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Scotland’s ‘best performance’ of Six Nations by ‘best team ever’ despite loss in Paris

Jamie Ritchie fights through tacklers in Paris.
Jamie Ritchie fights through tacklers in Paris.

Gregor Townsend believed Scotland’s performance in Paris was their best of the Guinness Six Nations so far, even if they fell to a 32-21 defeat.

“I’m disappointed with the result but proud of how the players played, and proud of how they controlled the situation and the emotions,” said the head coach.

“I’m proud of how they adapted to being a man down and how much belief they had in each other. I’m disappointed we didn’t take the two or three opportunities which would have led to us winning the game.”

But he added, there was “so much” to come from the game for the Scots to use positively.

‘There will be belief’

“There will be things we have to do better. But there will be belief in how we played against one of the best teams in the world at their home stadium,” he said.

“We will need that belief and we will need that improvement for our next game. Now we will be hugely motivated to play back home against Ireland.

“The Triple Crown means something, absolutely. The championship is what everyone is gunning towards.

“You are going to have to win four or five games to win the championship. But if you are in the mix for a Triple Crown, then that’s something different.

“We have not won one since 1990 so it will be a motivator, but the main one is to still be in this championship come the final weekend.”

No issues with Gilchrist’s red card

It will take another improvement in performance to beat Ireland, he added.

“They are the best team in the world,” he said. “We have not played them at home for a while in front of a crowd so it will be good to have that.

“We are going to have to play really well. In Dublin last year we played well but our discipline let us down. If you give away penalties against them then they are very efficient about what they do around the opposition 22.

“Our discipline will need to be very good, I thought it was very good today, we won a lot of penalties against France.”

Townsend felt a yellow card might have come as France kept giving away penalties in their own 22 under pressure, but he had no issues with the red card shown to Grant Gilchrist after just six minutes.

“If you tackle in the head area then you are looking straight away at a red,” he said. “Were there any mitigating circumstances? No.

“It wasn’t his intention, he was second man in the tackle. It’s very rare for us to have high tackles or any yellow or red cards so Grant will have to learn from that as second man in there.”

‘The boys will be around him’

Captain Jamie Ritchie backed his vice-captain to the full.

“I think that is Gilko’s first red card,” he said. “It is a tough one. If you look at it by the letter of the law and how the game is at the moment, he is making shoulder contact with the head and with no mitigating factors.

“He is obviously disappointed. There was no malicious intent in what he did and no one wants to get sent off in such a big Test match.

“He was gutted but he’ll be okay and the boys will be around him. Nobody blames him.

“I think we created more opportunities than France, and after the hectic first 15 minutes we were definitely the better team. So it was an opportunity missed, but I’m proud of how we erected to such a tough start.”

France head coach Fabien Galthie believes this is “the best Scotland side of all time.”

“We had to sustain some difficult periods,” he said. “They have brought back the Gray brothers, who are great players, Hamish Watson, Jamie Ritchie, the Fagerson brothers, the wings, Hogg and Russell – who is on fire right now.

“They have just beaten two major teams with an attacking bonus point. They were full of confidence. It was necessary to manage that.”

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