REF’S CARDS HAVE GREIG RILED
Laidlaw irked by pair of yellows that hurt Scots
SCOTLAND skipper Greig Laidlaw wore a look of utter frustration following the full-time whistle in Dublin yesterday. It wasn’t difficult to work out what was eating away at him — the decision to show yellow cards to John Barclay and Alex Dunbar still clearly rankled.
Laidlaw was turned on his head by Italy flanker Francesco Minto in Rome, but the match officials failed to react. Yesterday, Dunbar was sent to the sin bin when he did something similar to Johnny Sexton at the side of the ruck. That followed the sin-binning of Barclay in the first half and, in those periods, Ireland scored 19 points to take the game out of Scotland’s hands.
When asked about the decision on Dunbar, Laidlaw said: ‘All you ask for is consistency across the board. Sometimes referees see these things and sometimes they don’t. That’s just the way it goes.
‘But when you’re playing Test match rugby and you pick up two yellow cards, and only have 14 boys on the field for 60 minutes, it makes it very tough. After a start where we couldn’t get our hands on the ball to then pick up the yellow cards was hard.
‘The ref (Pascal Gauzere) was on us from the start today, wasn’t he? We never got much from him at all as he felt we were worthy of the two yellow cards. That was disappointing because we spoke about discipline before the game and it was critical. That was one of the areas where we probably let them into the game.’
Laidlaw was quick to state that the message in the dressing room had been one of learning from self-inflicted blows that he believes cost Scotland the chance of a first win at the Aviva Stadium in the history of the Six Nations Championship.
There were undoubtedly bright spots again in the Scotland performance, with Stuart Hogg maintaining his fine form and scoring a scintillating try that is a certain contender for try of the tournament.
Centre Duncan Taylor continues to impress, Barclay was a thorn in the Irish side — and, maybe harshly, the referee’s — while John Hardie was typically abrasive in defence until replaced in the second half. The front five were tireless in their work about the park.
But Scotland did miss the influence of injured duo Jonny Gray and FinnFi Russell, while Vern Cott Cotter’s decision to leave out Ma Mark Bennett might have b been understandable — so strong were Taylor and Dunbar — but his pace and elusiveness is d difficult to replace. Having one day less to re recover, after playing France last Sunday, may also have been a factor in Scotland’stl d’ error count and lack of accuracy at times.
Maintaining the squad mantra of the past year, Laidlaw accepted that the players had to look to themselves for answers rather than for excuses, but insisted that the mistakes and ultimate defeat in Dublin should not take away from strides he believes the squad have made in the past two months.
Asked to sum up the Championship as a whole, he said: ‘It’s tough to answer that straight away, but this team is going forward and I think that’s clear. People should see that and if they don’t then I don’t know what games they’re watching because we’re in these Test matches.
‘We’re extremely disappointed with how we started against England, and lost by six, and we went to Wales and lost by four and won the next two. Even though we were ill-disciplined and are disappointed with how we played here, we were still in it and if we scored when it was 28-20, we were right back in the game at the end.
‘But then we burst the line up the left and coughed up the ball and once up the right we turned it over, at crucial times. So if we can learn from that, and be cool and develop those aspects of our game, we’re going to be in more Tests than not, moving forward.
Meanwhile, Ireland’s head coach Joe Schmidt admitted that the greatest feeling in the home dressing room after the win over Scotland was one of relief.
Schmidt, whose position has been questioned by the Irish media after the defending champions started the tournament with a draw and two defeats — amid rumours he may return to New Zealand — admitted he feared Scotland’s resurgence might end in a gloomy finale.
‘I am always happy to finish on a winning note and there’s relief because we knew how tough Scotland were going to be — and they didn’t disappoint us,’ he said.
The ref was on us from the start, wasn’t he? We never got much from him