Are Scotland better than Wales now?

There. I've done it now so no-one else can!

Nope.... but they are better than us...... .....

They've got more bottle and more heart thats for sure!

No, not yet but next six nations I think we could compete.

No their not, lets see them beat Wales and then we can say who is better, at the moment, 8 wins for Wales in 9 games means Wales are a lot better than Scotland.

Nowhere near better. Silly question to ask and if it was tongue in cheek...then it was exceedingly poor .

I posted this as a Welshman, tongue in cheek, to get in there before the scots! I thought it would only be a matter of time before it was suggested!

Are Scotland better than Wales now?

Oh how this is going to

Only if they are playing in a force 10 gale....

Morgannwg wrote:Nowhere near better. Silly question to ask and if it was tongue in cheek...then it was exceedingly poor .

Oh, come on Morgan, where's your sense of humour, Scotland had to take a lot of flack over the last 6 months.

Scotland can tackle when it matters.

Wales can't.

I'm not claiming to be better but if Scotland were to win their next two games and Wales were to lose theirs, would we overtake them in the rankings?

Scotland won the breakdown battle and negate Pocock and Hooper and I think in this area they are better than Wales by evidence. They put the pressure to Genia and close down his space and time and read the inside ball to shut down Wallaby attack, so in that area yes they are better.

biltongbek wrote:

Morgannwg wrote:Nowhere near better. Silly question to ask and if it was tongue in cheek...then it was exceedingly poor .

Oh, come on Morgan, where's your sense of humour, Scotland had to take a lot of flack over the last 6 months.

The sense of humour dissapeared along with my hopes of a win against Aus this morning. Scotland only took flack from Scottish, not anyone else.

Morgan, my commisserations that your team lost, I know it hurts.

The Scots got flack from everyone, you included, I can go back to posts yu made just yesterday, besides it is a Welshman that started the thread and could see some humour in it.

AWOP

It had nothing to do with constant mistakes, the weather, the packs running in custard and a free for all mess at the breakdown because of it?? No it's Scotland are better at the breakdown?!

Jeez you just get worse and worse!

Yes bluesman. Scotland cover the backrow with impressive close defense! Look at Wales first try was concede from drive around the ruck and Wales miss the tackles and not defending the advantage line. Scotland did this well and close down Genia space and time and prevent the inside ball option. So in back row Scotland are superior and should be represent to the Lions back row on the basis of compare.

I can't remember slating the Scots in the past year. You must have misinterpreted it.

You won't get many Scots claiming anything of the sort, we know we've only won one game in the last 8. We're just hopeful that once the new players we've got coming through get established in the team, then maybe we'll be more successful, and hopefully the confidence gained from that win might spur us on to win the next couple.

I don't think you can compare this week's Scotland and Wales games, I don't think there is a great difference between the quality of the two Australia sides but I think the weather did advantage Scotland a lot, despite what my fellow Scots might say. That's not to say Scotland prefer wet weather, certainly not as much as we used to with Parks/Morrison etc. The Scotland side selected was one to play open running rugby. But whatever side Scotland put out, they were going to have far more experience playing in rain than the Australians, and that is true of any of the home nations. So what I am trying to say is that playing in heavy rain would have been an advantage to any European side against Australia.

Anyway I don't mind if people say we only won because of the weather, right now we will take any win, partly to build confidence and get the new players into a winning habit, and partly to try and get into the second pot of seeds for the 2015 world cup.

For now, I'm proud of how they did on Tuesday and feeling positive about the Fiji and Samoa games. Oh and unlucky Wales, was backing you this morning and can see you taking at least one win this series

To be honest Scotland's pack is pretty much equal to Wales, especially in bad conditions! Your backs in particular the finishers and playmakers are terrible though

Pat_Mustard wrote:You won't get many Scots claiming anything of the sort, we know we've only won one game in the last 8. We're just hopeful that once the new players we've got coming through get established in the team, then maybe we'll be more successful, and hopefully the confidence gained from that win might spur us on to win the next couple.

I don't think you can compare this week's Scotland and Wales games, I don't think there is a great difference between the quality of the two Australia sides but I think the weather did advantage Scotland a lot, despite what my fellow Scots might say. That's not to say Scotland prefer wet weather, certainly not as much as we used to with Parks/Morrison etc. The Scotland side selected was one to play open running rugby. But whatever side Scotland put out, they were going to have far more experience playing in rain than the Australians, and that is true of any of the home nations. So what I am trying to say is that playing in heavy rain would have been an advantage to any European side against Australia.

