Scotland may look to experiment a little now the 6 Nations Championship is outwith their reach, as they seek to stall Wales’ Grand Slam hopes at Murrayfield next week, says head coach Gregor Townsend.
Townsend will still send out what he thinks is Scotland’s strongest side for this game, but his scope to make changes has increased on the back of the defeats to Ireland and France.
“A few weeks ago the World Cup was not a factor as we were planning to do as well in the championship and aiming to win as many games,” he said after yesterday’s public training session at Wallace High School in Stirling.
“Now we have lost two that becomes a factor too. We want to put our best team out to win this weekend but we also want to see if players that are knocking on the door for selection that could be in the mix for the World Cup. Could this be the time to bring them in, in some form?
“That will depend on the players we have available. We should have more players available this week than we did going to France.”
It still means a nervous weekend for Townsend with WP Nel, Hamish Watson and Ben Toolis playing for Edinburgh while Zander Fagerson and Adam Hastings start for Glasgow.
Meanwhile the man prominent on the walls of his former school his team-mates were visiting yesterday, stand-off Finn Russell, plays for Racing 92 after missing the game in Paris last week with concussion.
“It is a boost to have Finn available for his club this week but he was available for his club two weeks ago and got injured so we will see what happens this weekend,” said Townsend.
“Finn was playing really well and he would have loved playing against France in Paris so that was a blow for him and for us.
“WP and Hamish were playing really well for their club and played well for us in November. They will add to the selection debate but we will have to see how they get through this weekend.”
Stuart Hogg remains a day-to-day situation, while Sam Skinner is set to return to Scotland camp on Sunday, although he won’t play for Exeter this weekend.
The Scotland coaching team have “covered everything” to why the team appeared so lacking in energy in Paris, especially early in the game.
“It is really just disappointing for all of us that the first 20 minutes was going to be so important for us, we talked about it all week, but we just missed that period,” he said.
“We looked at our key themes, how we trained, things we did differently before the game and the warm-up, and we’ve talked to our leaders and got feedback from them.”
France’s first try – that counted – came from a situation where they turned the French full-back Thomas Ramos in his 22 but three men chasing “weren’t linked up” and were beaten.
“Some of is specifics. If you do your job – which not everyone was doing maybe in that period – then (mistakes) will get sorted, but if someone doesn’t do their job, it leads to another mistake which puts the pressure on you and gave the French team a lot more confidence.
“It is going to be very important this week because Wales’ kick-pressure is very good, their kicking game is very good, and their defence is very good, so we can’t give them any ways into the game through those areas.”
Wales should have confidence from their record run, but Scotland should gain confidence from being back at Murrayfield, he continued.
“Beating Wales is not something we have done that regularly over the last 10 years, and to take them on (now) is a bigger challenge than at any point in that 10 years,” he said.
“They are probably playing as well as the have ever done, they are very confident in how they are playing, they have the confidence of knowing they’ve found a way to win 13 games in a row.
“They can now win the Grand Slam, the only team that can do that, and are favourites to win the Championship. It is different for us, we want to win for our public, want to win for the fact that we have not played at our best and for what sets us up for the following week and the following six months.
“That is huge motivation for us but we do realise there is a team coming here that will be playing close to their potential for different reasons.
“The public being disappointed show they care and have high expectations of the team like we do. We have not matched them in this championship.
“We have two games left to show what we are really about. There is valuable learning in these games, it is painful and only valuable if you put that back into your next performances.”
