A damp squib, but victory key

● Gritty win against Argentina helps build momentum ahead of Six Nations campaign ● Scotland coach already looking ahead to the Italy fixture and picking his best XV

defeats ending in a bit of a damp squib, coach Gregor Townsend assessed the upcoming challenges of 2019.

In the past it was always felt that the evenly numbered years, when England and France were played at home, gave the Scots the best chance to do well in the championship, with the Grand Slams of 1984 and 1990 coming with such a fixture sequence.

Nowadays, the oddly numbered years, which see the visits of vastly improved Welsh and Irish sides and the bonus extra home fixture against Italy, are viewed as the better opportunity for the Scots to push for more than wooden spoon battles which have mercifully been avoided in the past three campaigns.

Getting off to a losing start has often put the Scots on the back foot but a rare chance to start the championship at home to Italy, a fixture which has by no means been a guarantee of victory down the years but is better than any alternative, gives Townsend’s men a chance to get off to a positive start.

“To do well in the Six Nations, you need momentum, you need wins early,” said the coach, pictured below “We have an opportunity, playing at home rather than away. But we know Italy are going to be really strong. For 60 minutes against us in Rome [in March], they were the much better team. And I’m sure they’ll lean on what they did that day, which was make really powerful carries. “Both of their pro sides are playing much better, both are tough to beat. And Italy will be tough to beat. Momentum is an interesting thing. We’ve got to build our momentum through the Six Nations, with how we prepare, what team we select for that first game – that will have a huge bearing on how we gain momentum in that tournament.” With the November

0 Sean Maitland dives over for the only try in Scotland’s win over Argentina. The quick thinking of Stuart Hogg and Greig Laidlaw that led to

series over, Townsend releases his players back to their clubs and begins the planning process for what will be the biggest 12 months of his coaching career.

“It’s back to watching a lot of rugby, watching our players, making sure they’re hearing from us in terms of what we believe will help them get into the Scotland team come the end of January, February,” said Townsend.

“And planning and learning as a coaching group on what we’ve experienced these past five weeks. It’s not just on the games, it’s what we did at training, what could we have done better to put a better performance out on the field. It’s been great we won this [Argentina] game, great that we got through this period having had, I don’t know how many, it’ll be over 30 players playing international rugby, a bit more

depth, competition, creating a bit more depth,

“Rotating the players with the goal of getting them through healthy, which has happened. Now I’m sure there will be a few injuries between now and the Six Nations but, if we get a bit of luck, those players that are coming through from injury are available before the Six Nations and we can select from a strong squad.”

Townsend was reluctant to set any targets for a Six Nations which will be fiercely contested by a number of teams coming off the back of successful autumns.

“We know it’s going to be very tough but we believe we have a squad that can take on anybody,” said the coach. “That’s within the Six Nations and outwith the Six Nations, whether South Africa come here, Australia come here,

GREGOR TOWNSEND 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.”

For all the positive results which have been racked up by this Scotland team in the past few years, it is actually the two home defeats of the past year which, potentially, have given the best indications of how close the national team are to competing with the very best – and the work that needs to be done to make that extra push.

“I think it was a big step forward against South Africa with the pack they had and the pack we had,” said Townsend. “We did have some injuries around the back-row. I thought the players did an outstanding job. We had enough opportunities to grab with our attack, we just didn’t take them that day, but in terms of a setpiece and forward performance that was excellent.

“That was a very good mark-

“It’s back to watching a lot of rugby, making sureplayersarehearing from us in terms of what we believe will help them get into the Scotland team come January, February”