over, but left a suspicion that he was perhaps not totally comfortable in his new-given role.
7. Hamish Watson – 8
Never far from the ball, he needed strength of purpose at the breakdown to get the edge on a very physical Italian back-row. Carried aggressively for an impressive 72 metres and tackled like a tiger.
8. Matt Fagerson – 8
Controlled his space energetically whether in attack or defence.
Replacements
16. Stuart McInally – 6
On for George Turner in 60th minute. A walk in the park
17. Allan Dell – 6
Took over from Pierre Schoeman in 60th minute. Fitted in easily and looked the part which is all he could be asked of him given lack of meaningful game-time at club level this season.
18. WP Nel – 6
On for Zander Fagerson in 60th minute. No problem – and no penalties.
19. Jamie Hodgson – 5
Arrival as a 76th minute sub for Sam Skinner was too late to really make any sort of impact.
20. Magnus Bradbury – 6
Replaced Matt Fagerson in 63rd minute. Appeared comfortable enough, carrying for 69 metres.
21. Ben Vellacott – 5
Nor much of a chance to make an impact on his international debut as a75th minute sub for Ali Price.
22. Adam Hastings – 5
On for Finn Russell in 76th minutes. A cameo appearance but all credit to him for sticking in after snub at start of thes campaign and doing what needed to be done to make sure he was available to make it to Italy for this match.
23. Sione Tuipulotu – 5
Four minutes at the end in place of the impressive Sam Johnson.
I was watching a different game. Russell was a liability most of the game. He was far too casual and his kicking from hand was a good example of that.
Hogg’s kicking away hard-fought possession shows a lack of judgement and tactics.
Our defence used to be the best in the 6 Nations but now is the worst. The number of missed tackles was very disappointing. If we perform like that in Ireland we will get rudely stuffed.
Astonished at some of these scores….not a chance that the majority of these 8 or 9 out of 10 scores are merited. Price was very good, Hogg much improved, Russell well we still need much more from our talisman to be quite honest
I think Hogg has come in for a little too much flak for the first Italian try, the tally boy did very well to keep the ball alive and Hogg had him all but out. I would criticise for a couple of needlessly wild passes he chucked away during a couple of attacking moves. Harris cant stop scoring tries against Italy but cant get close to a try against anyone else which I think tells us all we need to know about his lack of game breaking guile at the coalface against the top teams. Matt Fagerson started the game brilliantly and as always plays his heart out and punches above his weight for Scotland (Magnus Bradbury take note!)
The ratings are a bit flattering in my eyes. The last quarter for us was a disaster. The amount of ground we gave up, the errors, and the room we gave Italy was shameful. Our game mgmt. is awful, as is our error rate.
One thing I am trying to understand is why Toony perseveres with Fagerson in the front row. He is clumsy, lacking a rugby brain, and is emotionally impulsive to the detriment of the team. He consistently gives away insane penalties.
Ireland are going to tear us a new one next weekend if we don’t get ourselves straight.
Its not small things that need tweaking, its a huge shift in mindset that needs to be brought in. Its not okay to give away points through errors and its certainly not okay to take the foot off the gas in the last 20 minutes.
Hogg & Toony can be as frustrated as they like in the after match interviews. But nothing has changed…we have the highest error rate in the 6 Nations.
Bradbury carried for 69m in 17 mins and only gota 6 !!?
I can only assume that whoever gave the ratings still thinks Scotland will win the grand slam
Eleven of the starting XV getting an 8or9 in THAT game? Wild!
It’s a well known thing called clickbait Boab.
Look how much activity we have generated for this TOS article as a result of these ‘ratings’ …
Where is the integrity?
Whoever rated the players weren’t watching the same game that I was. The ratings are way overly generous for what was a poor performance from this Scotland team.
Personally I thought Watson was our best player, but I can see where Price and Turner could also be awarded higher marks. Graham,Skinner,Gilchrist and Schoeman didn’t let themselves or the team down either but I expect more from Russell and Hogg, they’re our star players and need to deliver more consistently. They were decent enough but no more. One last thing, Ritchie was missed despite a workmanlike performance from Darge in an unfamiliar position.
Great to see an objective assessment of Price. The opposition can never take their eye off him as he displayed yesterday with that interception. If only he could emulate D’Arcy Graham’s fleet of foot.
Great to see an objective assessment of Price. The opposition can never take their eye off him as he displayed yesterday with that interception. If only he could emulate D’Arcy Graham’s fleet of foot.
Great to see an objective assessment of Price. The opposition can never take their eye off him as he displayed yesterday with that interception. If only he could emulate D’Arcy Graham’s fleet of foot.
Once again rubbing my eyes at these scores. Hogg was a seven and Russell would be lucky to match that. Turner and Price rightly got the highest marks and Darcy was worth his eight. Zander is starting to annoy me now with his clumsy handling and seemingly endless ability to commit infringements. He is still a young man of great promise, but someone needs to grab hold of him and wake him up. Not me though, I can’t run as fast as I used to!
far too generous with very high marks just for doing their job, again more silly penalties it seems that the management must think giving away silly penalties is not a problem as they have done nothing to stop it,there was a problem at the lineouts where some of the players looked lost, maybe that was the fault of the over officious referee.
The points rater must have been watching a different game to me!!! Hogg and Russell both guilty of kicking aimlessly down the middle of the park , for what purpose. I played in sides that if they had done that the pack leader would have had a quiet ( or maybe not so quiet ) word , thanks very much lads we’ve given you good ball and you’ve kicked it away 3 times so thanks for today well try giving you the ball next week!!! Hogg from his first cap has shown atrocious passing skills, if only he was a conscientious with his passing and tackling as he is with his appearance, he now would be a world class full back. The team in general doesn’t work hard enough when the opposition has the ball, we are about half as quick as the French Irish English and Welsh of getting back up and back in the line. To be honest a defeat yesterday might have been no bad thing as it might just have resulted in the departure of GT. we ain’t going to improve while he continues to be the boss .
Thought the tactics early on were poor
Silly kicking (poor)away possession when we should
getting the team properly warmed up
Keep the ball in hands and the opposition cannot play
We rely on kicking so the opponent kicks back and allows our back 3 to break. We have very little attacking imagination outwith Hogg or another player hanging back creating something in broken play.
Our attacking patterns are nowhere near consistent and we needed 2 tries from kick run backs and an intercept on our own line for 3 tries. The fourth try was from good attacking but we can’t get through phases well enough.
Not sure I was watching the same game as the ratings adjudicators? There were some good performances but some of the play wouldn’t have looked out of place in a school match.
Yes, quite a few generous marks! I agree that Steyn was less effective than the other backs. Prior to him putting in a decent cross kick for Harris to score I fully expected to see him scamper away to score himself but seemed very short of pace.
And short of tackling missing 5 at this level is very poor.
I think points are not award against some absolute yardstick of performance?
The team was coming from a place of dented confidence to play an Italy team who can be tricky (they gave France a tough time) away.
Plenty of Scotland teams I’ve watched would’ve struggled.
They scored some great tries.
If i could describe those ratings in one word…. Generous.
A Scotland team being awarded mostly 8 & 9’s should be beating Italy by a lot more than they did… and not leaking so many points.
Agree. Scotland started and finished the game in a very disappointing fashion, even if they were uncharacteristically comfortable in between
Indeed Graham should have got no more than 7.75 at the very most.