Gregor Townsend heaped praise on Finn Russell after naming an unchanged Scotland team to play England, and declined any opportunity to get involved in a mind games battle with Eddie Jones.
Today will tell whether the combative Jones has any more barbed observations about Scotland or perhaps even Russell, given that his singling out of Rhys Patchell prior to England’s game against Wales was widely perceived to have helped turn the Scarlets stand-off from the worldbeater he looked like against the Scots in Cardiff to the nervous novice he seemed at Twickenham.
In the meantime Townsend declined any chance to chuck in a few comments arched at England, instead praising them and their coach effusively. The nearest he got to a Jones-style attack was when he made a mild observation England’s defence might creep offside too often, but that was it.
And he gave his full backing to Russell, under fire after two poor performances so far in the 6 Nations. His coach, however, thought he was great against the French.
“Finn was very good in the second half,” insisted Townsend, who said there was never any question that anyone other than Russell would start at 10. “I believe that, if Finn had stayed on the field, we would have won the game and potentially had a couple of more tries.
“He was building into a really good game. He had a couple of breaks in the second half, putting other people into space. He was a big part of how we were on the front foot in the second half.”
Which begged the question; if a couple of tries were coming, why was he hooked after 65 minutes?
“This is me speculating afterwards,” agreed the coach. “The reason we took him off was to get Ali Price on, and at the time we felt Greig would be important – goal kicking was a key in order to get ahead of France on the scoreboard.
“Finn would have kicked well too, so either of those players would have put us in a good place. To be honest, we could have got another couple of tries in the last ten minutes (whoever was at 10).
“We had a couple of opportunities five metres from the try line, when we settled for the penalty instead of going to that extra ruck and scoring a try.”
That succession of missed touch-kicks, though? Is he going to be relied upon there again?
“We’ll see,” said Townsend. “Stuart Hogg is obviously very good at doing that job and both have been working hard on it this week.”
When asked to comment on Jones’ sarcasm prior to the championship, saying Scotland were the “darlings” of the media and that they played “side to side”, Townsend said he took it as a compliment.
“He was talking about us even back then and obviously that’s a good thing,” he continued.
“Eddie’s a brilliant coach, last two years have shown that, what he has done with this England team, the consistency, the striving to get better.
“You see how players are looking to take on bigger role in decision-making…and he had success previous to England as well.
“He has a great coaching team around him. You can’t think that they haven’t covered off one aspect, they have covered everything.
“That is what you see when you play the best coached teams.”
And even though he is an injury doubt – as he was last year, before playing and orchestrated a record score for the fixture – Owen Farrell is a key man for England, believes Townsend.
“He’s very important, if any team had Owen Farrell, he would be a key player in attack,” he said. “He is a leader on and off the field.
“I was fortunate to be down at Saracens earlier this season so I got to see him train and see him in meetings. He’s a world-class player but he’s also like having a coach on the field.
“The way England use him, playing at 12, means they have an extra decision-maker, an extra kicker, an extra passer and he’s also shown this season that his running game is pretty strong.
“In terms of attack they have a lot of plays that involve 10 and 12, with forwards either on decoy lines or carrying ball, and they are very good at those. We have to be very switched on to pick out who is getting the ball and to make sure we keep coming forward in defence.”
Lying No 2 in the world rankings and with just one defeat in 24 games under Eddie Jones spoke volumes, he stressed, and even the heightened atmosphere at Murrayfield won’t faze them.
“It’s a brilliant atmosphere here now, for people who were at the games against Australia and New Zealand, they’ll tell you it was great to be part of.
“But wherever you play in the 6 Nations there is going to be noise ranged against you as the away team.
“England’s squad has been together for three or four years. They’ve had those experiences in away atmospheres, so it’s not going to change too much for them.
“And they’ve always been good. Even in 1990, a famous win for us, they were a good team.
“Now they’re number two in the world. They’ve won a huge number of games in the last two years.
“So we’re perfectly aware that we’re playing one of the best teams, a team in form, and we have to be at our very best to challenge them.”
Townsend’s only alterations are on the bench, with WP Nel and Tim Swinson returning after long spells with injury. Nel hasn’t played since breaking his arm in the first Autumn Test against Samoa.
Nick Grigg, in fine form for Glasgow in recent months, gets the nod ahead of Chris Harris, but the uncapped Blair Kinghorn has held off much more experienced candidates to retain his spot on the bench, although he didn’t get on against France.
Scotland team: Stuart Hogg; Tommy Seymour, Huw Jones, Peter Horne (all Glasgow Warriors), Sean Maitland (Saracens); Finn Russell (Glasgow Warriors), Greig Laidlaw (ASM Clermont-Auvergne); Gordon Reid (London Irish), Stuart McInally, Simon Berghan; Grant Gilchrist (all Edinburgh Rugby), Jonny Gray (Glasgow Warriors); John Barclay (Scarlets, captain), Hamish Watson (Edinburgh Rugby), Ryan Wilson (Glasgow Warriors).
Replacements: Scott Lawson (Newcastle Falcons), Jamie Bhatti (Glasgow Warriors), WP Nel (Edinburgh Rugby), Tim Swinson (Glasgow Warriors), David Denton (Worcester Warriors), Ali Price, Nick Grigg (both Glasgow Warriors), Blair Kinghorn (Edinburgh Rugby).
