Townsend hopes Red Arrows can get Scots flying

Gregor Townsend hopes his learning sessions with the Red Arrows can help Scotland make a flying start when they resume international rugby action.

The Scotland head coach and his backroom staff had a video meeting with the RAF’s aerobatic display team three days before the pilots played a key role in the UK’s VE Day celebrations.

Townsend and his team have had regular online sessions with a number of other management and coaching teams in a bid to share ideas and get an extra edge for when sport returns.

“After the first couple of weeks, we had reviewed the entire Six Nations with our coaches and players,” said Townsend, whose team’s summer tour to South Africa and New Zealand has been postponed.

“After we went into lockdown, our analyst said how about we have a takeaway Tuesday, we invite someone in and get to share that learning.

“We have had people from teaching, coaching education, rugby league, rugby union, hockey.

“We’ve spoken to people in football. We spoke to the

Belgian coaches, Roberto Martinez and his staff.

“We’ve also spoken to people in rugby, but probably the most fascinating one was the Red Arrows. We got to speak to two of their team of nine, one of them being their leader.

“It was three days before they flew over London and we just couldn’t believe they gave up their time to discuss how they put together their performances, how they review it. There were a few things we took from that we could apply in our sport.”

Townsend and his fellow coaches will have more time to enhance their knowledge after World Rugby announced all July internationals had been called off. Scotland had been due to take on South Africa twice before playing the All Blacks away.

Gregor Townsend