Scotland rugby team shows the potential to be a tough contender in the upcoming Six Nations and if everything goes well has every chance to clinch the coveted champion’s trophy at the esteemed championship.

Yes, it’s true that the Scottish team were badly nailed by South Africa & Australia at Autumn Series last year. It’s also true that they showed up with a very meek performance against the English rugby squad in the early quarter of 2014 & had a disastrous fate with Wales team which even had Stuart Hogg red carded during Six Nations 2014.

But then again, according to experts, the Scottish team carry this potential to come up with the winning trophy at the 2015 Six Nations. The confidence is mostly because of the tutelage of the great coach Vern Cotter who has proved to be a very powerful guiding force for the Scott rugby guys in the recent times. The brilliant coach has been a huge motivator for the Scottish guys who have come up with this novel approach of boosting up their spirit by showing winning footages of Scottish sportsmen from other sports as well

In fact, since his joining with the team a few months back, the Scottish squad have displayed certain positive changes that further reinforce their potenti8al as a tentative champ of the Six Nations trophy the coming year.
The New Scotland today is bustling with a great pool of youngsters who have brought strong zeal and enthusiasm in the team. They are playing their matches at top level with top stakes and have proved their potential to succeed even under huge pressure and that too on regular basis. A huge aspect to note about the Scott squad is that a great load of current players from the core team are now pretty used to win major games.

New Zealand was winning with a lead in the score with just a bare 3 minutes left in the match when Wayne Barnes the referee made a penalty decision after replacing Liam Messam who had shoulder charged Schalk Burger. The replacement was Patrick Lambie who had the nerves to make a 55metere penalty shot and this secured the first win of South Africaover the All Blacks since the game in 2011.
This became the perfect end to the breath stopping matches that had witnessed New Zealand come back from a deficit of 11 points and take the lead by one point with just 69 minutes to go in the match. New Zealand had already won the 13th Rugby Championship after they beat Argentina by 34-13 as there was no more competition in the match.
At this game, New Zealand had opened by scoring a penalty earlier from Beauden Barrett and brought the crowd up on their feet. South Africa were willing to keep the ball with them and this try paid off perfectly as they scored a goal in the 11th minute and this gave the team take the match towards their own line.
The second penalty saw Barrett narrowing down the gap but the Springbok players were playing so good that the left hand touch line that came from Bryan Habana witnessed Handrè Pollard to take over from 15 meter and converted the match. New Zealand grabbed the opportunity to lead in the second attempt and that was in about four minutes after passing the ball through six passes with the help of the replaced hooker Ben Coles who slid under the left hand corner. Lambie had the final say in the match with his the kick of a perfectionist that looked nothing short of never-ending.

Scotland Rugby received a major blow after their crushing defeat to South Africa. It was a learning experience for the players who are trying to find their strong hold in the international arena. Scotland lost the game 55-6 to the South Africans even though a number of their stars were missing from the squad. They concede a number of tries and more importantly it was the way they went down in such situations which is to be scrutinized. Vern Cotter and his team had several reasons like jet lag, injuries and tough conditions to show as the cover up for the poor performance but they surely could have done better. The first try was some terrific power packed play by the unstoppable South Africans but the second try was fitting to infuriate the Scotland Rugby defense coach Matt Taylor. The positioning of Stuart Hogg and the role played by Henry Pyrgos as a sweeper seemed inappropriate to former Scotland scrum half, Mike Blair. Scotland’s attack lacked penetration and it almost seemed easy for the South Africans to snub their opponents. Rob Harley was easily the best player for the Scottish team.
Scotland Rugby players have been prone to numerous injuries over the past few years which clearly show a definite problem underlying the system. The back rower David Denton who has represented both Edinburgh and Scotland suffered an injury to his hamstring in the training camp. His omission has left the team dilapidated before the next season which will hopefully be better for the Scottish internationals. The fans are expecting some fireworks from the players in the next season. Ayshire shall be the new destination for the team where they will be facing up against Tonga. Mark Dodson, the chief executive of Scottish Rugby Union seemed very happy to introduce the new artificial ground with world class facilities.

