Gregor Townsend and Scotland to target England’s ‘risk and reward’ defence
Gregor Townsend is confident his Scotland side can find “solutions” to the challenge of England’s new blitz defence in Saturday’s Calcutta Cup showdown at Murrayfield.
At the recent World Cup, South Africa did a comprehensive job of shutting down Finn Russell’s attacking options with Pieter-Steph du Toit particularly influential as the Scots were restricted to a miserly three points in an opening pool defeat.
The architect of that defensive masterclass was Felix Jones who, having helped to deliver successive World Cup triumphs for the Springboks, is now attempting to bring similar rigour to England’s evolution under Steve Borthwick.
If the early signs are that a new system will take a while to bed in – the red rose rearguard was breached three times by Italy, while Wales also exposed some frailties at Twickenham – Townsend believes his side learned valuable lessons from their experience against South Africa as they target a fourth successive victory over England for the first time in 52 years.
“It’s a risk and reward defence,” Scotland’s head coach said. “If you’re flying up, then you’re not going to be as connected or you’re going to leave space because you do fly up in a more narrow formation. But the reward is if your attack is switched on and making decisions quicker, you’re going to hit them behind the gainline. We’re aware of the solutions and what we have to do right to make sure we take the space that defence offers.
“There’s a general assumption that a blitz defence can intimidate an attack even if it misses tackles. England have missed a few, so do South Africa, but it is part of their strategy of being aggressive and proactive, so they’re happy to do that,” Townsend said.
“There’s a reason Steve would have gone for Felix Jones as defence coach. That style in defence gets added to what they want to do, which is be really aggressive without the ball.
“They moved the ball in the Italy game in particular more than they maybe did in the World Cup, but you know the game they’re going to play: their DNA and foundation is kicking, defence and really targeting the contact area and the set piece.”
Townsend was speaking before news emerged of England’s surprise selection of George Furbank at fullback, so maybe he will be forced into a reappraisal come Saturday, but you wouldn’t bank on it.
His record as head coach against England – four wins and a draw from six meetings – is something his predecessors could only dream about, but he was dismissive of any notion that Scotland’s
unfamiliar status as favourites could be a hindrance.
“Underdogs, favourites … it’s really irrelevant,” Townsend said. “Each time you play them it’s going to be a massive challenge. Yes, we’ve managed to have the upper hand in the last few, but they’ve all gone down to the last 10 minutes.
“You have to deliver close to your best rugby to win this fixture, so it’s going to take something like that this week. I’m sure this one will be very competitive too.”
Nowhere more so than the bunfight at the breakdown, where Townsend has restored former captain Jamie Ritchie to his back row at the expense of Matt Fagerson to help counteract the threat posed by England’s Sam Underhill and No 8 Ben Earl.
“Jamie’s one of the best in the world at jackals and we’ve got another worldclass jackler in Rory Darge,” he said. “Jamie’s a proud Scotsman and we believe this game will bring the best out of him.”
While Townsend’s hand has been strengthened by the return of fit-again full-back Blair Kinghorn and wing Kyle Steyn to his back three, he does not expect to be able to call on the livewire Darcy Graham, who missed the opening two matches with a quadriceps problem and has now suffered a groin injury, for the remainder of the championship. “Hopefully he won’t be out for long but it’s a blow,” he added.