DAVID SOLE

As we enter a new year, and hopes of a return to normality increase, thoughts begin to turn to a new Six Nations championship – despite last year’s tournament only being completed a couple of months ago.

Scotland coach, Gregor Townsend, will be seeing in the New Year slightly more comfortably now, having signed an extension to his contract that takes him through to the Rugby World Cup in 2023.

The jury is still out in many quarters as to whether that contract extension is fully justified.

While his team defeated Wales – who seem to be on a downward spiral – in the final game of the Championship, results since then haven’t been great.

Coupled with the rather unsavoury – and very public – spat between the coach and his star player, Finn Russell, early in 2020, one has to wonder if Townsend is the fully-finished article and if he deserves another two years.

Leaving aside the issue of whether Vern Cotter should have been given the opportunity to take Scotland to the 2019 Rugby World Cup or not, there aren’t any Scottish coaches who could immediately step into the role.

So, in many respects, Townsend isn’t under very much pressure.

Of course, few countries have coaches of their own heritage nowadays, so that is less of an issue.

Learning from mistakes is a sign of real leadership maturity

But of all the foreign coaches to work with Scotland, Cotter seemed to get the best out of his players.

So the man from Gala is at the helm for the next two years, and there is little point debating whether he should be replaced.

The real question is, what does he have to do to justify that contract extension.

He has already demonstrated that he can get his players to adapt their style of rugby.

Scotland have gone from a team that played attractive and exciting, attacking rugby, toone that is defensively-focused and hard to break down.

It has been quite a shift, but the two should not be mutually exclusive.

Defence should be the first priority – along with some other basics, such as a solid set-piece – and Scotland have achieved that under Pieter de Villiers.

Now they need to rediscover how to bring some attacking flair to their game, something they have lost sight of recently.

Finn Russell is key to that. So the relationship between Russell and the coach needs to truly be repaired.

Both parties say that is the case, but only time will tell.

Accepting and learning from mistakes is a sign of real leadership maturity.

If both Townsend and Russell can do that, and demonstrate it in the way that Scotland play in 2021 and beyond, then there will be no doubt that the coach is the right man for the job – till 2023 and maybe even beyond.