Three World Cups with the same team would be a special achievement for any head coach. In fact, apart from Warren Gatland – who is now at his fourth tournament in charge of Wales, albeit after a brief sabbatical between this and the last one – no other Tier One boss has managed it.
While Gregor Townsend was at pains to stress that he is taking nothing for granted, yesterday's debrief of Scotland’s second successive pool stage exit made it clear that he is already looking ahead to 2027, knowing that things are likely to get even tougher over the next four years as his side strive to avoid a third consecutive early departure.
“That is hypothetical,” said the 50-year-old, when asked if he is ready to go again. “I am not contracted to the next World Cup, I am contracted for the next couple of years so we will see what happens in these next couple of years. Lots can happen during that period.
“The focus is to make sure that we learn from this experience, especially from last night’s defeat to Ireland and the South Africa game.
“The response from the team after South Africa was excellent but clearly we did not achieve what we wanted to achieve or believed we could achieve last night. We must learn what we can do better and what Ireland can do really well.
“We know they [Ireland] are ahead of us and we have a bit of work to do to catch them but everybody in world rugby is probably trying to get to the standard they’ve set over the last couple of years.”
Given that Townsend’s current contract – signed in May of this year – runs until April 2026, less than 18 months before the next World Cup, it seems highly unlikely that Scottish Rugby Chief Executive Mark Dodson is minded towards change before Australia 2027 unless there is a dramatic shift in the two men’s relationship.
Below that, there is inevitably going to be some movement in terms of playing personnel although Townsend was hopeful that retirements are going to be kept to a minimum. “I think some of the older players in our squad have been some of our best performers," he said. "WP Nel is physically in the best shape of his life, he’s started more games for us this year than he ever has and he’s played really well. “I thought Richie Gray was one our best players, if not the best, on the field on Saturday night. His physical ability is excellent but also his desire to keep going at the opposition was great to see.
“So, they are two of our older players and we obviously hope they are still available for the next couple of seasons. I hope there are no retirements after this World Cup.
“But whether it’s people retiring, or injury, or people not being selected because of form, we’ve got to have other players ready to go. We’ve got good depth at the top level so if there are people who are not available for the Six Nations, I’m sure we’ll manage fine.”
One player who may decide enough is enough after being relegated to a fringe role at this World Cup is flanker Hamish Watson, who is only 31 but has put his body through the mincer during 12 years in the professional game.
In terms of assistant coaches, Townsend indicated that he isn’t looking at a clear-out similar to the aftermath of Scotland’s 2019 World Cup flop, which cost Danny Wilson and Matt Taylor their jobs.
“We need to make a permanent appointment on the attack side,” he explained. “Mike Blair moved halfway through this World Cup cycle to Edinburgh, then we had AB Zondagh, then following the November Tests we brought in Pete Horne and Brad Mooar on a consultant basis, so I see that being a one-person role in the future but I’ve obviously got a bit of thinking to do on that.
“That would be the only change we have to make because we need someone in that role,” Townsend added, before confirming that both Horne and Mooar will be contenders for the role if they want it.
“Absolutely, and Pete has been outstanding as a young coach coming in for the Six Nations working on a couple of areas, he’s now grown and evolved to take on more responsibility. He has been brilliant to work alongside.
“It is also great news that a young Scottish coach like John Dalziel in the forwards has progressed really quickly to be coaching really well at Test level.”
Whatever happens, there needs to be a proper review of the whole campaign, although it rather looks like it may follow a similar pattern to most other Scottish Rugby self-assessment exercises – including the last World Cup debrief – in terms of limited external involvement or visibility of findings.
“We will have a lot of coaching meetings and will have feedback meetings with all the players in terms of their views on certain areas, [such as] preparation, game-plan, support, and getting their ideas,” said Townsend.
“There is a lot to build on and there is the game to learn from. How could we have played better? How do we play a team like Ireland when we get the opportunity again over in Dublin in a few months’ time.” There is a very good chance that match – in the final round of the 2024 Six Nations – will be against the reigning world champions who are defending their Grand Slam title. The fact Scotland were on a par as a rugby nation – and perhaps even slightly ahead across the piece – up until about 15 years ago makes this failure all the more unpalatable.
Frankly, it is hard to see a way of ever closing the gap which had developed between the two nations, and as head coach all Townsend can really do is nibble around the edges to try and create an environment where Scotland can somehow stay competitive despite an inadequate player pathway and a listless professional tier.
“There’s a lot we can do better from age-group into pro level, I think we all accept that, but there are things we can do at international level as well,” he said. “There are things we can learn off Ireland. For example, they took a bigger squad out to New Zealand last year and played a midweek game against the Māori – so that was an invaluable experience for their first team to play three huge Tests in three weeks and for the other players to be in that environment and play top quality opposition.
“Ireland also took a team out to South Africa, removing them from the URC to play a few games – so these are things we can do with the group just outside the Test level to get them better prepared for Test rugby.”
“Last year was a really important tour for us to give young players an opportunity against Chile, and then against Argentina, which set us up for one of the best years of rugby we’ve had. We have to build on that next summer wherever we go on tour [likely to be North America], by making sure we get more games to give players who might not be playing regularly for their pro team or might not be playing regularly at Test level the chance to experience the environment."
