Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend has urged his players to build on their agonising near miss against England at Allianz Stadium. The Calcutta Cup was seized from Scottish hands through a 16-15 defeat that would have ended differently had Finn Russell nailed a last-gasp conversion close to the touchline.
It was a cruel conclusion given their control of the game, with their key shortcoming the failure to score the points that reflected their dominance, especially in a high-octane opening quarter. Scotland close out a Guinness Six Nations that now has two defeats with clashes against Wales and France and Townsend wants them to finish with a flourish.
“It won’t be too difficult to lift the players because we asked them to show who we are as a team against England,” Townsend said. “I believe we did that, both in attack and defence and in the effort that’s required to play for Scotland. “A lot of what we worked on and what we showed, we’ve got to bring that out in the next two games – and they will be tough challenges.
“I watched a lot of the Wales game against Ireland, they played very well so we know we’ll have to build on what we did against England. “There’s Paris, which will be a very tough game against France. But how we played away from home against England shows that we can create opportunities and score tries against a very good defence.”.
Scotland were aiming for an unprecedented fifth successive win in the fixture and won the try count 3-1 with Ben White, Huw Jones and Duhan van der Merwe crossing. But even with man of the match Van der Merwe crossing in the 79h minute, it was not enough.
“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. But we’re not. And that’s credit to England for staying out in front at the end,” Townsend said.
“We felt confident as a coaching group that we were going to get a very good performance out of the players. And it probably surpasses, performance-wise, what we’ve done here the last two or three times. “Normally when you have that amount of pressure to score points, you get more on the board, so that’s a work on.
“I’m so proud of the group for the effort and skill they showed at the end of a game. They did all they could to retain the Calcutta Cup.”. Jones was replaced in the 65th minute because of an Achilles problem while Rory Sutherland, who was a late withdrawal from the bench at Twickenham, is to undergo a scan for a back problem.
