Gregor Townsend’s wait for first win against Irish as Scottish national rugby team head coach goes on after 32-18 home defeat
Gregor Townsend’s wait for his first win against Ireland as the Scottish national rugby team’s head coach goes on following a 32-18 defeat at home at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium on Sunday.
That was the Scots’ 11th loss to the Irish on the bounce since their last victory against them, by 27-22 at Murrayfield in February 2017, three months prior to the Borderer taking charge, and with the hosts’ hopes having been as high as they’ve ever been over those eight winless years, he regards it as a chance left to go begging.
“We know it’s a missed opportunity,” said the 51-year-old afterwards. “Every game that you lose playing for Scotland is a missed opportunity.”
Scotland’s chances of bucking their losing trend against the Irish, ranked second in the world, were dealt a blow by a 21st-minute clash of heads that ruled out both co-captain and fly-half Finn Russell and right-winger Darcy Graham for the rest of the game, but having next weekend off ahead of a trip to London to take on England, 26-25 victors at home to France on Saturday, might well work in their favour due to the extra recovery time it affords.
Ex-Gala stalwart Townsend is confident Russell will be available for selection then, having passed a head-injury assessment on Sunday, but will have to wait to see how Hawick’s Graham, taken off the pitch on a stretcher on a buggy wearing a head-brace en route to hospital, gets on.
“We have to wait two weeks now for our next opponent, which will be a very tough game,” he said afterwards.
“When you’re 17-0 down, when things haven’t gone well for you and you’ve had to make changes, you do fear that the opposition could build on that, but I was really proud of the way we came back at the end of the first half and then how we got line-breaks and we got in behind and forced penalties.
“I felt we were getting back into the game, getting to within six points, and then you look at the error off the kick-off – that just gives the momentum back – but up to that stage, we were building back into the game.
“Once they scored another try, it was very tough to get ahead again.
“Obviously, they’ve beaten us again, so they’re a quality side.
“We didn’t play well enough. We made a few errors in that first 20 minutes – a couple of handling errors and the penalty that led to a yellow card. It put us under unnecessary pressure.
“We just didn’t do enough to get ahead on the scoreboard.
“Credit goes to Ireland. They are a quality side. They have been for a number of years and they showed it again today.
“I think we have to praise Ireland for what they’ve done structurally over the last few years. They’ve been in the top two or top three of world rugby for a while now, sometimes No 1, often No 2.
“They’re going for something unprecedented this year, a third Six Nations title in a row. No team have done that.
“What they’re doing is producing results and quality performances. We, unfortunately, came up against them during this period and have not managed to get ahead on the scoreboard at the end.
“The defeats we’ve had against Ireland have shaped who we are as well. It’s changed a little bit how we play and that’s been transferred to other performances. It didn’t transfer well enough today but you’ve got to take the learnings out of your game.
“No one’s more disappointed than me that we weren’t able to go two from two today. We weren’t able to beat Ireland, but they deserved to win. The better team won.
“We’ve lost to the No 2 team in the world, who are going for the third title. I think it would have been a massive shock – they were clear favourites – but we believed we could win and we worked hard towards a win.”
Looking ahead to the Scots’ away-day at Twickenham Stadium on Saturday, February 22, with kick-off at 4.45pm, as they target a fifth win on the spin against the English, Townsend added: “Playing our next opponent was always going to be difficult.
“We don’t have a brilliant record down there. It’s a very tough place to play, but we do have a very good record recently.
“They’ve just come off the back of winning a great game against France. We know how difficult each game in the Six Nations is.
“We’ve got to play much better next time to have a chance of bouncing back with a victory.”
Scotland’s tries were scored by Duhan van der Merwe and Ben White, with Blair Kinghorn kicking a conversion and two penalties.
Touching down for interim head coach Simon Easterby’s visitors were Calvin Nash, Caelan Doris, James Lowe and Jack Conan, with Sam Prendergast adding three conversions and two penalties.
The weekend’s round-two results leave Ireland at the top of the Six Nations table on ten points, with Scotland fourth on five and their next opponents, head coach Steve Borthwick’s England, third on six.
Graham, 27, was one of two fellow Borderers in Townsend’s starting XV, with the other, ex-Hawick and Gala loosehead prop Rory Sutherland playing for 48 minutes for his 39th cap before making way for Pierre Schoeman. Graham is now on 44 caps.
Ex-Southern Knights flanker Rory Darge was also among the Scots’ starters, playing for the full 80 minutes, as co-captain for the first 21 and sole skipper for the rest, for his 27th cap.