Gregor Townsend says he remains optimistic that Scotland can get its player development pathway back on track, despite Tuesday afternoon’s catastrophic defeat for the national under-20s team against Uruguay at the Junior World Trophy in Kenya.
That loss means that the young Scots will not return to the top tier Junior World Championship for at least another two years, which has serious implications for the future health of the game in this country given the historical importance of the international age-grade programme to bringing through the next generation of elite players.
“The under-20s are really important to the national team and that is evidenced by groups of players that come through the programme,” agreed the Scotland head coach. “The latest to come through was from four years ago now, including Cam Henderson, Ollie Smith, Rory Darge, Murphy Walker, Ewan Ashman.
“Prior to that, there was the Scott Cummings, Blair Kinghorn, Jamie Ritchie era.
“If they have that cohesion and connection and have played together into the national team it is great and gives them a new sense of connection and energy that a young group of players bring. That is what we need.
“So, we know it has to improve. We need to get our young Scottish players through in more numbers and quicker.
“We have to do things differently to what we are doing. It is not working, or has not worked these last two or three years, and there are clear learnings out there from the likes of Ireland and France. These are two countries we can learn from.
“We can also learn from what worked for us in the past. We were getting players through in more numbers before.
“It is a responsibility of all of us to do better. We need to give our young players more opportunities, more support so they can thrive and not just at the age-group level, [but] to come through and thrive at pro level and international level.
“The youth system should be the lifeblood of any club or international team so that is what we have to work to get back to.
“I am an optimist and always have been about Scottish rugby in terms of the numbers game. We have less numbers compared to 14 other countries that play rugby in the world, but that work in our favour, because can get more alignment and see our players coming through.
“With changes and investment into that area then we can make a difference reasonably quickly. The next generation we can work with and support better.”
