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Rugby Union: 'We didn't get the rub of the green'

Sunday 21 February 1999 01:02 GMT
Comments

England are the best team in the competition but we had a chance to win. Hopefully, some of the younger lads will learn from that in years to come. It's my last time at Twickenham so it's nice to come away with two tries.

Alan Tait, Scotland's double try scorer

We thought we were good enough to win and we didn't get the rub of the green sometimes. Most of the very good teams have a reliable goal kicker so it was a wee bit disappointing. Kenny hasn't been kicking well for once. But I don't fault him. We knew England's forwards would run out of steam but we just couldn't finish them off in the end.

Jim Telfer, Scotland coach.

We didn't quite perform the way we wanted to though we started well enough. Then we went into cruise mode, let the Scots back into the match and gave them three soft tries. But it's all very well talking Scotland up - in the end they've lost the football match. Maybe we could have changed our tactics but if we are to do well on a wider stage we have to play in a certain way. We know what going to Dublin in two weeks will be all about. It'll be a cracking match and we've got a lot of work to do between now and then.

Lawrence Dallaglio, England captain

After such a bad start, we had a chat as a group of forwards and said we'd try to give the backs some quick ball and let them exploit any space.

Scott Murray, Scotland lock.

Now I know what 80 minutes of international rugby feels like. There were good and bad parts to the day but it's much faster and the intensity is a great deal higher than what I'm used to in the Premiership. It's all about concentration. It was a good experience and I'm glad to have it under my belt. At least the goal kicks went well. I didn't feel under any real pressure and to get four out of four was pleasing.

Jonny Wilkinson, England centre.

We kept losing the ball and when the game deteriorated in the second half we could not get out of our malaise. It's not the end of the world. We won but we did not play as well as we wanted to. We made some daft mistakes but it's just a question of getting the basics right.

Clive Woodward, England coach.

Some of the guys were in tears in the dressing room afterwards, which I think was a result of the effort that we put in. In the end, it just slipped away.

Gregor Townsend, Scotland fly-half.

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