Scottish confidence vindicated by win over England
LONDON: None of the Scotland squad was alive last time their country triumphed against England at Twickenham but coach Gregor Townsend, who was 9 at the time of that 1983 win, said they travelled south full of belief that this could be their year.
That confidence was fully vindicated yesterday by an 116 win where the scoreline did not remotely reflect the Scots’ dominance against the defending Six Nations champion, which barely fired a shot in an empty, rainswept stadium.
‘‘I came down a number of times as player and coach and got nothing so this is up there as one of our bestever results, said Townsend, the former British and Irish Lions first fiveeighth.
‘‘We had a good feeling in the camp and we were outstanding in really tricky conditions today. To win against a very good side with that record is a fantastic achievement.
‘‘It wasn’t just one way of playing — there was a lot of variety in the way we played so there were leaders right through that team today,’’ he said.
One of them was fullback Stuart Hogg, through his captaincy and his play, which was of the highest order in every aspect. Hogg said the team remained calm from start to finish and his leadership played a big role in that.
‘‘We believed we could win and we kept that to ourselves,’’ he said. ‘‘I thought we were in control the whole game. I’m a proud Scotsman and we truly believed we could win and to have done it is an unbelievable thing.
‘‘[First fiveeighth] Finn [Russell] brought a calmness about the way we played and the way we spoke to each other we were positive in the way we were going.
‘‘Even with Finn in the sinbin we were calm and we executed in the second half and we’re chuffed to bits with it.’’
The only try came in the first half, via winger Duhan van der Merwe.
Although England closed to 86 down at the break, it was unable to build on that, as Russell slotted another penalty, and England never threatened the try that could have snatched what would have been the most unjust of victories.
Earlier, France made the perfect start to its Six Nations title bid, scoring seven tries in a crushing 5010 bonus point victory over a youthful Italy in Rome.
The visiting side raced into a 21point lead by halftime after Antoine Dupont set up converted tries from Dylan Cretin, Gael Fickou and Arthur Vincent in Rome.
The onslaught did not relent after the break as Brice Dulin and Dupont each crossed the whitewash, while Teddy Thomas scored tries either side of Luca Sperandio’s consolation effort to consign Italy to a 28th consecutive tournament defeat.
The huge victory further underlined the titlewinning credentials of France, which finished as runnerup last year, while the inexperience of an Italian team featuring 11 players with fewer than 10 caps was exposed. — Reuters/AP