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Hogg: 'If we're being brutally honest we let ourselves down'
By Ciarán Kennedy
Stuart Hogg insists Scotland can still make a success of the World Cup, but admits they will have to learn from their mauling by Ireland in Yokohama.
Gregor Townsend’s team made a dismal start to their Pool A campaign as they crashed to a 27-3 defeat to the world’s number-one ranked side.
It was an abject display that has deflated the Scots’ pre-tournament optimism.
But full-back Hogg, whose side are likely to find themselves on a quarter-final collision course with reigning champions New Zealand if they make it out the group, still believes the Dark Blues can go deep into the competition.
“Absolutely,” said the new Exeter signing when asked if he thought Scotland still had a chance of going far.
“If we’re being brutally honest we let ourselves down in the first 20 minutes and gave Ireland three tries. We made a lot of mistakes but we’ll learn from it and move on.
“We played into Ireland’s hands. We allowed them to come to us and we didn’t really take the challenge to them.
“Against a team like Ireland you can’t cough up cheap ball and make silly mistakes, because you’re going to be on the receiving end of points. Their first three tries came from our errors and our ill-discipline.
“But we have the quality, the character, the coaching staff and the players to be a successful side.
“I keep touching on it that we’re frustrated, but there’s another challenge next weekend against Samoa that we need to prepare for.
“A week in Test match rugby when you’re winning is a short time, but when you’re losing it’s a long, long time.
“However, there’s a lot of opportunities to make amends.”
Hogg was among a number of players in Townsend’s squad who insisted last week they were aiming to go all the way in Japan.
But there was little to suggest they will end up being genuine contenders as they gifted Joe Schmidt’s team victory with their showing in the opening 25 minutes.
Gregor Townsend admits Scotland are now in must-win territory ahead of their final three pool matches, starting against Samoa in Kobe a week on Monday.
And Hogg says Scotland must respond to the set-back.
He said: “I’ve not been involved in a Scotland camp that’s had this good a preparation. To start the way we started is bitterly disappointing.
“For us now it’s about making sure we learn from this and we’re in the best place possible to come next weekend.
“We can’t mope. It’s frustrating, it’s disappointing and we’re all downbeat just now.
“But come tomorrow morning, we’ll review this and make sure we’re in a better place afterwards.
“We need to learn individually and collectively and make sure we’re in the best place to win a Test match against a physical and quick Samoa team.
“We want to play the fastest rugby in the world but we’re not going to change for anybody.”
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The boy needs to bulk up if wants to play 10 or 11 to handle those hits, otherwise he could always make a brilliant reserve for the wings if he stays away from the stretcher.
Go to commentsIn another recent article I tried to argue for a few key concept changes for EPCR which I think could light the game up in the North.
First, I can't remember who pointed out the obvious elephant in the room (a SA'n poster?), it's a terrible time to play rugby in the NH, and especially your pinnacle tournament. It's been terrible watching with seemingly all the games I wanted to watch being in the dark, hardly able to see what was going on. The Aviva was the only stadium I saw that had lights that could handle the miserable rain. If the global appeal is there, they could do a lot better having day games.
They other primary idea I thuoght would benefit EPCR most, was more content. The Prem could do with it and the Top14 could do with something more important than their own league, so they aren't under so much pressure to sell games. The quality over quantity approach.
Trim it down to two 16 team EPCR competitions, and introduce a third for playing amongst the T2 sides, or the bottom clubs in each league should simply be working on being better during the EPCR.
Champions Cup is made up of league best 15 teams, + 1, the Challenge Cup winner. Without a reason not to, I'd distribute it evenly based on each leauge, dividing into thirds and rounded up, 6 URC 5 Top14 4 English. Each winner (all four) is #1 rank and I'd have a seeding round or two for the other 12 to determine their own brackets for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I'd then hold a 6 game pool, home and away, with consecutive of each for those games that involve SA'n teams. Preferrably I'd have a regional thing were all SA'n teams were in the same pool but that's a bit complex for this simple idea.
That pool round further finalises the seeding for knockout round of 16. So #1 pool has essentially duked it out for finals seeding already (better venue planning), and to see who they go up against 16, 15,etc etc. Actually I think I might prefer a single pool round for seeding, and introduce the home and away for Ro16, quarters, and semis (stuffs up venue hire). General idea to produce the most competitive matches possible until the random knockout phase, and fix the random lottery of which two teams get ranked higher after pool play, and also keep the system identical for the Challenge Cup so everthing is succinct. Top T2 side promoted from last year to make 16 in Challenge Cup
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