Scotland at 2011 World Cup: There was no disgrace, only disappointment in New Zealand

Simon Danielli of Scotland scores a try in the narrow win over Romania.

Scotland approached the 2011 World Cup with no great reason for confidence, though there was the usual optimism.

They had a poor Six Nations, beating only Italy at Murrayfield, though the defeat at Twickenham had been closer than in recent years. As was too often the case in the early years of this century, Scotland found try-scoring difficult and had to rely on the goal kicking of Chris Paterson to keep the scoreboard moving. They had admittedly won warm-up matches against Ireland and Italy, both at Murrayfield, but Ireland had fielded a team someway below their strongest.

The group stage in New Zealand offered little encouragement. Romania and Georgia should of course be defeated, quite comfortably we supposed, but then we were faced with Argentina and England. So it was reasonably expected that the Argentina match would be the most important.

Romania were beaten 34-24, but the match was closer than expected and well into the last quarter Romania led 24-21. A Chris Paterson penalty levelled the score and in the last ten minutes two tries by Simon Danielli secured a victory. Nor was the Georgia game convincing. Played at Invercargill at the bottom of the South Island, conditions were horrid. It rained heavily throughout. No tries were scored, but we managed to win 15-6.

Two teams from the pool would go through to the quarter-final. England, our last opponents, had already beaten Argentina. So a win would ensure Scotland’s place in the quarter-final, no matter what happened against the English. Conditions were again poor, rain and a strong wind. Scotland led 6-3 at half-time. Argentina kicked a penalty 6-6. The young fly-half Ruaridh Jackson dropped a goal. Soon afterwards he was replaced by the experienced Dan Parks, who almost at once dropped a goal himself. 12-6. Then Argentina broke through to score and the try was converted and 12-6 had become 12-13.

Scotland pressed hard. Parks attempted a left-footed drop; wide. Almost every Scots watching on TV was sure that a couple of Pumas had come offside. The referee didn’t think so. Game lost; we would have to beat England. Even if we lost there might still be a chance of reaching the knock-out stage, but this depended on Argentina losing to Georgia. It was calculated that we would have to win by a margin of seven points and denying England a bonus point.

It was a close, tense, hard-fought match – there was never likely to be a four-try bonus point for either side. Scotland led for a long time, penalties from Paterson and Parks and a drop goal from Parks putting us 12-3 up early in the second half. This was helped by Jonny Wilkinson uncharacteristically missing three penalty attempts. But in the second half, the English forwards got on top, Wilkinson dropped a goal, then kicked a penalty. We had earlier come close to scoring a try twice, but then in the last minute of the match, England centre Toby Flood made a break and put winger Chris Ashton over in the corner. Flood converted from the touchline. Game over. Scotland 12, England 16. A few minutes later we learned that Argentina had, as expected, beaten Georgia.

So for the first time in the tournament’s history, Scotland failed to qualify for the knock-out stage. It was disappointing, yet, on reflection, we had come very close in a strong pool and we had played better rugby than in the last two cups, never suffering a heavy defeat. There was no disgrace, only disappointment, in being so close to victory in the two vital games.

Some young players – Jackson, Rory Lawson, Richie Gray and John Barclay – showed themselves to be full of promise for the future. Sadly any rising expectation was soon dampened. The Six Nations the following spring would see us suffer a whitewash, only the French match at Murrayfield being excitingly close and enjoyable. As for the World Cup, well, 2015 when England would be hosts, might be better ...