​Belief in Scotland’s Six Nations title chances never higher, says forwards coach John Dalziel

It​’s been not far short of 30 years since the Scots last won the championship, in its final Five Nations incarnation in 1999, with their current head coach Gregor Townsend as a member of their squad, and Dalziel reckons it’s high time they put those decades as also-rans behind them by “doing something special”.

Scotland go into the penultimate round of 2026’s championship in second place, only four points behind table-toppers France, their next opponents this coming weekend, and the 49-year-old, forwards coach for the national team since 2020, is confident that’s a gap they can bridge.

A bonus-point win at home to the French this Saturday, with kick-off at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium at 2.10pm, could lift Townsend’s team into top spot no matter how results go elsewhere and Dalziel believes that sort of momentum swing would set his country up as genuine title-contenders.

Talking after Tuesday’s training session, he said: “It’s everything, isn’t it?

“When we came in here, it was a seven-week block together – it’s now down to two and we’ve given ourselves an opportunity to be in this position where we are.

“We’ve got to really relish every minute we are together for the next two weeks, and it starts on Saturday.

“Our sights are only on that and we want to give our supporters the game of the tournament so far.

"The belief has honestly never been higher.

“They can get the championship wrapped up this weekend if we’re not in the game, so we want to make sure we’re going into the last round with a chance of still doing something special.”

Scotland have won five of their 13 games against France since former Gala back Townsend, 52, took over as their head coach in 2017, coming out on top in four of their seven matches at Murrayfield in that time and only denied a fifth victory by a last-gasp Sam Skinner try two years ago being controversially chalked off, leaving them 20-16 down at full-time and handing Fabien Galthie’s visitors their second of three wins on the bounce.

“We chatted about that this morning,” said Dalziel.

“We’ve got good history there, but we’ve been on the wrong side of it as well with narrow defeats.

“Test match rugby can turn around a decision, which we had two years ago here, and we’ve just got to get the performance and make sure that we are ready to go and be competitive, but it’s evidence that we can be there with France, as formidable as they are, at the tail end of a test match.

“We can be there banging at the door, and we got on the wrong side of that decision. It was a tough decision – it could have been given differently – but it is what it is.

“The belief comes from how competitive we’ve been with them, and we believe that when we’ve got our game right, we can challenge them.”

Dalziel isn’t underestimating the size of the challenge his team face going up against a side with a 100% record so far this tournament, though.

“In terms of the Six Nations, in terms of their form the last couple of years, there’s not a bigger challenge,” said the Borderer.

“They are a bit of a juggernaut at the moment and they’re coming with everything to gain at the weekend as well.

“We’re just basically making sure that we’re really happy with where we are and we’ve got to have the game of our tournament so far to make sure we get the win.

“They just have such a vast amount of players and what they are able to do is pick the lads on form. It’s a really strong squad. They’ve got great strength in depth, as have we.

“We know what we need from our game to arrive well at the weekend and give them a match, so now we’re really looking forward to the challenge.”

The Borders’ two-strong representation of Townsend and Dalziel among Scotland’s coaching staff is matched by the region’s contribution to a playing squad of 41 for the tournament, consisting of Hawick’s Darcy Graham and Rory Sutherland.

Graham, 28, has played in all three of the senior squad’s games so far but loosehead prop Sutherland, 33, hasn’t been selected for any, though he was given a start for Scotland A’s 24-24 draw away to an Italian XV in Rieti in Lazio on Friday, February 6.

Graham’s try-scoring contribution to the Scots’ 26-23 win away to Wales in Cardiff on Saturday, February 21, replacing fellow Edinburgh winger Duhan van der Merwe on 54 minutes, was his third of this Six Nations, having taken over from full-back Tom Jordan on 69 minutes during the Scots’ 31-20 Calcutta Cup win against England at Murrayfield seven days earlier, following on from a half-hour shift during their 18-15 opening-round loss away to Italy a week before that as a substitute for left-winger Jamie Dobie.