Matches often turn on a single moment. Whole campaigns on occasion do so too, and Saturday provided a classic example of that.
If Italy had scored between the posts in the final minute of the game at BT Murrayfield, and added the conversion to beat Scotland 21-19, the Six Nations would have taken on a very different complexion for Gregor Townsend’s side.
Instead, the home pack held firm, a counter-attack began, and seconds later Blair Kinghorn completed his hat-trick as his team ran out 26-14 winners.
That not only made the difference between a record of three wins and two losses and one of two victories and three defeats, it provided proof of sustained progress.
Scotland won the matches they should have won – against England and Wales as well as the Italians – and only lost to the teams ranked first and second in the world.
And, while his team were well beaten in the end by champions Ireland, Townsend was able to reflect on a close contest against the French, as well as on an overall campaign which saw his team finish third and has provided him with some substantial encouragement as thoughts begin to turn to this autumn’s Rugby World Cup.
“In the France game, our game was there to score points,” the head coach said. “Three times we were on the try line and didn’t get the ball over the line or it was fumbled over the line. In the second half we got opportunities a little bit further away from the try line. I don’t think there was anything that we would have done differently in that game.
“The Ireland game, the first half was a template, the second half we weren’t accurate enough. There was a little bit of energy as well that we could have shown more in that second half.
“But getting that clinical edge is what we’ve been working on this year. We brought it out in some games, England and Wales in particular; we just need to bring that out every time we play.
“The balance is getting closer now to us attacking more and using the attacking strengths we have, whether that’s the passing ability of some of our 10s to the ball-carrying ability of our centres and our back-three players. So it’s great that we’ve got these players in our team; we want to use it, and this season should give us all, give me, more encouragement to do that more often.”
Asked to sum up the Championship in three words, he added: “Rollercoaster . . . that’s just one word. Look, emotional at the beginning: Twickenham was very emotional. I’m probably just speaking for myself, but for the group to win in those circumstances...
“Encouraging, frustrating as well. Not to get the win over in Paris, and sometimes Saturday was frustrating. But obviously the ending was a real positive.”
With the Six Nations over for another year, the next date on the national team’s calendar comes in a little over a month’s time, when Townsend and his assistant coaches select a training squad for the four Summer Tests.
“We’ll have to pick a squad probably around the start of May. We’re in at the end of May, I think it’s around the 29th. We’ll have a four-week training block, then a couple of weeks off.
“We’ll then come into a second block and those four warm-up games. We’ve got good warm-up games; we know Italy are a good team, as we’ve seen at the weekend; France home and away, the No.2 team in the world, that’ll be a good test for us; and Georgia will also give us a real challenge up front.
“We’ll have two weeks now to review and recover, then watch the players for their clubs throughout April. They might have four or five games to play to show us they should be in that initial training squad.
“Development in the summer is about getting your World Cup squad ready to take on, and hopefully beat, the top teams. We start against South Africa, the No.3 team in the world. They are still the world champions. We need to be at our best level for that game.”
Townsend, who has been in post since 2017, revealed on Saturday that initial discussions had begun with Scottish Rugby about a new contract. Asked if he expected a decision on his future to be made public before the World Cup, he said: “I wouldn’t know. But at least we’ve started having those conversations, which is a positive.”
He added that he did not know if his future depended on what happens at the World Cup.
There is also some uncertainty about the make-up of the coaching team at the tournament in France, as neither Brad Mooar nor Pete Horne, two of Townsend’s assistants, have been contracted that far ahead.
“Brad’s been here more on a consultancy basis; Peter Horne has been in for the Six Nations. Ideally, I’d love them both to be involved in the World Cup as well, but that’s not confirmed yet.”
