Gregor Townsend backed "outstanding goal-kicker" Finn Russell to remain in the role following his trio of costly conversion misses during Scotland's agonising 16-15 Six Nations defeat to England. Co-captain Russell squandered a last-gasp kick for victory at Allianz Stadium after Duhan van der Merwe's dramatic try put the Scots on the brink of extending their four-year stranglehold on the Calcutta Cup.
The influential fly-half also failed to add the extras to first-half scores from Ben White and Huw Jones on an evening when the visitors paid a heavy price for not capitalising on their early dominance. Head coach Townsend insisted he will not be taking the kicking tee from Russell after his side's championship title hopes effectively ended in the wake of the nail-biting finale.
"No, I don't think so," he said. "Finn is and was an outstanding goal-kicker. He was last season and they were tough kicks today.". As the Twickenham crowd held its breath, Russell, who has so often been the architect of England's downfall, fired wide of the left post in the final minute.
Scotland dominated the statistics across the contest but led only 10-6 at the end of an impressive first half before their quest for an unprecedented fifth successive win in this fixture fell short. "Normally when you have that amount of pressure on occasions to score points, you get more on the board, so that's a work on," said Townsend.
"They (the players) did all they could to retain the cup, but it was probably down to England's defence and also them kicking their penalties when they got them in the second half.". With a win and a defeat apiece from the opening two rounds of the tournament, the rivals came into a pivotal contest each requiring victory to remain in title contention.
Eight points from Marcus Smith and a long-range Fin Smith penalty ultimately settled the contest in the hosts' favour, while there were question marks over the grounding of Tommy Freeman's try, which came between the scores from Scotland pair White and Jones.
"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," Townsend said of Freeman's effort. "I'm going to go through the game two or three times to see whether we could have got better decisions.
"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.". A fortnight after the thrilling 26-25 victory over France, England overcame a dismal opening period to finally savour redemption against the 'Auld Enemy'.
Head coach Steve Borthwick, whose side face Italy and Wales next month, said: "I was delighted in the last two games that the endings have gone our way and the team worked exceptionally hard for that. "In many ways it wasn't pretty and there was things we'd obviously want to do differently, do better, but ultimately they found a way to win the game.".
