We should have won for Doddie, says Townsend

SCOTLAND head coach Gregor Townsend could not hide his frustration after his side gifted the Doddie Weir Cup to Wales. Townsend felt his team had done enough to win the inaugural trophy but was unhappy at some basic mistakes from his players as well as at least one TMO decision. He called into question a decision by French referee Mathieu Raynal to rule out a touchdown from Peter Horne. Townsend admitted he had left Cardiff’s Principality Stadium with a heavy heart, partly because of the manner of the loss but also because he wanted to win the trophy named after his close friend (pictured with Welsh captain Alun Wyn Jones) who is fighting Motor Neurone Disease. ‘We lost by 11 points but had two tries disallowed,’ said Townsend. ‘That was a game in which we had enough of the

game in terms of pressure and territory to win.

‘It would have been so good to win the Doddie Weir trophy. I looked up a couple of times and he was on the big screen and the reaction he got from the supporters was tremendous.

‘We really wanted to win that game, the match and the trophy. The way we kept going at the Welsh in the second half gave us a chance. Yes, we didn’t get the points, but we were doing all we could to win.’

Townsend said he thought Peter Horne had scored from a chip over the top from his brother George and was surprised that the French referee had ruled it out on advice from TMO Rowan Kitt from England for not grounding the ball.

‘I thought he did (touch it down) and it was a hard one to take at the time. With his reaction and the ball being underneath his body, I did think it was going to be awarded but obviously it wasn’t,’ said the Scotland head coach.

‘In the case of the second try, that was disallowed by Jonny Gray, he was a couple of inches short of the try line. We did not get the try and we even got a penalty given against us.

‘They used to call it whiteline fever, didn’t they? The ref and TMO got that one right but it was very tough for us to take when we were an inch away.’

Townsend was critical of the way centre Huw Jones had defended after slipping off tackles in the build-up to both Welsh tries.

‘Huw put his hands up to the players in the changing room,’ he said. ‘These were big mistakes in the game.

‘He is a player who works really hard in training. I thought he attacked well, but if you are defending at this level you have to put your tackles in.’

On a more positive note, Townsend said he had no new injury worries after the game. And the head coach felt fly-half Adam Hastings, who started amid much hope and fanfare, had come on to a decent game after a slow start.

‘He was much better in the second half,’ said the Scotland head coach. ‘He got back his confidence and into the way he has been playing for his club.

‘He put in some excellent kicks and got involved a lot in the second half.’