Townsend planning to tap into his Lions’ inside knowledge to help defeat England

GREGOR TOWNSEND will turn to his eight British and Irish Lions for a unique lowdown into the strengths and weaknesses of England’s top players ahead of the Six Nations opener at BT Murrayfield a week on Saturday. The Scotland head coach believes his men on the tour to South Africa — Stuart Hogg, Finn Russell, Rory Sutherland, Duhan van der Merwe, Chris Harris, Ali Price, Hamish Watson and Zander Fagerson — will have garnered a special insight into the habits of the 11-strong English contingent from their time touring together last summer.

Of course, Townsend (below) realises it will work the other way as well, with the English players fully clued up on the talents of the Scots and the methods employed by their coach. Even so, he will still call on his own pride of Lions for advice when they meet up for a Six Nations training camp near Edinburgh tomorrow.

Townsend, who has his own inside knowledge of the dangers lying in wait after being part of Warren Gatland’s backroom team in South Africa along with Scotland defence coach Steve Tandy and analyst Gavin Vaughan, said: ‘Myself, Steve and Gav will have knowledge. There are insights to be learned from working with the English players but what is more important is our players’ insight into working and training with them.

‘They maybe picked up things from being in their company regarding what a player likes to do or doesn’t like to do. It means our Lions players can talk with even more knowledge in our meetings as we had eight on the tour. They may know the best way to move this player this way or that and how to deal with him.

‘Having eight Scottish Lions should help in our preparation and I think it would certainly help their confidence ahead of the game against England as they have been on a Lions tour and done well.’

Townsend is delighted he has managed to convince the dual-qualified duo of Saracens back row Andy Christie and London Irish scrum-half Ben White to play for Scotland. In the latter’s case, he was picked by Eddie Jones to play for England in an uncapped international against the Barbarians two years ago but hasn’t featured since.

‘If there is a player we feel can help us, I think it’s important that these connections happen over a long time,’ said the Scotland head coach.

‘We try to connect with them first, give them feedback on the games, get to know them as people and show them that we are interested.

‘Then, when it comes to selection, it’s about following that up to say they are getting closer to the squad. The responses we’ve had from Ben and Andy, who has not been involved with us before, is that they are delighted to be involved.

‘I also think we have some good ambassadors with Scottish players in England who can talk about our environment and how they’ve enjoyed it, how playing international rugby for Scotland is one of the best things you can do in your life.

‘Sam Skinner talked about his first cap as being the best day of his life. Others who have been in the environment and maybe not played, have gone away knowing they want to come back and do all they can to make the 23, so that’s a positive.

‘Maybe players based in England like the way Scotland play rugby. It is rugby that suits them, suits their strengths. Ultimately, it is their decision and we are just delighted that we have players like Ben and Andy.’

Townsend expects an open game in the Calcutta Cup clash, with both sides playing entertaining rugby provided the weather holds in Edinburgh.

He said: ‘I hope the weather is a lot better than it was two years ago, and even last year it wasn’t too good down at Twickenham when we won. I hope it is a game of movement as that is how we want to play. If the opposition want to play that way too, great. The team that is more skilful, makes the right decisions and finishes off opportunities will win.

‘If the game becomes a contrast in styles we have to adapt to that and impose our game. England opened up their game a lot more in November and they will be confident having

2022 SIX NATIONS CHAMPIONSHIP February 5-March 19

those wins, especially the one against South Africa, under their belt going into the Six Nations.

‘They have some exciting players and there is Marcus Smith at ten, so they have real quality. They will have an exciting back division whoever they put out.’

Townsend expects the loosening of Covid restrictions to make it easier for his team to meet their families between matches but made it clear they would be taking all precautions.

‘The whole squad will meet on Monday and we have a two-day training camp after that,’ he said. ‘We won’t do much on Monday. We will train on Tuesday and Wednesday and they’ll go back to their clubs at the weekend, whether that’s Edinburgh and Glasgow or in England or France.

‘We can’t retain players from outside Scotland and I think there are 15 of them in our squad, so there are no bubbles.

‘We just follow the rules of the country which, pleasingly, seem to be getting more relaxed.

‘It will be similar to how we ran the last two campaigns, which is that we test for Covid three or four times a week.

‘The minimum is three but we will probably do four.

‘We will wear masks in public areas and make sure families are testing, too. We want to minimise the risk of infection.’