Coach Dalziel insists Scotland’s porous defence is not an issue… ‘Are we conceding too many tries? No, that’s just the way the game is going’

The game has never been more entertaining for the neutral rugby fan but, for coaches charged with trying to keep things tight defensively, it also brings fresh challenges.

A number of law adjustments designed to favour the attacking side – including the introduction of the 50:22 and players being given a free passage to chase down their own kicks – has led to a glut of high-scoring matches all across the world. Add in the try bonus point rule prevalent in many competitions and the incentive to commit to all-out attack is plain to see.

The days of cagey, low-scoring contests decided by penalties off the tee would seem now to be a thing of the past, with games more akin to a basketball match with play raging at great pace from end to end.

That makes it hugely entertaining for supporters but presents a new difficulty for coaches trying to retain an element of control and understandably reluctant to develop a ‘if you score four, we’ll score five’ mentality.

Shipping tries by the bucketload has been a problem for Scotland all year, even in victory. Their chances of landing a maiden win over the All Blacks last weekend was hugely hindered by the fact that they were far too porous at the back, conceding seven tries overall. It simply left them with far too much of a mountain to climb and any prospect of a comeback quickly fizzled out.

It was a similar story in the summer series of the Nations Championship. Gregor Townsend’s side gave up six in defeat to the Springboks and were somehow still able to overcome Argentina despite shipping five scores.

Their impressive, eye-catching Six Nations win over France came despite allowing their visitors to cross their line six times – including four in the last 15 minutes – which was the same number of tries claimed by Ireland on the final weekend of that tournament.

That defensive frailty ought to be a concern with Australia next at Murrayfield on Sunday but forwards coach John Dalziel felt it was the wider trend, rather than Scotland’s defensive deficiencies in particular, that was the reason for the number of tries the team has been conceding.

‘I wouldn’t say it’s an issue, it’s the game at the moment,’ he said. ‘With defence coaches coming in from rugby league, it’s been that uphill challenge of attacks trying to get on top of that. I think with law changes and amendments, we’re seeing a far more open game.

‘We’ve got an open game and teams are actually outscoring teams rather than the slugfests we used to have with kicking penalties in 12-9 games. It’s good for the exposure of the game.’

Instead, Dalziel felt that Scotland’s failure to win on Saturday came down to the fact they didn’t take more of their own attacking chances in the first half, rather than how they performed at the back.

‘It’s both sides of the ball. It’s about attack as well. We had maybe six opportunities in that first half to score a try as well, to be ahead and be commandingly ahead in the game. Both teams were getting opportunities.’

Townsend didn’t hide his displeasure with his team’s performance at the weekend and warned that nobody was ‘undroppable’ as he weighed up his selection options ahead of the visit of the Wallabies.

Dalziel, though, suggested that things said in the heat of the moment might look different come the relative calm of the Monday morning review. Scotland won’t name their team until Friday but Dalziel didn’t give the impression that widescale changes were planned.

‘In the immediate heat after a game, you think everything’s wrong,’ he added. ‘And then you get back to looking over the game, chatting through it and getting honesty from players and where they are and you get a bit of realisation of where guys are.

‘We’ve got a great squad and we’re playing four big games anyway so there’s going to be natural opportunities and changes anyway. We trust all the guys in our squad. And we trust the selections we make as well for the right reasons because we put a lot of time into that as well. Just a couple of inaccuracies and that first half can be easily fixed for us and we move forward from there.’

One person added to the training group this week has been Ali Price. The veteran scrum-half hasn’t been capped for two years now but has been going well at Montpellier and Dalziel didn’t rule out the prospect of him pushing for an involvement at a third World Cup.

‘I think he’s already doing that with his club form,’ added Dalziel. ‘He’s playing in a very, very strong team out in the Top 14 that are winning a lot. It just shows the competition in a lot of places that we have in the squad.’