That was useless - Barclay laments Scotland's Twickenham horror show
A dismayed John Barclay described Scotland's performance in their 61-21 trouncing at the hands of England as "useless".
Scotland came into Saturday's meeting at Twickenham knowing a win would put them in the driving seat for a maiden Six Nations crown.
But Vern Cotter's men were blown away by the defending champions, who took advantage of Scotland's injury-ravaged back-line to run in seven tries en route to a thumping Calcutta Cup triumph.
The heavy defeat means Scotland sit fifth in the table, but are only a point behind second-placed Ireland ahead of hosting rock-bottom Italy at Murrayfield in their final fixture next weekend.
A disappointing afternoon for Scotland who go down to the @SixNationsRugby Champions @EnglandRugby at Twickenham #ENGVSCO #AsOne pic.twitter.com/XIitM3uoW5
— Scottish Rugby (@Scotlandteam) March 11, 2017
"I don't know what to say to be honest. We didn't show up," Barclay, who has been standing in as captain for the injured Greig Laidlaw, told ITV Sport.
"We got off to a bad start and it continued, our discipline was very poor and we conceded soft tries.
"England are a very good side, arguably the best in the world so fair play to them but we're very disappointed obviously.
"It's easy to look at that [injuries] as an excuse but we train for those scenarios. We believe in our squad so we'll look at the review but it won't be good watching.
"There always has been [fight in the side], we're trying to move away from the tag of plucky losers but that wasn't even plucky, that was useless.
"We've got one week left and we can finish the championship with three from five but if we play like that we've got no chance."
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Spot on Ben. Dead right. Havili looked great at 10. Easily the highest rugby IQ of any NZ player these days. Getting a kick charged down is a result of getting used to adjusting your depth to the line at 10, which he will sort out with time. But other than that it was an outstanding first effort in that position this year. I think the NZ media has misunderstood this directive from Razor. Havili might rank behind B Barrett this year, but Beuden is 33 this month and won't last much longer. DMaC is great but flaky and not really a test match animal (his efforts in Dunedin versus Aus last year for example). If Razor can't have Mounga, DMaC is too unstructured for Razor (and is just too small for test rugby). Havili will end up our first choice first five, and in partnership with Jodie will be excellent. Two triple threat operators in tandem, and big bodies and tough tacklers to boot. Jordoe will be the ABs goal kicker. I am an Aucklander and Blues (and Warriors) fan, but Havili at 10 is going to be sensational in time… he can be the best first five in the world by the end of this year. No question.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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