6N England v Scotland reaction: Gregor Townsend upbeat in defeat
Yesterday at 04:05 PM
FOR a man who had just watched his team lose a game they had done more than enough to win (meaning they’d had to hand back the Calcutta Cup to their oldest and fiercest enemy for the first time in five years), Gregor Townsend was in a fairly positive mood when he met the press as the dust settled on a pulsating contest at Twickenham.
“A lot went right as well,” he retorted, when asked what went wrong to lose a match in which his team had commanded 58 percent possession and 59 percent possession. “We scored three tries to one, so to get that possession and amount of yards I’m sure would have meant a lot in the game. They were the positives, and the negatives or the work-ons were partly us, but also England, I thought they defended really well in their 22.
“They kept their discipline. Often when you get in the 22 you manage to get a penalty from offside, we didn’t get that. And I thought they were really strong close to the ruck. So credit goes to them. We know we can be better when we’ve got those opportunities and we tend to convert chances that we have.
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“I think the way the players trained this week and came together and owned the game plan, it was a really good training week,” he continued. “We felt confident as a coaching group that we were going to get a very good performance out of the players today. And it probably surpasses, performance-wise, what we’ve done here the last two or three years [times].
“Normally when you have that amount of pressure and opportunities to score points, you get more on the board. So that’s a work-on, but three tries to one and the way that on two occasions we came back to potentially win the game: one, obviously with a try, but even at the end … I’m so proud of the group for that effort and that skill at the end of a game.
“They did all they could to retain the Calcutta, but it was probably down to England’s defence and also them kicking their penalties when they got them in the second half.”
When pressed on whether Scotland can feel hard done by after some key refereeing decisions went against his team, Townsend tried to be diplomatic but couldn’t quite fully disguise his frustration.
“I’m going to go through the game two or three times to see whether we could have got better decisions,” said the coach. “I did feel that the decision that counted against us for the winning three points, where we cleared someone out of the ruck, I just don’t know how that’s a penalty. We’ve moved someone off the ruck and they’re two feet off the ground and there was no moving legs above the horizontal. That was an interesting call for us to end up going six points behind.
“I thought the referee did well. It was a very good game to watch, which would mean that the referee's had a big part to play in that. Sometimes you’re going to get those decisions and sometimes you’re not.
“I had a quick look just to remind myself where the penalties were coming from [in the second half when Scotland were penalised nine times]. I think they were different areas. I think there were a couple of set-piece. I think there was one jump and collision there, maybe a couple of scrum and a couple around the tackle area.
“That gave England chances to get three points, sometimes from far out. So that’s frustrating when you feel you’ve not had to withstand any pressure but you’re three or six points worse off on the scoreboard.
“So yes, in part it’s England’s pressure. They had more ball in that second half and I thought they got gain-line a couple of times through their big carriers. They’re a very good team so that would be an area that we definitely have to improve.
“We look at ourselves first of all and how we could have got more penalties out of England when we had a maul going forward, when we got in their 22. And also how we could have scored one, two, three more tries, which would have been a huge achievement coming down here. But that’s what we probably should be looking to do with the chances we had.
When asked about whether he had any complaints about England’s try, which didn’t appear to be clearly grounded from various video angles, Townsend said: “I didn’t really look at it, I heard the [other] coaches say it wasn’t grounded, but I was on to the next thing which was a kick-off.”
There is no Six Nations rugby this coming weekend, then a Wales team buoyed by a very encouraging performance against Ireland under new interim coach Matt Sherratt arrive at Murrayfield for round four of the championship, before the campaign wraps up with trip to Paris to take on France the following Saturday. Scotland’s title aspirations may be gone for another year, but Townsend insisted there is still plenty to play for.
“I think it will be not too difficult [to lift the player] because we asked them to show who we are as a team today and I believe we did that. Both in attack and defence and the effort that’s required to play for Scotland. So a lot of what we worked on and what we showed today, we’ve got to bring that out in the next two games and there will be tough challenges.
“I watched a lot of the Wales game today, they played very well, and we know we’ll have to build on what we did today. Then there’s Paris, which will be a very tough game against France. But how we played today away from home shows that we can create opportunities and score tries against a very good defence.”
“We were very close to getting a historic win and whether it was a kick or another decision at the end of the game, we’d be talking about a brilliant win. We’re not. And that’s credit to England for staying out in front at the end.
There were no new significant injury concerns after the game, with How Jones taken off in the second half as a precaution and the back spasms which forced Rory Sutherland to drop off the bench prior to kick-off (replaced by Jamie Bhatti) not thought to be too serious.
“Huw just had his Achilles tightening up so that was a decision to bring him off,” Townsend explained. “Any other decisions were tactical.
“Rory’s hoping to be available for Wales but it was a back spasm on Wednesday that hasn’t got better. So we’ll make sure we get a scan just to rule out any disc issues. I thought Jamie did well when he came on. So we know we’ve got experience in that area. Nathan McBeth came down yesterday and was added to our squad so we’ve got good cover at loose-head if Rory does miss out against Wales.”
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The post 6N England v Scotland reaction: Gregor Townsend upbeat in defeat appeared first on Scottish Rugby News from The Offside Line.
