Defeat will sting for a while, says Townsend

GREGOR TOWNSEND last night admitted that Scotland simply weren’t good enough following a second-half collapse against

South Africa.

The Scots led 10-8 at half-time at BT Murrayfield, but fell apart thereafter as the world champions ran out comfortable winners.

A try from winger Makazole Mapimpi, his second of the game, early in the second half helped restore Springbok authority — and they never looked back.

Scotland simply had no answer, as some woeful ill-discipline allowed the visitors to keep the scoreboard ticking over with a series of penalties.

The Boks also battered Scotland up front, with their scrum and lineout dominant throughout most of the match.

Asked about what aspect of the performance had most frustrated him, Townsend replied: ‘The second half. In the first half the team performed well with so little ball. We were getting penalised and had to go through a lot of defensive sets but did very well.

‘We were unlucky a couple of times. We turned the ball over and there was a knock-on, so we had to go through another few sets.

‘But tactically, I thought the players were very smart in how they kicked and attacked with ball in hand. We weren’t accurate enough in the first half but we did put the Springboks under pressure, which was enough to go ahead at half-time.

‘The second half was really disappointing in that we gave them a quick way into the game, by kicking the ball through a ruck at the restart and that put us under pressure. We had to work hard to get back into the game and we didn’t have enough ball to do that.

‘I was so proud of the way the team got into a good position to kick-on, but unfortunately it wasn’t us who kicked on in that last 15 minutes.

‘The last 15 minutes were disappointing — it is not who we are or what we are as a team.’

Townsend admitted the defeat will sting for a while, with Japan next up at Murrayfield as Scotland complete their Autumn fixtures next weekend.

Determined to bounce back, though, the head coach added: ‘I think we have to take the defeat on board and use the disappointment we’re all feeling in the changing room, and which I’m sure the supporters feel, and learn from it.

‘We’ll play South Africa again in two years’ time (in the World Cup). We’ll play other teams similar to them, we have to be better for that experience.

‘You also learn from the opposition. They are the world champions for a reason so anything we can take out of that to make us a better team, we’ll take on board.

‘Obviously the defeat will stick for a while because we didn’t put our best performance out there.

‘We felt our best performance would get us a win — so that will hurt for a few days.’