Scotland on the crest of a wave

GREGOR TOWNSEND insists that Scotland will go into the Six Nations on a wave of optimism after their demolition job on Australia. Running in eight tries in a 53-24 victory at Murrayfield on Saturday was the highlight of an autumn Test series that saw his side beat Samoa and push New Zealand close. Head coach Townsend said: ‘International rugby is tough but going into this Six Nations, there will be a lot of confidence and expectation. ‘Optimism is a good thing. I am generally an optimist. I think our players are, too, and we should be optimistic. ‘What we did against Australia and last week against New Zealand should be seen as part

of the process of us improving but we won’t get too carried away. ‘Wales away is our first Six Nations game. There is a bit of history against us there and how we have performed against them in the past. ‘They will ask different questions defensively and in attack than New Zealand and Australia did. ‘We know if we don’t get things right, if we are not accurate, if we don’t work hard we will lose. ‘That makes it exciting and important we keep working and trying to get better, but we will go into the tournament in decent shape.’ Townsend (pictured) believes the matches against world champions New Zealand and third-ranked Australia was perfect preparation for the Six Nations. He added: ‘There is a lot of important knowledge the players got from that 80 minutes against Australia and against New Zealand. ‘We can share that knowledge and work out what puts top teams under pressure before we go into the Six Nations, where we play other top teams. ‘It is up to us as coaches to keep working the players over the next couple of months and use the advantages we have of having so many of our players doing well in the autumn Tests to really drive everybody forward going into our first game.’ The autumn series has tested the strength of depth within Scottish rugby, with many previously unheralded players rising to the challenge and staking a claim for Six Nations involvement. Townsend has sent the players back to their clubs telling them they cannot afford to let their standards drop. ‘We have a lot of faith in not just the 31 players that have played in the autumn Tests, but everybody involved in the squad and those coming back from injury,’ he said. ‘The frustrating thing for us as a coaching group is that we don’t get a chance to work with the players again until the last week of January. ‘When I named the squad for the autumn Test series, the challenge was bigger because we didn’t know a lot about those players. ‘Darryl Marfo and Jamie Bhatti had played at club level and we thought they were two guys in form. ‘They might have lacked some experience and both were uncapped but we wanted to see how they work in our environment. ‘As it turned out, we were very impressed. Darryl, especially last week against New Zealand and in the game against Samoa, grabbed his opportunity. ‘Jamie was outstanding when he came on, especially against Australia, and really grabbed his opportunity, too.’ The Scotland head coach said the success of the new caps, including back-row forward Luke Hamilton of Leicester Tigers and Chris Harris of Newcastle Falcons, had inspired the whole squad. ‘It filtered right throughout the squad,’ added Townsend. ‘All you can ask is when you give players an opportunity, they take it. ‘As a group, we are trying to create an environment where we go out there and give everything and that is what has happened. ‘We will take real confidence from how we attacked and that way suits us. ‘We played with real pace against New Zealand and Samoa off our set-pieces. ‘Against Australia, we got that opportunity to move the ball more off quick tap penalties. ‘That’s great because it’s something we have been working on. Our work rate off the ball was also great. ‘It wasn’t always accurate and there are still ways to improve our attack but it was very positive.’ Townsend had to cope with the loss of Stuart Hogg shortly before kick-off, although the absence of the talismanic full-back did little to halt the team’s momentum. ‘Stuart had to limit his training on Tuesday,’ said Townsend. ‘He fell to the ground when he took the ball in the air against New Zealand and hurt his backside. ‘That had been bothering him but he was fine for the vast majority of our sessions on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. ‘But he kicked the ball in the warm-up and felt something wrong in his hip flexor and went back to get it strapped up. ‘He came back and said he was not good. We gave him five minutes to run it off. He tried another kick and then the decision was made. ‘We hope it is something short term. It is probably unlikely he would play for Glasgow next week anyway given he has played two Test matches, but we don’t think it is major.’