Rugby Club ISSUE 85 | Page 19

The World Cup 2019 SCOTLAND It was a difficult Six Nations to evaluate for Scotland. To start with they suffered a large number of injuries and that made things very difficult for them but they certainly would of hoped to have finish higher in the table than fifth with their solitary winning coming against Italy. WALES This Welsh side has gone under the radar for some time despite their winning run and few were tipping them to take the Six Nations title. Despite winning their first two games they continued to be overlooked, partly However, they produced one of the best halves of rugby by any side in the tournament to come from 31-0 down to lead England 38-31. And then, just to cap things off they ended up drawing the game. It really does seem impossible to predict what is around the corner for this Scottish side. One man’s skills are becoming increasingly consistent however as in Finn Russell they have one of the best attacking fly-halves in the game and his skills were on display at Twickenham as he dragged his side back into the game, displaying a fantastic array of skills with ball in hand and from his boot. This will ensure that everyone in the World Cup will have to take this side seriously. The England match will give the side plenty of reason for optimism and with players coming back from injury the side will be looking to build momentum between now and the World Cup. If they can do that then they can cause teams plenty of problems and you imagine England will not be too keen to come across them in the knock out stages of the competition. due to their opponents in those games, France and Italy and partly due to the less than impressive nature of the victories. Everyone had to take note when they outlasted England in Round 3 of the tournament to claim a famous victory and they followed up that emotion filled victory with an impressive win over Scotland. This seemingly set them up for a crunch final game against last years Champions Ireland. It didn’t quite turn out that way however as Wales produced a dominant performance from the start as they stormed to a 25-7 victory. Comments have continued about the style of the Welsh side not being attacking enough but rugby is about balance and whenever Wales have needed to put points on the board they have done so. At this point, anyone still putting this Welsh side down is burying their head in the sand. Not that the comments will worry anyone Welsh, they’re still enjoying their Grandslam triumph and are looking towards the World Cup as the team ranked Number 2 in the world. www.rugbyclubmag.com 19