Gregor Townsend was proud of his Scotland team for battling through the adversity of not having a full team available and all that happened in the game to beat France in Paris for the first time in 22 years.
Duhan van der Merwe’s second try four minutes after the clock had gone red secured a 27-23 victory to finish the Six Nations on the highest note.
“I’m so proud of the team,” he said. “They came here with not our full squad, we had an injury to one of our starters on Wednesday, a yellow card, a red card, and we had to come back against a very good side.
“They showed courage, togetherness and skill to win. It’s a great end to a really promising season for us.”
Townsend added that he couldn’t quite believe his team had won three times in two successive Six Nations yet finished fourth both times.
“It’s about great wins, but it’s also about winning titles,” he said. “We’ve put a lot of effort into this championship, and even though we finished fourth, it feels like our best ever seasons with some of the victories we’ve had this year, and the performance we had tonight especially.
“That’s now been the last two years we’ve been competitive in every game. We’ve won six of our last ten Six Nations games and the other four we’ve been within a score.
“So the players will take confidence form that and we’ve grown a lot this campaign, and we just have to grow further over the next few years.”
‘Building towards something even more memorable’
Captain Stuart Hogg said that the win was just “part of building toward something even more memorable”.
The talk of France aiming for a 21-point margin of victory had steeled the Scots, he said.
“We were very calm, but we walked about it,” he said. “I was disappointed at what I read from the French as I am a proud Scotsman.
“This was a squad effort and things didn’t go the way we would have liked in terms of squad selection heading into this game with some of our players sitting at home watching. This win is for them as much as it is for us.”
Winning in Paris and London in the same season – the first time Scotland have done that since 1926 – made it memorable, but the skipper admitted there was also regret.
“We knew coming into this championship what we were about and it started the best possible way at Twickenham,” he said.
“I think our results and performance at times have been outstanding and but we will be kicking ourselves at some of the other results we have had.”
