Meanwhile, Henley’s slide continued when they went down 30-20 at Orrell and Otley retained their five-point lead in Jewson League One by beating Camberley 58-12.Llantrisant, of the Welsh Second Division, reached the last eight of the WRU Challenge Cup after seeing off even humbler Vardre 27-14 in the seventh round yesterday. The other side from outside the top flight to go through was First Division Bonymaen with a 20-6 eclipse of Glamorgan Wanderers. The holders Llanelli, Premier Division leaders Ebbw Vale and Pontypridd each enjoyed a comfortable passage into the quarter-finals. Gareth Green and Jonathan Williams each went over twice as Vale won 55-12 at Builth Wells. Neil Boobyer claimed two of Llanelli’s six tries as they beat Whitland 40-18 and Pontypridd also crossed the line six times en route to a 39-6 defeat of Dunvant.Bridgend moved ahead of Neath, who are in Cup action today at Aberavon, and towards mid-table safety in the Welsh-Scottish Premier Division with a 10-try, 57-20 thrashing of the bottom club Caerphilly.Heriot’s FP are still six points clear in the BT Scotland Premiership following a 24-12 win over Kelso which featured two tries from Charlie Keenan and three penalties by Gordon Ross. Young Munster leap-frogged St Mary’s College at the top of Ireland’s AIB League after shading the Dublin side 9-7.On the first weekend of the Super 12, Otago underlined their class in Dunedin by dismissing Queensland Reds, and four of Australia’s World Cup winners, 50-13 while Northern Bulls lost 23-19 to the Cats in an all Springbok affair in Pretoria.. To get caught cold by Italy in Rome is one thing, but to be routed by Ireland suggests that the season for the flower of Scotland is disastrously brief.

The Scots were not expected to win the last championship, but nor were they expected to turn a silver spoon into a wooden version in such thorough fashion. To get caught cold by Italy in Rome is one thing, but to be routed by Ireland suggests that the season for the flower of Scotland is disastrously brief. The Scots were not expected to win the last championship, but nor were they expected to turn a silver spoon into a wooden version in such thorough fashion.
Having conceded 78 points – one fewer than they gave away in the whole campaign last year – to the two least fancied teams, Scotland are in the tunnel, and if anything it is getting darker. They face France at Murrayfield on Saturday followed by Wales at the Millennium Stadium with a climax against England in Edinburgh at the beginning of April. Then it gets really heavy with a tour to New Zealand and Fiji.”If we ever wanted a challenge, France will provide it,” their coach, Ian McGeechan, said. “After their defeat to England the French will only get better. We will have to play out of our skins, but that’s nothing new.

We’ve had to do that to win any international.”Whereas almost everything went right for Scotland last season, down to Scott Gibbs’injury-time try against England at Wembley which sent the championship trophy north, thus far almost everything has gone wrong, down to a refereeing error in Dublin that turned a probable Scottish try into seven points for Ireland.McGeechan is in his ninth season with the national squad but his first as hands-on coach since leaving Northampton and moving into the office at Murrayfield vacated by his soulmate Jim Telfer, who has become technical director. McGeechan, who could have had the England job following his coaching masterclass with the Lions in South Africa in 1997, was blissfully happy at Northampton but found the Scottish job irresistible.”The attraction,” he said, “is coaching international players. I like the challenge, the sharp edge, particularly with Scotland, where we know we have to get things right all the time.”Knowing is one thing, but even McGeechan has been taken aback by what has happened, although he had repeatedly warned about the dangers of the Italian job. “Many people thought it would be a comfortable start, but I was always worried,” he said. “They’ve got some veryaccomplished players and play much better at home. We were at our most vulnerable.”However, the fiasco in Dublin was regarded by some Scottish observers as the worst ever.

Leading 10-0, Scotland conceded 44 points on the trot, and this after McGeechan had kept faith with the team who had retreated from Rome.”We made too many unforced errors and you simply can’t do it at this level if you want to keep pressure on your opponents. Against both Italy and Ireland we gave them easy ways into the game at crucial stages. All we were trying to do then was force the issue when we were behind rather than regrouping, and that allowed our opponents to capitalise even further. Last season the others never came to terms with our midfield. Unfortunately that midfield is not on the field.”Last month McGeechan made his first major decision, not only naming John Leslie as the first New Zealander to captain Scotland, but in the process picking a Kiwi who had not played for four months. Leslie lasted less than quarter of an hour against Italy, and also missed the game against Ireland.Inevitably his absence has been given as the main reason for Scotland’s demise.