Townsend is building a team to take on the world
ALIMITLESS horizon is stretched out before the most exciting Scotland team of the professional era.
Without pretending that reaching their hoped-for destination is as simple as continuing to put one foot in front of the other, following their very own yellow-brick road towards Six Nations joy and beyond, obstacles that once seemed insurmountable don’t look half so daunting these days.
It genuinely is difficult to recall a time of such widespread confidence in the country’s first XV. Plus replacements. And back-ups to the back-ups.
A pack who have just pulverised the Wallabies, even allowing for the visitors spending 41 minutes down to 14 men, most definitely deserve the respect of even the most arrogant rivals.
And a back division capable of scoring eight tries without the presence of Stuart Hogg, the most exciting strike runner in the northern hemisphere, should cause the world to sit up and take note.
Weld those two units together, as Gregor Townsend so clearly has, and you have an example of ambition, ability, attention to detail and a dash of straight-up brilliance being brought together in just the right proportions.
Oh and, on top of all those technical and tactical changes, the Scotland head coach has done something else to this squad. Something almost as important.
‘Optimism is a good thing,’ said Townsend in the aftermath of Saturday’s record-breaking victory over Australia, demonstrating once again a willingness to embrace the pressure of taking his nation to that mythical next level so often talked about but rarely defined. He has changed the mood.
In keeping with the philosophy of a man intent on building a palace atop Vern Cotter’s painstakingly-laid foundations, let’s put some parameters on what progress should look like.
The 2018 Six Nations will boast five teams from inside the top eight of rugby’s world rankings, with only Italy outside — a long way outside — that group. It will be a brutal tournament, as ever.
But Scotland deserve to be considered genuine challengers. With England and France at home, a configuration of fixtures that always used to raise our expectations, there’s no reason to aim low.
A colleague who always puts a pound on our boys to win the Championship got odds of 100-1 when placing his bet just before the recent narrow loss to New Zealand.
He checked afterwards and, unsurprisingly, the price on a Scottish triumph had been cut — just a little — to a still generous 66-1.
Last night, purely in the interests of research, the best offer your Sportsmail team could locate was a measly 11-1. With a first Scottish Grand Slam since 1990 considered no more outlandish a possibility than a 25-1 shot.
England and Ireland are still favourites, the former actually odds-on. But we’re part of the conversation again. What was once unthinkable is now judged, by men of flinty heart and a professionally miserable outlook, to be merely unlikely. There’s no point in looking beyond the Six Nations. Little to be gained from pointing out that, having come so close to the Rugby World Cup semi-finals in 2015, we might get there in 2019.
But there was one element of Scotland’s performance on Saturday that was so surprising, so distinctly unlike anything we’ve witnessed for many a long year now, that it’s impossible not to get just a bit carried away.
Watching them absolutely demolish opponents rightly reduced in number for an offence that would be a red card in any sport, up to and including cage fighting, there was a realisation that this is what the big teams in world rugby do. They press home their advantage. Kill the game off. Expose the gaps in opposition ranks. Bury them.
It’s what the Aussies would have done to us in a heartbeat. It was a little bit All Blacks-esque. Almost English, if you don’t mind the comparison with our hugely successful — and admirably ruthless — rivals next door.
From this Scotland team, there is no mercy, no sympathy, no hint of letting the other guy get up from the floor.
Now, they won’t always be served up the kind of opportunity they were on Saturday.
But let’s not lose sight of one fact when discussing a red card that even Aussie head coach Michael Cheika didn’t claim as a turning point.
Sekope Kepu threw his shoulder into the head of Hamish Watson because he was fed up of getting cleaned out at the breakdown by the Scotland openside (inset), one of three or four contenders for man-of-thematch honours on Saturday.
Watson and skipper John Barclay took Michael Hooper apart piece by frustrating piece in the collision area, getting to the ball first — and refusing to budge.
That’s why the prop lost the plot. Whether or not he meant to dislocate Watson’s head from his shoulders, Kepu was definitely trying to intimidate — at best — a player who was causing chaos in the Aussie ranks.
The Scots love it when the game gets unstructured, of course. Always have, always will. Against teams who like a more organised brand of chaos, it will be interesting to see how they impose their anarchic will.
What is no longer in doubt is that Scotland now boast ample supplies of raw talent. Both within the camp and out there looking for a way to break in. Townsend has openly challenged his players to go back to their clubs and prepare for even greater battles — internal and external — in the months ahead.
First, he wants to see fierce competition for spots in that Six Nations squad. Do you think he’ll get a response? Just a bit.
Everyone wants to be part of this. Every rugby pro in the land — and a few eligible candidates yet to surface overseas — is desperate to leap aboard the express train bound for Gloryville.
Next stop Cardiff on Saturday, February 3. A staging post en route to greatness? Could be. Could very well be.