Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Townsend will keep it focused
GREGOR Townsend is refusing to get carried away despite seeing his Scotland side shake off their Cardiff calamity to beat France.
The Dark Blues responded i n t he best possible fashion to their painful opening-day defeat against Wales.
They edged out France 32-26 at Murrayfield to fire themselves back i n the NatWest 6 Nations reckoning. But the Scots head coach knows that renewed sense of optimism could easily be wiped out again when England come calling in a fortnight’s time.
“It’s one game,” said Townsend. “Nobody was asking me if we could win the Championship l ast week.
“We are playing arguably the best team in the world over the l ast two years, given the number of games they’ve won.
“We will put them under pressure and see what happens.”
Townsend’s team trailed France 20-14 at the break but with the French fading and their discipline slipping, former skipper Greig Laidlaw — back in a Dark Blues starting XV for the first time in a year — guided Scotland home as he nailed all eight of his attempts at the posts.
Townsend heaped praise on Laidlaw for the control he showed when Scotland needed it most.
“He played well,” he said of the scrum-half, who even switched to fly-half when Finn Russell was replaced with 15 minutes left. “We wanted to keep Greig on the field so he could keep leading and kicking well.”