HARSH TRUTHS
Townsend gives his Scots failures a dressing-down
GREGOR TOWNSEND gave his players ‘what they deserved’ in a dressing-room dressingdown following their woeful display in the 27-3 defeat to Ireland.
With fans hoping Scotland could lay down a marker in the World Cup opener, Townsend’s side instead coughed up early tries to hand Ireland the initiative and give them a winning platform from which they never looked back.
With all of his key men under-performing, the Scotland coach now has key decisions to make before next week’s encounter with a Samoan side buoyed by the prospect of facing such misfiring opposition.
‘We got what we deserved in the changing room from Gregor,’ said back-row Ryan Wilson.
‘We are disappointed in ourselves. He can see that. He knows we know we did not do well enough out there.
‘He was measured about it. He knows how disappointed we will be. The coaching staff will feel the same way. We are the ones who get to go out there and do the job on the field and it must be hard to watch.
‘We can put that right, so we have plenty to do this week in training to fix a few things. But we still have a good chance in this pool to win the next three games.’
Wilson admitted his side never recovered from their poor start against an Irish side who were
12-0 up after just 13 minutes. ‘We have to start better, simple as that,’ he said. ‘I have no theory why it happens but mistake after mistake occurs. We win a set-piece then fumble the ball back in our half and we put ourselves under too much pressure. ‘We’ve got to play in the right areas but it is easily fixed. We were playing a bloody good team in Ireland and they showed that. They played the conditions well and controlled the game well — and we didn’t. ‘We will be all right. We know now we have to win every game. We have to bounce back. We just have to stay positive and we have a big test up next against Samoa, who are a team we can play our brand of rugby against but we can come out on top.’ Townsend said he would be bringing his players together to try to establish why they continue to lose early tries. Scotland have conceded the first try in seven consecutive games against Tier One teams. ‘We didn’t start with the energy, accuracy or aggression required to beat a team like Ireland,’ said the Scotland head coach. ‘They started very well and took their chances when they got into our 22. They’re one of the best teams in world rugby and if you give them a 15 to 20-point start, it’s going to be very difficult to come back. ‘They just convert mistakes into territory and points.’ Townsend, when asked why his side seem to lack energy or aggression early on, replied: ‘That’s what we are asking each other. The energy wasn’t as high as it has to be to beat a team like Ireland. ‘Whether that wasn’t there in the warm-up or a few players hadn’t played in a few weeks and didn’t have it, we just missed the start of that game, which was very disappointing.’