Scotland didn’t get close to their best rugby in beating England 20-17, said head coach Gregor Townsend, but he was proud of the team’s resilience in tough conditions at Murrayfield.
“This team have done really well in this fixture,” he said. “We’ve had the Calcutta Cup four times out of the last five now.
“It’s been a game we not just get up but one where we deliver close to our best rugby. We didn’t get close to our best rugby today, but the standards we’ve set are much higher than a few years ago.
“Obviously it’s great for our team, but we’re on a five game journey here. We know it’s just the first game.
“For our people, we know it means the world to them. I remember in 2000 when we lost every game in the championship, winning the last against England made the season, made people’s years rather than if we’d won three of four games that season.
“We know how much this means to our supporters and the whole nation, so we start with a win for them, but we have four more games. If we want to deliver something special we’ve got to play really well in Wales next week.”
‘We’ve been able to absorb pressure’
History 🏆🏆
Scotland earn back-to-back Calcutta Cup victories for the first time since 1984!#AsOne pic.twitter.com/gPuuiwtFAP
— Scottish Rugby (@Scotlandteam) February 5, 2022
Captain Stuart Hogg admitted it had been a rearguard effort, but he said the Scots were confident in defence – they missed just six tackles out of a total of 140.
“The biggest thing for us is that we’ve been able to absorb pressure for a long time,” he said. “In the last minutes it was flipping that on its head and applying pressure.
“I think we did exactly that. I don’t think England got through multiple phases very often and we managed to stand firm. I don’t think there were very many penalties against us and that’s something we can be chuffed to bits about.”
The move and Finn Russell cross-kicks that led to the penalty try – an absolute no-doubter – were “heads-up rugby”.
“Our set-piece starter didn’t quite go according to plan. But we managed to adapt on the move and get on with it,” he said.
“It was two absolutely perfect kicks from Finn. One led to a line-bender and then a penalty try with the other.
“That was spot-on for us. It’s something that Finn likes to try and do to keep everybody guessing. He executed it to perfection.”
Down 17-10 with less than 20 minutes left, Hogg said the behind-the-post huddle had been calm.
“We just had to stay in the moment,” he said. “We had backed up error on error, which was a bit frustrating. It gave them easy field position and easy avenues into the game.
“Fair play to England – they managed to create a score. But it was all stuff that we could control.
“The message was to stay in every moment and maximise everything we did. I felt we regrouped really well.”