ALL ROADS NOW LEAD TO ROME FOR SCOTS

After Calcutta Cup woe, trip to Italy could decide Townsend fate

The time to judge Gregor Townsend is against Italy in Rome. Certainly not after such a dog’s dinner of a Calcutta Cup match.

The only thing we learned from this game was that england coped better with the atrocious conditions. And that Stuart hogg has now made two howlers in as many weeks that had a huge bearing on Scotland losing both times.

Rome will be different. Lose and the storm clouds will gather over Townsend as quickly as they did over BT Murrayfield on Saturday evening.

The revelations from Finn Russell that he ‘does not have a relationship’ with Townsend and is unlikely to play under him again adds to the pressure on the Scotland head coach.

It is an ultimatum from Russell to the SRU that it is ‘him or me’. Defeat to Italy and it will be easier for the powers-that-be to end Townsend’s tenure at the conclusion of the Six Nations and welcome back their star playmaker with open arms.

You just hope if that happens, Russell likes the next coach that bit better.

Sportsmail understands the Scotland squad is split over the Russell affair. The older ones who know Russell from his time at Glasgow Warriors, such as his former flat-mate Ali Price, speak to him regularly — and back him.

The younger ones who don’t know him that well, or had never even met him until he refused to stop drinking at the Scotland team hotel, feel he is acting petulantly and that he disrespected the rest of the players by breaching team protocol. They back Townsend.

Such a division within a Scotland Six Nations squad has never been seen before and the last thing Townsend needs heading into the final three matches, away against Italy, at home to France and away to Wales is factions appearing.

The Scotland head coach appears to have been totally blind-sided by Russell’s decision to air his grievances in a Sunday newspaper interview.

After the defeat to england, the Scotland coach had spoken of the possibility of Russell returning to the squad for the trip to Rome. he talked of holding further conversations with his absent No 10. That seems increasingly unlikely now.

What is certain is how important the forthcoming match is for Townsend’s immediate future.

‘We have two weeks in the buildup to the Italy game and most of our players will be playing club rugby next week,’ said Townsend.

‘We can manage the players who play in Scotland. Finn, like Stuart hogg, will potentially be playing for their clubs and we can see where we are after that.

‘I have been excited about Rory hutchinson covering ten at training and we have two good tens with us (Adam hastings and

Duncan Weir), so there’s good depth there.

‘If Adam and Finn are in the squad for Italy, it is a real positive that over the next few years we could have two excellent tens who, hopefully, can only get better and better competing for that position.

‘Someone like Rory hutchinson, with his ability, when the game is broken up and when he steps in at training, we will create more depth than I have ever seen in that position.’

Townsend went out of his way to talk up hastings and scrum-half Price for their displays in the defeat to england, which was surprising given their struggles in the shocking conditions.

‘I thought both our half-backs against england and last week against Ireland played well,’ he said. ‘especially in the second half, Adam realised when to kick and what type of kick to make. he was very good.

‘Of all the errors we made, you would think the nine and ten would have made a dozen but I can only count two or three.’

It may have been the case that his half-backs kept their error count down but you would run out of fingers and toes trying to count the number of mistakes made by the Scotland forwards.

Great things were expected of the back row made up of hamish Watson, Jamie Ritchie and Magnus Bradbury. As a unit, regardless of the poor conditions which were the same for both teams, they were posted missing and made too many handling errors. The Scotland line-out also struggled but at least they had the excuse of the punishing wind.

The times Scotland looked dangerous in attack were few and far between. A great break from hogg, who turned england centre Jonathan Joseph inside out before finding touch with a clever kick along the ground, was one. Another was when Blair Kinghorn came off his wing to run up the middle of the pitch. And a Rory Sutherland charge at least had the fans off their seats.

Other than that, the talking point surrounded hogg’s match-defining error.

It was the second time in a week that the Scotland captain had fumbled over the line. This time, it was in defence as he carried the ball over his own line and was lucky the TMO judged his belly and part of his hand had landed on some of the ball and ruled he had grounded it.

From the england put-in at the scrum from in front of the Scotland posts, their forwards won the ball and helped replacement ellis Genge over the line for the vital winning try. Up until that 68th-minute score, the turgid affair was level at 3-3 after penalties.

Owen Farrell’s conversion of Genge’s touchdown and a penalty three minutes from time made the game safe for england. A hastings penalty a minute later secured Scotland a losing bonus point.

All roads now lead to Rome. Winger Darcy Graham missed the first two matches with a hamstring injury but is likely to be back in the mix for selection. Grant Gilchrist could come into the second row and hutchinson could replace huw Jones in the centre.

‘Conditions will be very different in Rome, you would like to think, and we have to prepare for them,’ said Townsend.

Once again, those preparations will be without Scotland’s best player. The result in the Italian capital will go a long way to determining how much longer that situation continues.