REGRETS? I HAVE A FEW

Toony frustrated at finishing fourth as Scots could have gone for glory but Dublin fight shows he may get encore

IRELAND .... 17 SCOTLAND .... 13 DAVID BARNES AT THE AVIVA STADIUM

GREGOR TOWNSEND admits his overriding emotion was of frustration after scotland had to settle for a fourth-place finish in a six nations campaign in which they could easily have challenged for the title.

The head coach won’t admit it publicly but he will also feel a sense of relief his team produced their most committed 80-minute performance of the campaign in their last outing against Ireland on Saturday to dampen calls for a new man at the helm.

It wasn’t enough to secure a first win at the Aviva Stadium since 1998 but certainly pointed to some progress having been made since Scotland’s humbling 36-14 defeat to the same opposition at last autumn’s World Cup.

“The two games that were the biggest missed opportunities were France – although we still believe that was a try we scored at the end of the game – and Italy, which was an under-performance in the third quarter,” he said.

“We put everything in to win the game against Ireland this weekend and we were still chasing a win at the end.

“A lot of teams have gone to the Aviva and not got close to Ireland so I’m proud of the way we finished the championship – but when you have three close defeats, you’ll feel it’s one that got away.

“So, frustration would be the overriding feeling but there was a lot of pride about how we played in a tough final game.

“We went into this Six Nations on the back of a painful defeat against Ireland at the World Cup and a lot of what we’ve worked on since that game was about making sure we’d improved by the last game of the championship, specifically around our gameplan, our mindset and the edge we can bring with our physicality. We’ve played five games and we’ve either won it or we’ve come within a score.

“That shows the competitiveness of the team.”

While Scotland’s heroic defensive effort in Dublin is worthy of praise, it is a concern that they can’t seem to play at that level week in and week out.

Until they get past the inconsistency which has haunted them throughout Townsend’s seven-year tenure.

But the head coach insisted that this habit of blowing hot and cold is not a problem which is exclusive to Scotland.

Toony said: “Mental errors, whether it’s a lack of focus or someone not recovering well after a mistake – that’s sport.

“It happens to the best teams. I’m sure Ireland will be disappointed with how they did things against England last week. And England would have been disappointed with how they played against us.

“Look at today and how mentally strong we were.

“Errors will happen, skill or focus errors, it’s about how you recover from them that’s key. Against Italy we didn’t recover quickly enough but today we did.

“There will be bumps in the road but today was evidence we’re going in the right direction.”

Next up for Townsend and Scotland is this summer’s tour, where they will play four Test matches during July against tier two opposition in the shape of Canada, USA, Chile and Uruguay.

And Townsend indicated that he plans to use that expedition to grow the depth of the squad, while giving some senior players who have played back-to-back seasons with just a few breaks due to the World Cup a rest.

He said: “We’ll take a bigger squad but when we go to South America for the second two games, we’ll drop down to nearer 30.

“There will be some players who have not featured in this Six Nations squad who go on tour. We’ll look at every individual and what’s right for them.

“We’ve got four Tests in the autumn, we’ve got Six Nations and some of them will hopefully be going to Australia with the Lions, so that will be factored in when we put pick the squad.”