Scotland need to go up a gear to be in with hope of beating France or Ireland in rugby’s Six Nations, says head coach Townsend

Scotland rugby head coach Gregor Townsend ahead of their 35-7 win versus Wales in Edinburgh on Saturday (Photo: Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

The Scots’ 35-7 bonus-point victory at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium on Saturday – the first time they’ve won their opening two fixtures of the championship since its Five Nations days in 1996 – leaves them level with Ireland at the top of the Six Nations standings on ten points from two matches.

They touched down five tries, four in the second half after going into the interval 13-7 up. Kyle Steyn got two and George Turner, Matt Fagerson and Blair Kinghorn scored one each, with Finn Russell converting two and also kicking two penalties.

Their visitors’ try was scored by Ken Owens, with Dan Biggar converting.

A trip to France is next up for Scotland on Sunday, February 26, followed by a visit from Ireland on Sunday, March 12, both 3pm kick-offs.

Following the previous weekend’s 29-23 victory against England at London’s Twickenham Stadium, ex-Gala and Border Reivers star Townsend, asked if their Welsh win felt like a statement result, said: “No, it feels like an improved performance. It did not feel like that at half-time, but the second half was improved.

“If it was a seven out of ten last week, it has moved up to an eight out of ten, and we will have to improve again.

“The next two teams we play are ranked one and two in the world and we have to get up to nine out of ten to beat them.

“The internal focus was on playing better than we did last week. We did in the end do that but there is more to come from the group.”

Scotland have won three of their last five games against France – by 27-23 in 2021’s Six Nations and 28-17 in 2020’s and by 17-14 in a 2019 Rugby World Cup warm-up game – but they lost 36-17 last time out in 2022’s Six Nations.

They’ve not beaten Ireland since 2017’s Six Nations, however – two tries by Hawick’s Stuart Hogg and another by ex-Selkirk and Hawick centre Alex Dunbar, along with three conversions and two penalties from Jedburgh’s Greig Laidlaw, securing a 27-22 win for then gaffer Vern Cotter’s side at Murrayfield – and have lost all seven of their games since.