Answers sought after Scots flop

WORLD CUP: Townsend left to ponder demoralising opening defeat by Ireland

Gregor Townsend believes his squad can rebound from their abject display in the opening Rugby World Cup game with Ireland but the head coach admitted they were searching for answers to why the Scots flopped so badly on their opening night.

Townsend and his management team had spoken about peaking for the opening game against Ireland in Yokohama but were two tries down after just 12 minutes and 19-3 down at half-time on their way to a demoralising and comprehensive 27-3 defeat.

“We didn’t start with the energy, accuracy or aggression required to beat a team like Ireland,” said Townsend.

“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’ve got a template we all know about.

“If you do give them chances in your third of the field they often take them.

“How can we start with the necessary energy or aggression, that’s what we’re asking each other. The energy wasn’t as high as it needed to be to beat a team like Ireland.

“Whether it wasn’t there in the warm-up or because a few players hadn’t played in two to three weeks, we just missed the start of that game which was very disappointing.”

Townsend refuted the idea that the Scots habitually run into these difficulties, particularly away from home, when asked about other disappointing examples.

“I would say there are examples of us starting well in games,” he said.

“If you go back a number of years you can look at anything really. Today we missed that first 20 minutes and credit to Ireland they started really well and got points on the board.

“Now we need to win our next three games, but whatever the result was today we needed to do that.

“We have to bounce back and play a lot better against Samoa, then carry that into Russia and especially Japan who have started the tournament well.

“Now the World Cup has just begun and we have to play much, much better in our next three games if we’re going to make it out of our pool.

“But I believe in this squad to bounce back and be much better against Samoa in eight days’ time.”

Hamish Watson’s future in the tournament seems bleak after he was caught in a pincer clearout by Irish props Cian Healy and Tadgh Furlong and had to be stretchered off with a knee injury

“We will be hopefully getting more information tonight with a scan. We have always presumed that there will be people who will miss the World Cup after each game that we play, but let’s hope that’s not the case with Hamish.

“The good news is that Jamie Ritchie will be available for our next game after returning to full training, while I thought Fraser Brown did a great job when he came on too.

“Magnus (Bradbury) is obviously still here in Japan. We held on to him just in case we didn’t have any luck with injuries this weekend.

“If Hamish was to miss out then Magnus would be the obvious choice to replace him.”

Picture: Getty Images. Scotland full-back Stuart Hogg shows his frustration as Andrew Conway goes in for Ireland’s fourth try.