Anyway I don't mind if people say we only won because of the weather, right now we will take any win, partly to build confidence and get the new players into a winning habit, and partly to try and get into the second pot of seeds for the 2015 world cup.

For now, I'm proud of how they did on Tuesday and feeling positive about the Fiji and Samoa games. Oh and unlucky Wales, was backing you this morning and can see you taking at least one win this series

"WIN BECAUSE WEATHER" is silly. Do anyone say "Australia only win because it was sunshine"? No.

Hogg and Visser are some of the most exciting attacking backs in the NH. Both good finishers.

gowales wrote:To be honest Scotland's pack is pretty much equal to Wales, especially in bad conditions! Your backs in particular the finishers and playmakers are terrible though

That was the case certainly but now with Laidlaw, Scott, Visser, Dunbar, Hogg, Brown, Jones, Weir etc. I hope we've turned a corner although I'm not promising anything; next Saturday against Fiji will hopefully be the breakthrough in try scoring terms because once these guys get the hang of it I think they could be very good.

Fiji will be physically testing but i expect you guys to smash them to be honest, their squad for this series is rubbish. It'll be interesting to see what these young guns can do in the sun!

I'd like to see this backline take on Fiji

9.Blair
10.Laidlaw/Weir
11.Visser
12.Scott
13.Ansbro
14.Lamont
15.Hogg

No they're def not.

What they did have was an actual game plan and a lot more bottle when it mattered and on top of that conditions which meant none of the Oz players who shone today could play more then two phases without dropping the ball.

pbuk0 wrote:Only if they are playing in a force 10 gale....

You mean a normal summer's day in Edinburgh?

anotherworldofpain wrote:

Pat_Mustard wrote:You won't get many Scots claiming anything of the sort, we know we've only won one game in the last 8. We're just hopeful that once the new players we've got coming through get established in the team, then maybe we'll be more successful, and hopefully the confidence gained from that win might spur us on to win the next couple.

I don't think you can compare this week's Scotland and Wales games, I don't think there is a great difference between the quality of the two Australia sides but I think the weather did advantage Scotland a lot, despite what my fellow Scots might say. That's not to say Scotland prefer wet weather, certainly not as much as we used to with Parks/Morrison etc. The Scotland side selected was one to play open running rugby. But whatever side Scotland put out, they were going to have far more experience playing in rain than the Australians, and that is true of any of the home nations. So what I am trying to say is that playing in heavy rain would have been an advantage to any European side against Australia.

Anyway I don't mind if people say we only won because of the weather, right now we will take any win, partly to build confidence and get the new players into a winning habit, and partly to try and get into the second pot of seeds for the 2015 world cup.

For now, I'm proud of how they did on Tuesday and feeling positive about the Fiji and Samoa games. Oh and unlucky Wales, was backing you this morning and can see you taking at least one win this series

"WIN BECAUSE WEATHER" is silly. Do anyone say "Australia only win because it was sunshine"? No.

No, I don't think anyone would consider dry weather a disadvantage, everyone would rather play in the sunshine. But when the weather is bad, some teams are better at dealing with it than others. Australia didn't deal with it well and that gave Scotland a better chance of winning, and well done to them for taking it.

123456789 wrote:

gowales wrote:To be honest Scotland's pack is pretty much equal to Wales, especially in bad conditions! Your backs in particular the finishers and playmakers are terrible though

That was the case certainly but now with Laidlaw, Scott, Visser, Dunbar, Hogg, Brown, Jones, Weir etc. I hope we've turned a corner although I'm not promising anything; next Saturday against Fiji will hopefully be the breakthrough in try scoring terms because once these guys get the hang of it I think they could be very good.

What is so pleasing about it is that not only do we have good young players coming through, but we now have more than one good attacking player in most positions so there should be plenty of competition for years to come. Very refreshing after years of stodgy 10s and 12s. Laidlaw vs Weir (vs Leonard in future?), Scott vs Dunbar at 12, both far more potent attackers than Morrison or Henderson ever were. Hogg vs Brown at 15, and before long hopefully Bennett will be competing with De Luca/Ansbro/Cairns for 13, and with the likes of Farndale still to come through and compete with Visser/Jones on the wings. Very encouraging signs for the coming years

Morgannwg wrote:

biltongbek wrote:

Morgannwg wrote:Nowhere near better. Silly question to ask and if it was tongue in cheek...then it was exceedingly poor .

Oh, come on Morgan, where's your sense of humour, Scotland had to take a lot of flack over the last 6 months.

The sense of humour dissapeared along with my hopes of a win against Aus this morning. Scotland only took flack from Scottish, not anyone else.

