Townsend’s evolution is validated by famous win

➤ Scotland have fulfilled their coach’s mission to make them tough to beat with a display of guts and resilience in Paris rain

This remarkable win confirmed the evolution of Gregor Townsend’s Scotland from showboating show ponies, through defensive obsessives to a relentlessly self-confident side against whom few teams will relish playing.

In the past 12 months Scotland have claimed their first win at Twickenham for 38 years, in Wales for 18 years and in Paris for 22 years.

It is a measure of how far Scotland have come that captain Stuart Hogg’s first comments post-match were about what could have been. The one-point Wales loss particularly hurt. Even Ireland, who were the better side at Murrayfield, won 75 per cent of Scotland’s line-outs and still won by only three points.

In Paris, Scotland proved they have fulfilled Townsend’s mission of being tough to beat, of staying in the fight until the bitter end.

They did so by playing with the same tactical sophistication they deployed at Twickenham, as they counteracted a power imbalance up front by applying pressure, by monopolising possession, by kicking judiciously for field position, and by tempting Fabien Galtie’s men to run it back in the rain.

But equally it was about guts and the sort of work ethic that eventually overwhelmed a France side who arrived as Championship hopefuls, but left distraught.

Not that this performance was perfect: at times Scotland displayed rank indiscipline under pressure. Yet they ground on relentlessly in search of the win.

“I’m so proud of the team,” Townsend said. “They came here with a bit of adversity with not our full squad, an injury to one of our starters on Wednesday, a yellow card, a red card.

“We had to come back against a very good side, but they showed courage, effort, togetherness, and skill to win. A great end to a really promising season for us.

“Even though we finished fourth, it feels like one of our best-ever seasons with the victories we’ve had this year and the performances, tonight especially.

“That’s now been the last two years we’ve been competitive in every game. We’ve grown a lot this year, grown a lot this campaign, and we’ve got to continue to grow over the next few years.”

Townsend should take a bow himself. His tactics were spot on: talk all week about playing it fast, loose and open, but then play it tight and focused.

It certainly worked for the first 30 minutes. Scotland played the conditions expertly, kicking for territory, keeping the ball, frustrated a more powerful pack, dominating the breakdown and playing at tempo.

Over-eager France, needing to win by 21 points to claim the title, committed a succession of handling errors which kept ceding possession and helped Scotland take a 10-3 lead after 25 minutes.

It was, however, a recurrence of the Scotland lapses in discipline, which they showed against Wales and Ireland, which let France back into the game. An avoidable Ali Price penalty for not playing quickly enough from a scrum and then immediately afterwards a penalty that gave France a line-out in Scotland’s 22 were the precursors to a torrid period of French pressure.

That led to a yellow card for Hogg seconds before half-time as Scotland were penalised 11 times in the first half, six times in succession in the last 10 minutes.

It was a horror show period which allowed France to score two tries and take an 18-10 lead before Hogg reappeared. Yet this is a resilient Scotland team.

After half-time there were no penalties for 25 minutes, and as soon as they were back to 15 men the discipline was iron-hard. The precision returned. It was an incredible volte-face: suddenly Scotland looked like the foxes, France like the rabbits. Hamish Watson, in particular, was immense, but he was certainly not alone.

Scotland’s mental toughness was extraordinary. First they dragged themselves back into the game, only to fall behind, yet still they believed, still they stuck to the script.

Even when Finn Russell was shown a red card, even when they had a late penalty which would have meant they left with a draw, they went for the win.

When it came deep into injury time, despite them finishing fourth in the table, it proved beyond all doubt that Scotland are no longer there to make up the numbers.