Scotland’s reigning champions suffered their first defeat of this year’s LGT World Men’s Curling Championship in Switzerland, but ended an intense first weekend of competition on a high with a dominant win over world number one ranked Italy.
A fine opening day at the Schaffhausen arena had seen Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan claim victories over Korea and the USA, but they knew the second day’s action had the potential to be pivotal as they met Canada’s Team Gushue, whom they had beaten in last year’s final, before then taking on the high flying Italians.
The outcome of both matches served to underline why the Scots have been placing additional emphasis in their preparations on the pre-match last stone draw, which decides which team has the hammer, since that was to prove vital in both. 
That proved a close contest against Canada, who edged it and duly went on to make the ideal start to the match as they blanked the first end to take control of the even ends, then scored two at the next before forcing the Scots to settle for just one at the third.
When they then stole two more shots at the fifth, after the fourth had been blanked, they took a 5-1 lead into the midway break and another Canadian two at the seventh effectively ended the contest as they ran out 8-4 winners.
“Focusing on the draw shot and getting off to a good start has been pretty key in all four of our matches,” Mouat noted.
“Without hammer against Gushue we slipped behind, so it’s just showing you the importance of draw shot at the minute.
“I think we have the ability to turn the hammer against other teams, though, if we don’t win the draw shot and we’re still in a good spot.”
They did not have to do that against Italy, though, as they won the draw shot for the third time and seized the initiative from the outset.
Picking up a three at the opening end was a fine reward for the pressure they had applied on Italian skip Joes Retornaz, albeit he was slightly unlucky to see his attempt at a raise double takeout send the stone he had driven into the house sailing between a tiny gap between Scotland’s two lying stones, to leave Mouat with a straightforward draw for that three.
That was nothing to the drama which followed at the next end, however, the Italians turning up the heat and looking set to claim a big score until Mouat went for the highest of tariff options that only he and his teammates thought was on and sent red opposition stones flying in all directions with a run triple takeout, clearing the house.
The contest was to end with another Scottish three count, this time stolen against the hammer at the fifth end.
Vice skip Hardie set up the opportunity, sending a stone through a small port between Italian stones for a takeout and roll which saw Scotland lie three.
His opposite number Amos Mosaner, the Olympic mixed doubles champion, then saw his attempt to respond wreck on a guard and with a wall of Italian stones helping protect the Scottish stones in the house, Mouat then closed the last remaining gap.
That forced Retornaz into a difficult raise double takeout, which he played brilliantly to leave the stone he had run into the house sitting on the button, but Mouat could see just enough of it through another tiny port to remove it and maximise the pressure by lying three.
This time Retornaz’s attempt to recover the situation clipped a guard, allowing the Scots to steal a three and move into a near impregnable 7-2 lead.
“It was important to bounce back from that loss today when we were up against another top quality team,” said Mouat.
“We know we’re probably going to have to beat them a couple of times in the tournament if we’re going to win it, so to get one over them was pretty important for us at this stage.
“The run triple in the second end was quite a big momentum swing.
“It’s a tough shot, but when you’ve gone three up at the first it’s quite important to keep that lead.
“When we went for it we knew that if you make it you look amazing and if you miss it you look pretty stupid, but it was quite important to keep the lead that we had worked so hard to get at the first end.
“It looked like it lined up quite nice and I hit about a half stone and it worked pretty well for us and I’m glad it came off.”
Reflecting on the day as a whole, Mouat clearly felt it could have gone even better, but registered satisfaction with his team’s position in the standings at this stage.
“Playing the number one seed in the world and the Canadians as well, who are ranked pretty high as well, was always going to be a very tough day, so getting the one win was quite important for us to keep the momentum rolling and three and one after our first four games we’re pretty happy with,” he said.
“We would have loved to have beaten Gushue as well, but we never turned up as much as we have in the other three games and they had a really good game.
“It sometimes happens like that, but we’re not overly concerned at this point.”
They now have two one game days to look forward to, facing New Zealand on day three and Germany on day four.
Please click here for LIVE streaming of games on The Curling Channel.
Selected games are also available on the BBC iPlayer, BBC Scotland website and app.
31/03/2024
Scotland v Canada
Scotland v Italy
02/04/2024
Scotland v Germany
03/04/2024
Scotland v Japan
05/04/2024
Scotland v Sweden
Please click here for more event information and results.
Scotland Team
Bruce Mouat
Grant Hardie
Bobby Lammie
Hammy McMillan
Kyle Waddell (alternate)
Team Coach Michael Goodfellow
Olympic Head Coach Greg Drummond
Schedule (GMT/BST) & Results
Saturday 30 March
Session 1
Scotland – Korea 10-3
Session 2
Scotland – USA 10-3
Sunday 31 March
Session 4
Scotland – Canada 4-8
Session 5
Scotland – Italy 8-3
Monday 1 April
Session 7 – 13.00
Scotland – New Zealand
Tuesday 2 April
Session 10 – 13.00
Scotland –Germany
Wednesday 3 April
Session 12 – 08.00
Scotland – Czechia
Session 14- 18.00
Scotland –Japan
Thursday 4 April
Session 15 – 08.00
Scotland –Netherlands
Session 17 – 18.00
Scotland - Switzerland
Friday 5 April
Session 18 – 08.00
Scotland –Norway
Session 20-18.00
Scotland –Sweden
Saturday 6 April
09.00
Qualification
15.00
Semi Finals
Sunday 7 April
09.00
Bronze Medal Game
14.00
Gold Medal Game
Images: World Curling