Northampton Saints are riding high on their success in the Aviva Premiership which they won due some stellar performances by their stars in the last season. The Saints claimed their first domestic championship by winning last season’s final against the Saracens. The club rewarded their Director of Rugby Jim Mallinder with a new five year contract following their 24-20 score line to lift the trophy. The fans and officials associated with the club were delighted with their success in the concluding season and have vouchsafed for some more success in the following years. Mallinder was also responsible for winning the Amlin Challenge cup only a few days ago. Northampton Saints have won in five out of the nine finals they have played under Mallinder since his arrival at Franklin’s Gardens. The club is looking ambitious as they are hungry for some even sweeter success in the time to come. The club chairman Tony Hewitt has lauded the director of the club for being instrumental in putting together a great team under some able coaching stuff.
Alex Waller is the newest addition to the long line of English players that Saints have produced over the years including the present members like Luther Burrell, Tom Wood, Ben Foden, Lee Dickson, Dylan Hartley and Phil Dowson. Each of them have impressed one and all in the domestic season and are retained by the club for the future. The newest addition to the Northampton squad is Joel Hodgson whose transfer from Newcastle Falcons has been recently confirmed. Jim Mallinder has welcomed the new prodigy to his team showing his confidence in the immense talent which was appreciated by one and all in the previous season. Hodgson accepted it was difficult to leave his alma mater yet everyone is upbeat about his development as a player that might take place under Mallinder.

Rugby Football Union or RFU Championship club Moseley have suffered a huge blow after their leading try scorer Mat Williams swapped the club for a lucrative deal with fellow RFU Championship side the London Welsh.

Williams was offered a pay package that smashes all previous contracts in the recent history of the club, but that wasn’t enough to hold on to the free scoring winger as he has decided to join the Exiles for full time rugby.

And this decision from Williams comes as a huge blow for club boss Kevin Maggs who is on the brink of guiding the club to its best ever league position since 2000. Williams has been a key part for Moseley during this current campaign, scoring thirteen tries on the way in a season he has been rehabilitated as a player in the RFU Championship.

However, according to the 25 year old winger, the lure of returning home to London, where his girlfriend and family still live as well as the opportunity to go professional with the Exiles was too good an opportunity to turn down.

The winger has also thanked the club and its boss for giving him the opportunity to establish himself as one of the most prolific players outside of the English top flight.

He said that he had a great time during his spell with Moseley – the whole club and his teammates had been fantastic since he joined from Bristol Rugby where he hardly had any chance to prove his worth in his injury ravaged spell.

Williams went on to add that it was a very difficult decision for him to leave the club but in the end, the decision was more than just based on the rugby side of things and he is looking forward to start his career with the Exiles.

Scotland rugby union are now searching for a new chief executive. On Tuesday it was clear that times and opinions within Scottish rugby had changed.

His legacy is a much-improved Murrayfield, better business practice and a reduced level of debt.

But his mode of departure told of an actor who’s made one too many curtain calls.

Ex-Scotland international Iain Morrison is now a journalist and followed closely Gordon McKie’s time in charge of the game in Scotland. He believes that disaffection with the chief executive largely centres on his perceived lack of people skills.

Scotland hooker Fergus Thomson is in danger of missing the World Cup due to injury. Thomson, 27, is facing six months on the sidelines after a recurrence of a shoulder injury resulted in the Warriors forward requiring surgery.

“I’m gutted at missing out on the chance to compete at the World Cup,” said Thomson.

Thomson has eight caps for Scotland and featured at the 2007 World Cup.

Robinson expressed his sympathy for Thomson, saying: “It’s obviously disappointing news for Fergus but we wish him a speedy recovery.”

The Glasgow star vowed to make it back into Sean Lineen’s team as soon as possible.

Ireland defeated Scotland convincingly at Murrayfield but their victory was not confirm that until the end as Scotland provided a stiff resistance.

The Irish scored three tries to none, with Jamie Heaslip and Eoin Reddan going over in the first half.

Ronan O’Gara scored and converted a try after the break to make it 21-9 to Ireland, but Scotland fought back.

Chris Paterson kicked 12 points while a drop-goal from replacement Dan Parks took Scotland to within three points.

But despite Scotland’s strong late rally, Ireland overcame their late jitters and showed discipline in the final minutes, something which had been lacking from their play for most of the match.

The money collected from criminals will help for Scottish rugby. A total of £3.65m from the proceeds of crime will be invested in rugby club activities and facilities over the next three years.

The funds will be administered through sportscotland’s capital grant scheme.

The move is part of the Scottish government’s CashBack for Communities scheme, which funds diversionary activities for young people.

Scottish Rugby will channel £2.4m of the funding towards enhancing playing and coaching opportunities for youngsters across all of Scotland’s 32 local authorities.

Scotland are aiming high to make it well in the Six Nations tournament that is going to be held soon. “Last year, we felt we underperformed,” said the head coach.

“Whilst we were pleased with how we played in patches in games, we didn’t deliver results. We made mistakes and were punished.

“If you look through history, Scotland have always been able to produce one-off performances. What we want is to be able to do it week after week.”

The Scots lost their first three games in the championship last season, Wales coming from 24-14 down five minutes from time to win, but avoided the wooden spoon by drawing with England and then beating Ireland in Dublin.