Coach challenges young Scots stars to build on victory

Gregor Townsend reckons the demolition job on Argentina was the best he has ever seen from a Scotland team.

And he challenged his young stars to build on the golden memory they created in Resistencia.

With just over a year to go until the World Cup in Japan, the coach believes he is amassing an extra special squad.

Townsend said: “It was as good as anything I have witnessed, maybe even better than the performance against Australia in Sydney last summer.

“On this occasion we had a much younger team – boys who have had no experience of Six Nations rugby and little experience of the pro game in general.

“So to go out there against a full-strength and fighting Argentina team and do what they did was great in terms of their confidence and execution.

“They felt as comfortable playing like that in South America as they would have done at Murrayfield. One of the goals for this tour was to show we could put a top class performance in away from home. We certainly did that.”

Townsend added: “We all wanted a response to what happened against the USA.

“They started by responding in training and carried on in the match with the way they attacked, defended and with their workrate.

“I don’t think anyone was expecting to be 30 points up at half-time and we know it will not always go like that.

“But but the guys can take a lot of confidence from the fact no matter who they are up against, they can cause them damage.”

Scrum-half George Horne, a former Bell Baxter High School pupil, led the scoring charge with two of the six tries – however it was his Glasgow team-mate Adam Hastings who pulled the strings.

Townsend said: “Obviously there are some quality players who we decided not to take on the trip.

“We wanted to give the likes of George and Adam an opportunity to show what they’ve learned – and it was probably above everyone’s expectations how well they played. George got two tries and there were a couple of line breaks from Adam.

“Stuart Hogg told me at half-time that the communication around the backline was excellent.

“There was always a balance between putting out a team who could win and giving everyone an opportunity to play.

“Most guys got two – Adam had three. We took players who we believed could be part of the World Cup squad.

“Some of them might still have to fight really hard and have a great season because they’re up against guys who are probably already pencilled into the squad for Japan.”

Apart from the half-backs, the other gamble that paid off was hooker Fraser Brown being switched to flanker.

“Every selection, you use the term ‘gamble’, we look at what is best for the team,” said Townsend.

“It fits with what we see during the week, what we know of the players and what we believe the game will go like.

“Sometimes it does not work because the game goes differently from how you thought or not as well as you hope.

“We just wanted our best players on the field and Fraser is an excellent hooker and was excellent over ball, he showed that today. He got a few balls at the tail of the line out too. He got his hands on ball.

“His back went into spasm yesterday after training, he had a fever overnight and got whacked about a few times today but still produced that outstanding performance. That is a credit to his toughness and what a good player he is.”