Townsend stays tight-lipped on future
Gregor Townsend, the Scotland head coach, would not be drawn about his future after the team failed to qualify for the World Cup knockout stages for only the second time.
Their first competitive defeat by Japan means Scotland have failed to qualify from the group stage for the second time in three tournaments. Townsend insisted Scotland could harness this failure in the future, but did not specify whether he would be the coach to lead their recovery.
“There’s a lot more in this team,” Townsend said. “Experiences are what make you as a group and how you react to those experiences. It was a unique situation we were in and we always knew it was going to be a challenge, given our turnaround [playing four days after their victory over Russia]. But we had the team and we had the ability at the start of the game to go on and win it by the necessary amount of points.
“That we didn’t was hugely disappointing. We have to learn from that – and we’ve got to improve as we get to the next tournament, the Six Nations.”
Scotland fought back in the second half through tries from WP Nel and Zander Fagerson, but ultimately left themselves too much to do, with Townsend highlighting the tries they conceded either side of half-time as the killer blows.
“Two tries from our perspective were soft – both from our possession, one from a 22 restart and another one the ball was ripped out,” Townsend said. “That happened either side of half-time and that made it difficult for the result we were looking for. The players put a huge effort into the next 10-15 minutes and, with 58 minutes gone, we were only seven points behind. But we did not do enough to get the win.”