Gregor Townsend was frustrated by Scotland’s haphazard defence during the final 20 minutes of their victory against Italy in Rome, but said he was not worried that an area of strength for the team has become a potential weakness.
After conceding two tries in their first two matches of this championship, against England and Wales, Scotland have conceded nine in rounds three and four of the campaign, against France and Italy, with a trip to Ireland to come.
“I’m not concerned, more frustrated,” said Scotland’s coach. “We pride ourselves in how we defend. We trust our players and our system and we trust each other.
“For a lot of that game, in defence, we were forcing turnovers from Italy, but it is disappointing that we were slipping off tackles towards the end and gave Italy two late tries. One was the final action and the final emotion of the game, which isn’t great, but that will drive us on next week to be better in Dublin.”
Townsend said he was generally happy with how his team had bounced back after a couple of tough results, but recognised that it was far from a complete performance.
“This tournament is about winning, but you’ve got to learn at times as well,” he said. “We learned from last week’s loss against France and I felt that was reflected in how we managed the game with our key decision‑makers controlling things really well.
“That was pleasing and the effort was there – it is just that frustrating element of the final quarter when we didn’t play as well as in the previous three quarters.”
He added: “I’m delighted for the players to get a win away from home at the end of a really productive week. Italy performed really well so they were hard to break down and they’ve got their own threats but going into the final quarter with a good lead on the scoreboard we were expecting to kick on, so credit to Italy for the way they played during that period, but we’ll look at ourselves and we’re disappointed that we didn’t build on that really good first 50 to 60 minutes.”
Townsend also had words of praise for the performance of Ali Price, the man of the match. “It was inspired,” he said. “He was playing in his 50th cap and looked really sharp when he got his hands on the ball, created tries and kicked well, too. It was great to see him playing well on such a big day.”
He said there are no fresh injury concerns in the squad looking towards next Saturday’s match. “Hamish Watson had a bit of a whack in the nose but carried on to play the full 80 minutes so I’m sure he’ll be fine, and everyone else seemed OK,” he said.
