By corporalcarrot
November 11 2013

Just back from the London Scottish match so a few thoughts for what they are worth. Travel really easy – the 8.15am BA flight landed early and I walked straight onto a train which with a brief change at Clapham got me to Richmond at 10.30am exactly and I was in the ground 5 minutes later. 

For anyone who hasn’t been to the RAG I’d encourage you to put it on your must do list. A really iconic place shared by Scottish and Richmond and a hive of activity on Sunday morning with loads of kids at mini-rugby. I was in good time to see the traditional laying of wreaths at the war memorials on the side of the clubhouse which was impeccably observed. It was particularly good to see Jersey’s Club President laying a wreath on behalf of the club. 

The game is well summarised in the official match report but a few random thoughts of my own: 

• It was probably Jersey’s least impressive game so far this season – probably on a par with the standard we showed pre-season against Coventry but against a really “up for it” Scottish team in my opinion we were absolutely second best throughout the match. 

• The forwards who have generally been strong all season didn’t really sparkle and certainly didn’t match the performance I saw at Roth. This may have been in part due to the inability on the day to interpret the referee’s style but for whatever reason they didn’t really impose themselves on a smaller Scottish pack. Given the size and quality of the forward replacements on the bench I would personally like to see us introducing the “impact” replacements as a group around the 50 minute mark. 

• I thought Jimmy Williams had a decent game at scrum half and his distribution from the forwards was excellent. He may not offer as much of a running option as Nicky Griffiths but it was good to see him in action and given a decent amount of game time. 

• The problems in the backs remain the Achilles heel in the team with the major problems being: 
o Inside centre – I have said enough on this already so I will avoid “stuck record syndrome” by repeating it all again. 
o We lack pace. 
o The wingers need to improve our kicking game by proving the old adage that a kick is only as good as a chase. 
o We play too many backs out of their natural positions – perhaps we have limited choice given the size of the squad. 
o McCrea & Locke are probably the most naturally gifted backs – it would be good to see them play in their natural positions. 
• I spoke to a lot of the players after the match and it was obvious they were “gutted” by the performance – they are a cracking bunch of lads and we desperately need to lift them next Saturday with a big partisan crowd to cheer them on. 

Scottish is a great clubhouse where it was a pleasure to mix with fans, players and officials of both sides. There are also numerous cracking pubs in the few hundred yards between the ground and Richmond station. I can resist anything but temptation................ I tried them all! 

Good to see a couple few old faces - Guy Thompson & Barry Davies - supporting their old team-mates.