It was a message of triumph, but it came with a warning. “I’ve been on this journey now for four or five years with this team and I take the last week as a low moment for myself, but I’ve also had some massive highs, and this is one of them,” said Scotland captain Sione Tuipulotu almost immediately after a win over England that changed the narrative around his side. “But I really want this to be the growth now, us to show our growth next week to back up this performance in a stadium that we’ve had troubles in over the last 20 years.”
Tuipulotu had not long got his hands on the Calcutta Cup, a prize with which Scottish skippers have been rather familiar of late, and already he was setting a new challenge for his side, referencing an unwelcome record. Too often, highs against England under Gregor Townsend have been followed by a level below; one step forward, two back, too often. It is a trend that extends beyond even the Townsend tenure – in all, Scotland have beaten the Auld Enemy seven times since 2001, and lost their next match on six occasions. Add in the factor of Cardiff, a city in which Scots have only won twice this century, and Tuipulotu’s trepidation was entirely understandable.
A meeting with a team still seeking a first Six Nations victory since 2023 is not, perhaps, an apposite moment for point-proving, yet a Scottish win would still feel significant in the context of what has come before.
It is worth remembering that they were, in fact, victors on their last visit to the Principality Stadium, and yet the very contrivance of letting a game they had led by 27 points ultimately be decided by one gave that occasion two years ago a somewhat strange feel.
The state of Wales would seem to demand a rather more convincing Scottish success, yet danger may lurk. Injuries to Jamie Ritchie, Jack Dempsey and Jamie Dobie were a reminder of just what the Six Nations demands, with a revamped competition schedule of three back-to-back-to-back Tests creating further pressures on the fitness and mentality of a squad that has, at times, felt small.
Townsend hopes the restorative rays and bright beaches of the Costa Blanca – Scotland have spent the week in a training camp south of Valencia – may be a help before a trip to a somewhat murkier waterside locale.
Plotting what would most certainly be an upset on the banks of the Taff is a familiar foe. Steve Tandy spent five and a half years as Townsend’s right-hand man, establishing himself as a top-rated defensive lieutenant before his own country came crawling.
To term the issues he has faced in the months since taking the Wales job as “teething problems” would perhaps inaccurately reflect a rugby nation of dotage rather than infancy; if the scale of the challenge that Tandy faces was not abundantly clear, then four successive thrashings have rather emphatically made that point.
It is tough to look too harshly on a man dealt a hand that would have most seeking an alternative poker table. There were improvements to be found in the performance against France, if not the result, and a squad in need of positives will surely take all that they can find.
That said, a defensively minded coach cannot be happy about an average concession of nearly 56 points per game in five matches against non-Japanese opposition since taking charge. Tandy is currently both head and lead defence coach; while he has suggested that a full-time addition to his staff is on the way, the fact that he is having to perform both roles shows where Wales are at.
“I’m aware every coach, fan and player wants to win,” said Wales forwards coach Danny Wilson, another to have spent time on the Scottish staff in the past. “There’s the drive to do that, but there’s also the reality of how we do that. We can’t cut corners.
“I’m long enough in the tooth to know it wasn’t going to be a smooth ride. It was going to have its bumps, and I’m prepared for that. What we’ve got to stay focused on is working hard to make the improvements we need to make to get this amazing rugby nation back to what it’s been.”
On that front, the good news is that the Principality Stadium is expected to be rather fuller for the arrival of Scotland than it was for France, though a few are still voting with their feet amid a steady din of disquiet around Welsh rugby. But there is perhaps solace in the Scottish story.
It was only 12 years ago that there were questions over the short- and long-term future of rugby in the northernmost of the nations that make up this championship, with a dour 20-0 home defeat to England a low point followed three rounds later by a 51-3 thrashing in Cardiff. The scales tipping that far in the other direction is not necessarily out of the question, but Scotland will take any kind of win that keeps them moving in the right direction; Wales, any reason for belief that another fruitless campaign does not beckon.
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