The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Scots inspiration from this 22-year French connection
It may be almost a different age, but there is something maybe Scotland can glean from 1999 as they attempt to win in Paris tomorrow 22 years on, suggests Gregor Townsend.
The current head coach was the fulcrum of the team that won 36-22 that gloriously sunny day, the first time they’d played at the Stade de France. After the wins at Twickenham and in Wales in the last six months, it’s the last lengthy Scottish saga of woe to be expunged.
“I remember we were awful for the first two to three minutes, me especially,” admitted Townsend. “I shanked a kick and Thomas Castaignede cut us apart on an 80-metre run.
“But then we woke up and got into a flow state, as they call it in sports psychology, where everybody seemed to be connected with each other and wanted the ball and we moved it with great accuracy.
“We played some amazing rugby for a 20 or 30-minute period and after that it was a pretty dull second half, just 3-0.
“It was one of those amazing games where everything just comes right.”
There is a correlation between then and now, he suggested.
“The fact that 1999 was the last game of the season was very important to that happening,” he recalled. “We’d built a lot of connections. I remember the training that week, the players were leading it and we felt really confident and cohesive.
“So, having the last game of the season should help us now. I know it’s been a different type of season for us, but we can now throw everything out there that we’ve worked on this year.
“The confidence that we got from the Italy game last week should help us to approach this game.”
The other connection is that the day after, the Scots were willing Wales to beat England to give them the championship – and it duly happened.
The return favour is not owed after 22 years – Welsh wins over Scotland this year and particularly the nightmare of 2010 surely paid that debt – but the Welsh will be on Scotland’s side tomorrow.
“I’m sure they’ll be cheering us on as we were cheering them on 22 years ago,” said Townsend. “We have a couple of Welsh members of staff and they’ve been getting some messages.”
In the meantime, Townsend had restored Finn Russell, Ali Price, Chris Harris and George Turner to the team after all missed the win over Italy.
As for the restrictions imposed on his selection, his attitude is that it could have been a lot worse.
“It’s much more satisfactory than I thought it was going to be on Saturday when none of our players were going to be available,” he said.
“We were (looking at) putting together a team of home-based players plus Finn.
“I’m glad that we did get a resolution that players would be available.
“Not all of them, as you can probably tell, but most of them.
“It’s disappointing for players like Sean Maitland and others.
“It’s disappointing for Jonny Gray and others who pick up an injury and aren’t able to play in this game.
“But the focus is on the 23 who are playing, who are ready for this massive challenge. We won’t touch on it as motivation.
“There are so many other things this week – our last game together; a chance to finish in our highest position in the Six Nations; to spoil France’s party; to get an away win.
“The group feel really disappointed for those who couldn’t get selected this week.
“But like players who get injured, you move on with the group that’s here. We’ll work together to deliver our best rugby that we can.”
France may be ready to have a go at Scotland, knowing that a bonuspoint win is needed to unseat Wales as champions. Scotland need to have an eight-point margin of victory to finish second for the first time in Six Nations play.
“I think we’ll fight fire with fire,” said Townsend. “I think that’s what we have to do, whether that’s a physical battle or a game that gets the ball moving.
“If France are moving the ball, we’ve got to make sure that we are forcing errors from them.
“If they continue with what they have been doing, which is a really patient game with real balance, we have to be smart as well.
“We’ll be happy either way they play.
“If it’s more kicking then we’ve got more decisions to make around counterattack and if it is moving the ball wide then we back our defence to force some errors.
“We know that France need a bonus point and to beat us by 21 points or more.
“That’s a big challenge for them and we need to make sure that they get nowhere near that.”
Scotland are more prepared for the psychological challenge of making a third big away from home breakthrough, believes the coach.
“We’ve shown a real competitiveness the last two seasons in this tournament. We’ve either won games or we’ve been within a score of winning games.
“We obviously want to turn those narrow losses into wins.
“We’re very disappointed not to have done that against Wales.
“Maybe our performance didn’t deserve that against Ireland. But the players know that they can stay in the fight and they can create opportunities to win games.
“But they do understand that it is going to be a huge challenge.
“To get what they need, France might have to play their best ever rugby we’ve seen, so we’ve got to be up for that.”
SCOTLAND: Stuart Hogg (Exeter Chiefs, capt); Darcy Graham (Edinburgh), Chris Harris (Gloucester), Sam Johnson (Glasgow Warriors), Duhan van der Merwe (Edinburgh); Finn Russell (Racing 92), Ali Price (Glasgow Warriors); Rory Sutherland (Edinburgh), George Turner (Glasgow Warriors), Zander Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors); Sam Skinner (Exeter Chiefs), Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh); Jamie Ritchie (Edinburgh), Hamish Watson (Edinburgh), Matt Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors).
Replacements: David Cherry (Edinburgh), Oli Kebble (Glasgow Warriors), Simon Berghan (Edinburgh), Alex Craig (Gloucester), Nick Haining (Edinburgh), Scott Steele (Harlequins), Adam Hastings (Glasgow Warriors), Huw Jones (Glasgow Warriors).