Morganwg, only you could get upset about this question from a Welshman, clearly tongue-in-cheek, and noticeably not a Scotsman in sight to suggest that it might be true!!

The answer is clearly no, not yet, but our result against Oz (even a depleted Oz) was a good one and important for our progress

well ASBO to be fair OZ were still missing 4 of their first choice players in this test as well. But I do agree Wales are still significantly better

No they are not.

But the Wales under 20s is better than the Wales senior team.
Atleast they beat the Baby Blacks.

majesticimperialman wrote:
Atleast they beat the Baby Blacks.

Aiii, something England U20 haven't done yet . Get your pink cowboy hat on madge as we will likely be playing the Baby Blacks in the play-offs before facing the England Schoolboy toffs in the final.

In some areas they appear to be ahead us currently. They prevented the Wallabies from touching down once and that was with Genia starting, we leaked three in contrast.

That isn't to say they're better than us. We beat the Baby Blacks yesterday, does that make us better than everyone else in the JWC? I'd still fancy our chances against Scotland, be it in Cardiff or Edinburgh, though as a rule I'm very wary of playing the Scots.

Morgannwg wrote:

majesticimperialman wrote:
Atleast they beat the Baby Blacks.

Aiii, something England U20 haven't done yet . Get your pink cowboy hat on madge as we will likely be playing the Baby Blacks in the play-offs before facing the England Schoolboy toffs in the final.

Yes you might well be, but atleast England did not lose to Ireland.

Scotland are better at playing poor conditions than most other teams. Thats is all

I love the way Robinson gets no credit for that win. Throwing 2 7's in was a master stroke after seeing the Wales game. Scotland went much better at the breakdown!!

thebluesmancometh wrote:I love the way Robinson gets no credit for that win. Throwing 2 7's in was a master stroke after seeing the Wales game. Scotland went much better at the breakdown!!

Yeah but the Welsh game wasnt played in a bog, and Australia had far better players on the pitch against Wales.

Really because I seem to remember all the key players being there...

Moore, Sharpe, Pocock, Genia, Barnes, Ioane!!!

Are they not the key players???

Well Blues have a number of key players in their starting XV (the Wales internationals)... Just look at them though.

Really? you want to compare the Blues to Aus?!

The quality drop at that level is hardly comparible!!

Just highlighting a few key players don't always makes a team, you need an entire team of a high standard. Only NZ can make a number of changes and still be near world class. It wasn't a comparison of teams or players which I thought must have been pretty clear. For the record I never took anything away from Scotlands win at the time, I just congratulated them and moved on.

Well theres no way Robinsons record against the SH is as good as it is without him doing something right. Thats my point.

If he could just translate that kind of record to the 6N they'd be pretty dangerous.

Our win against Aus in 2009 was based on pure defense and Giteau having a shocker. In 2010 we took SA on in the forwards and bested them and last Tuesday we adapted to the conditions better and defended superbly so our secret of beating the SH is through strong defense which Wales have. Although I don't think the Aus side made much of a difference it was probably worth the 11 points that was the difference between our score and Wales'.

I think its a bit unfair to presume we'd think that Scotland are better than Wales, many of us know this is simply untrue.

You were up against a fired up Australian squad, fresh off the back of a defeat against what is now practically a minnow nation. We're very happy for our win, and rightly so, but we'd never assume that this makes us better than Wales, especially after the last 6N!

I am however looking forward to next year's 6N and British Lions, purely because if we manage to keep the consistency and carry on an upward curve (very unlikely, I know!) then we have a very good chance of contending for the title! But baby steps, the win against Aus will mean bugger all if we can't back it up against Fiji and Samoa, which is also highly likely, given Scotland's track record in consistency!

Unlucky Wales, I did actually think you were going to scalp Aus, but I guess on the day they were the better side, just like on the day against Scotland they were the worse side.

Of course Scotland are :-) Which of the home nations won their game against the SH team? Scotland that who

the scoreboard never lies. a team packed full of stars. I expect them to win the 6N, WC and make up the bulk of the lions unless NZ poach the best players










Some of the above might be just stretching it a bit

Neily, I doubt anyone thinks Scotland is better than Wales, the proof is out there, I think the OP being welsh found some modicum of humour out of a desperately disappointing day for Wales.

Nothing more, nothing less

But is true that some part of the Scotland team are better on the day than the Wales team today.

Like I said, just wanted to get in there before any cheeky Scots! However, I didn't expect any replies to be honest!

Thing is no Scottish poster would ever WUM like that ... sad but true.

Can't wait if Scotland ever actually become a force again ... would be interesting to see the personalities of the posters here. I reckon it'd be much the same I like that about us