TIME TO REACH NEW LEVEL
Townsend sure Scots have tools to thrive in Six Nations
TWO long months must be endured before Gregor Townsend can enjoy a proper working reunion with his Scotland players.
If the nature of Saturday’s stultifying win over Argentina will hardly keep the head coach buzzing with adrenaline and enthusiasm for the duration, at least he won’t be short of material for those long dark nights of introspection that befall an international head coach betwixt the end of November and the cavalry charge towards another Six Nations.
That Championship, the second with Townsend at the helm, is already shaping up to be one of the best ever. It has certainly been given added significance by its proximity to the World Cup in Japan next October.
For a Scotland side who must face Kiwi-conquering Ireland, the always cocky Welsh and the unpredictable Italians at BT Murrayfield, as well as facing both England and France away, this Six Nations promises much in the way of drama.
If, as Townsend suggests, it is also guaranteed to be tougher than ever because of rising standards across the northern hemisphere, that has to be a good thing, right?
The former Glasgow Warriors head coach, reflecting on a four-game autumn series that saw the Scots bullied out of the contest in Wales, rebound well against Fiji, fall just short at home to South Africa and then somehow steal a closing win at the weekend, understands the scale of the challenge.
‘You expect me to answer that?’ he asked, with a grin, in response to an inquiry about Scotland’s realistic aspirations come the Championship kick-off at home to Italy on February 2.
‘We know it’s going to be very tough and we believe we have a squad that can take on anybody.
‘That’s within the Six Nations and outwith the Six Nations, whether South Africa come here, Australia come here, New Zealand over the past 12 months — to teams that we’ve played in the Six Nations like England and France.
‘We know we have to do better away from home within the Six Nations. We’ve got Paris and London, two very tough venues, but we’ve got to make sure that, over the five games, we play as close to our potential as possible.’
As to whether Scotland will be ready to go toe-to-toe with the monstrous muscle brought to every contest by the biggest hitters, specifically the Irish, French and English, Townsend insisted: ‘I don’t see any reason why we’re not at that level. ‘If you saw the South Africa game, there was so much that we did well up front; the set-piece defence, whether at scrum or line-out maul, our own maul itself, the defence around the South African carrying. You’re not going to get a bigger pack playing us than South Africa. ‘We’ve still got to impose our game on those teams. We didn’t do it enough against South Africa. ‘We were very competitive up front but we didn’t play enough of the rugby. We know we put them under pressure and that was a learning curve for us. ‘I think it was a big step forward against South Africa with the pack they had and the pack we had.
‘We had enough opportunities to grab with our attack, we just didn’t take them that day, but in terms of a set-piece and forward performance that was excellent.
‘That was a very good marker for us to say we play Italy, we play England, we play France, all the teams that have huge packs. We need a South Africa performance, plus our own game getting imposed on the opposition.’
Scotland did a lot of the gritty stuff well enough on Saturday. Unfortunately, both sides forgot that rugby is also a game of skill.
In difficult conditions, on a slick pitch and with a ball as slippery as a politician asked a straight question about Brexit, neither side could see beyond the obvious tactic of hoofing the ball on top of the opposition and looking for a mistake. Of which there were plenty.
The bold move to play Adam Hastings at stand-off with Finn Russell beside him at inside-centre did not work, as even Townsend seemed to admit. His talk of trying it again at some point made it sound like an idea being kicked into the very long grass for now.
Why? Because, while Hastings got on the ball a fair bit, Russell effectively became the most skilled — and expensive — decoy runner in world rugby for the 61 minutes they played together.
You don’t ask Eric Clapton to play rhythm guitar. And you don’t take Russell one step further away from the playmaking decisions.
Had Argentina been able to convert the three most kickable of their four penalties missed, they would have won.
But they didn’t. And Scotland
punished them with the only try of the game, a genuine piece of heads-up rugby involving Stuart Hogg spotting a defensive hole, screaming for Greig Laidlaw to give him the ball — and then sending Sean Maitland over for his fifth try in the past seven tests.
Defensively, Scotland can be proud of not having their try line breached, always managing to force a mistake out of Argentina at even the most promising moments for Los Pumas.
But their line-out was ragged, the scrum was penalised under pressure, while the breakdown was again a problem area.
It’s important to remember, of course, that Townsend made nine changes from the matchday 23 who had faced the Springboks seven days earlier.
Assuming he will be less prone to experiment come the Six Nations, we’ve seen enough to suggest that the strongest XV will compete well. And put on a much better show.