Scotland bounced back from crushing disappointment to end France’s Grand Slam hopes two years ago, and can do it again at Murrayfield in two week’s time, vowed Gregor Townsend.
The French are the only team left who can win the Grand Slam after they defeated Ireland in Paris on Saturday night. Scotland’s hopes and their Triple Crown chances evaporated in a desperately disappointing loss to Wales in Cardiff.
The Scots lost their first two games of the 2020 championship but rebounded to beat France, who were three games into a potential Grand Slam that year. The teams meet at BT Murrayfield on February 26.
‘We’ve done it in the past’
“We’ve done it in the past,” said Townsend. “We’ve lost opening games and games in the middle of the Six Nations and come back.
“We know the challenge. We’ll be playing against a team that has improved a lot since the last time we played them so we’ll have to be much better.
“We have two weeks to improve, although it’ll really be one week for us as we don’t have the players in camp like other nations. But the determination will be there to improve.
“The obvious emotion from this game for us is disappointment. You only get five games in the Six Nations. Obviously our loss today wasn’t good enough.
“There wasn’t a huge number of differences between the two performances (so far). We played better against England than we did today but we didn’t play at our best.
“There were big moments in the second half where we didn’t excecute as we intended or the referee gave penalties to the opposition. We didn’t control the second half. When we went ahead on the scoreboard we needed to kick on and we weren’t able to do that.”
‘We gave them too easy avenues’
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— Guinness Six Nations (@SixNationsRugby) February 12, 2022
Captain Stuart Hogg felt the Scots gave Wales too many easy ways into the game.
“We’re bitterly disappointed and frustrated,” he said. “At times we will be beaten by better sides when things don’t go our way, but I think we gave them too easy avenues into the game today.
“Cheap field position, cheap penalties, cheap knock-ons. Stuff that we didn’t quite work hard enough to get into good positions for.
“At times in the past, we’ve been in games and let them slip, and unfortunately that was another one.”
Sione Tuipulotu had a decent game for his first Six Nations start but was left as frustrated as anyone.
“Hoggy hit the nail on the head in the dressing room, we need to bounce back against France and still have a chance in this championship,” he said. “It was a tough one to take today and we’re gutted.
“There’s still a long way to go in the championship and we still look forward to our next game.”
‘I got a bit emotional at this journey’
The ex-Australian U20s player is pencilled in for a first Six Nations start with Scotland.#Scotland #GuinnessSixNations #WALvSCO
https://t.co/FyXPmELsh6— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) February 10, 2022
The Australian-born centre’s father Fohe was in the crowd, and Tuipulotu admitted to some emotion at the start of the game.
“My old man was in the crowd with some of my family, and it meant a lot to me,” he said. “I’ve been living away from my family for six months and that’s been really tough for me.
“I found myself getting a bit emotional to get my first start in the Six Nations and the journey I’ve been on. I was so happy that my dad was here to experience it. He’ll be here for the whole Six Nations now, he’s on a bit of a world tour.”
Scotland lost Matt Fagerson to a foot injury during the game, but his status going forward is as yet unclear.
