GREGOR TOWNSEND believes Scotland’s impressive victory over France yesterday is a sign of things to come, with the head coach optimistic his side will build on their 28-17 win at Murrayfield.
This was Scotland’s best performance of the Six Nations so far, making a France side that were going for the grand slam look ordinary.
And while Townsend has been happy with his team’s previous three matches of the tournament despite winning only one, he was particularly pleased to see Scotland maintain a performance of this level for the entire 80 minutes and he is confident they will build on this performance.
“We’ve been consistent throughout the championship, we’ve defended well and we’ve been tough to play against. In those other three games we’ve been tough to beat and we’ve learned and improved as a group," he said.
"I’ve been really encouraged right the way through the campaign.
“We showed we have been in the fight in those two defeats and it was great to see how much energy and physicality the players played with (against France). These two wins, showed the mentality and confidence to get out and find a way to win, but there’s more to come, more defensively even though we’re doing that area well."
While there was a number of outstanding individual performances yesterday, for Townsend, the most satisfying aspect of the victory was that every member of the side contributed, which is no less than is required when facing a team of France’s ability.
“What’s most pleasing is that it is a team thing,” the head coach said.
“You see Adam Hastings holding people up, you see Ali Price being physical, our outside backs – Blair Kinghorn has been outstanding in defence throughout this championship, so he has added that element to his game. Our centres work well, and obviously our forward pack was really physical against France.”
Scotland have a shortened turn-around this week, with the Wales clash in Cardiff looming large on Saturday.
There is some suggestion the match may be cancelled, with the coronavirus crisis seemingly becoming more serious by the day. But as things stand, Townsend is going on the assumption the game will go ahead as normal and with Wales losing narrowly to England on Saturday, their third defeat of this Six Nations, the hosts will be going all guns blazing to end the tournament on a high.
However, after Scotland’s performance against the French, Townsend is confident his side will cope with anything Warren Gatland’s men can throw at them.
“We hope the game will go ahead because you put a lot of work into a championship to make sure you play all the games, but the decision will obviously be made for the right reasons,” said Townsend of the suggestion of a postponement.
“We’re looking forward to playing a very good opposition who played really well on Saturday, and really well against France, and playing at one of the best venues to play rugby.
“We just have to go down there and show the fight and consistency we showed against France, but also a little bit more quality and learn from our game today to take that to another level, because we’ll have to do that next week as Wales are a very good side.”
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