Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend insists he does not feel let down by his players and the buck stops with him after an autumn campaign he admits will be regarded as “a disappointment” whatever happens in their final game against Tonga on Sunday.
Townsend’s side entered the Quilter Nations Series aiming to take the scalps of New Zealand, ranked No.2 in the world, or number six-ranked Argentina, or both, and lift themselves into the top six seeds ahead of next month’s draw for Rugby World Cup 27.
But after speaking before the series began about finding a ‘killer instinct’ against elite teams, they failed to maintain their momentum against the All Blacks after recovering from a 17-0 deficit to draw level after an hour, eventually going down 25-17.
On Sunday they led the Pumas 21-0 early in the second half but conceded five tries in the final 24 minutes to succumb 33-24 in front of a shocked and angry Murrayfield, with supporters voicing their frustration at the final whistle.
Asked if he felt his players were letting him down at critical moments, Townsend responded: “Not at all. We’re very much together and I’m looking at myself first. I could have done things differently during the week, could have changed things during the game.
“I was considering subs and that yellow-card period [when Blair Kinghorn was sin-binned after 54 minutes, just before the Pumas scored their first try] was a period that I felt wasn’t right to make changes. I believe in the group, I believe in the players we have and just outside the squad. I know they’re hurting. We’re hurting with them, but we know we have to be better.”
Townsend, who has led Scotland in 97 Tests since the summer of 2017, with a win record of just under 56 per cent, said he questioned himself “all the time” as part of his role, having recently extended his contract through to RWC27.
“As a group we review together, ‘How did we not win last week? How did we not win this week’,” he said. “It’s not great for anyone, our players and the coaches. We know the team we have and what we’ve shown over the last two weeks. That has to be turning into victories. That’s what we need to deliver to our supporters. So that wasn’t good enough.”
The 52-year-old, who recently began a part-time consultancy role with Red Bull alongside his Scotland job, accepted there will now be extra scrutiny around his position heading into the Six Nations, in which Scotland have twice finished third during his tenure but also had five fourth-placed finishes in the last six years and never threatened to mount a serious title challenge.
Having failed to beat either New Zealand or Argentina, he conceded this autumn campaign will be regarded “a disappointment – disappointment that we didn’t convert more opportunities against New Zealand and disappointed with how we played in that last half-hour (against Argentina), which are not the standards we set.”
Despite those successive setbacks, Townsend insisted there are still positives to be taken from the last nine days.
“Yes, absolutely,” he said. “I feel our forwards’ ball-carrying is at the best level it’s been. I think the contact work has been outstanding in the last two games and of course you look at two sides of it. “The 21-0 [lead] after 45 minutes, that’s your game functioning at the highest level. Function at the highest level, and the game is done…”
“But we have to look at the other 35, which was conceding too many points and not getting back into the game. That’s going to be a mixed review because we’ve shown what we’re capable of, but we need to do that for 80 minutes.”
Sunday’s dispiriting defeat, which saw Scotland drop to ninth in the world rankings, below Fiji, may cause Townsend to alter slightly his plan to give some players involved in their opening 85-0 rout of the USA, plus others who have yet to feature this month such as back-rowers Jamie Ritchie and Andy Onyeama-Christie, game-time against Tonga.
“We had that team in mind for next week but your forward plan is affected by player availability and performance,” he said. “But there’s a group that have prepared this team really well, that have trained at a high level, that are deserving of involvement. Some of them played against USA, some of them missed out because that game was outside the window. So, we will look at giving more players opportunities next week.”
A disastrous 21-15 home defeat by Tonga in Aberdeen in 2012 famously cost the job of former Scotland head coach Andy Robinson, who resigned the following day.
While there seems little prospect of a similar upset this time – the South Seas Islanders were thumped 60-14 on their last visit to Murrayfield in 2021, while Scotland also dispatched them 45-17 at the 2023 World Cup – Townsend admits his team need a strong response to get supporters back onside heading into the Six Nations.
“We feel very privileged that we’re living through a period where we’re getting sell-out crowds and the atmosphere at Murrayfield is one of the best in the world, like we saw last week, like we saw this week,” he added. “So the expectations are high and the supporters are right to be disappointed.
“I think it’s a big crowd next week and we want to put on a really good performance as we know the Six Nations are going to be very tough too, with the teams we’ve got coming up, so we want to make sure we finish on a positive.
“I think we have to show who we are and who we want to be and that’s an 80-minute performance based on physicality and huge effort. We have to show we’re a better team from that experience around our discipline and giving away 10 penalties. Maybe a few of them were under pressure when we were close to our line but outside of that we gave Argentina too many entries in our 22 because we just didn’t get back onside on a few occasions. So that will be the big work-on for us during the week and composure. It was a work-on already this week and it’s still going to be a work-on.”
