Gregor Townsend believes Scotland can ship much more after their beautiful 29-23 Six Nations win over England.
Duhan van der Merwe’s second attempt of the sport secured Scotland back-to-back wins at Twickenham for the primary time.
The tense win was all a bit a lot for Townsend, who might have led Scotland within the Calcutta Cup for the final time.
“I do not know if it is this fixture, nevertheless it received me emotional on the finish,” stated Townsend, whose contract ends after this 12 months’s World Cup.
“To see the way in which the gamers got here again, in a venue the place we struggled for lots of events, reveals what a group we’ve got. We weren’t at our greatest at the moment.
“To win from behind, once you’ve solely received 5 minutes, to attain such a great attempt makes it all of the extra particular.”
‘Like Jonah Lomu’
Scotland struggled within the first half, with England dominating possession and territory, however the guests went in at half-time only one level behind after a contender for attempt of the match.
Van der Merwe ran from inside his personal half, breaking via a number of would-be England tacklers, earlier than holding off Alex Dombrandt to attain, and Townsend stated it was paying homage to one of many sport’s greats.
“It was good to see Duhan – I keep in mind once we performed Jonah Lomu and he ran quicker than everybody else – it was a improbable flip of pace and stability,” the top coach remarked.
“If groups are going to kick rather a lot to us, then that provides us a number of alternatives to play. We’ll get a variety of confidence from how we took these alternatives.”
Van der Merwe himself was delighted at his solo effort, saying: “They scored fairly early and we knew we needed to keep within the battle and we received some factors on the board and responded. As a winger you aren’t getting a variety of alternatives to attain so I wanted to take them.
“I used to be fairly shocked how I received my first however I’ll take that one all day lengthy. We spoke about getting our first win of the Six Nations and subsequent week we have to take some confidence from that.”
‘Scotland have an actual probability’
Townsend was additionally eager to focus on his facet’s defensive resilience.
“We have an excellent defence coach in Steve Tandy, however in the end, it is the gamers that ship,” he stated. “That final sequence in defence – to be disciplined inside that, to remain in your form after such a tricky sport, was nice.
“We have now to be higher – that wasn’t our greatest efficiency. That is now the thrilling factor for us, that we will develop extra on this match.”
Former Scotland prop Peter Wright absolutely agrees they’ll construct on victory. Talking on BBC Radio Scotland, he stated: “With three residence video games to come back, Scotland will assume they’ve an actual probability. You play a Welsh group subsequent week in whole disarray. Scotland have been poor at occasions, and so they can undoubtedly enhance.
“It is an ideal factor for Gregor to have realizing that he is received gamers like Hamish Watson that may are available in and make this group higher.”
Scotland captain Jamie Ritchie was bullish in his post-match information convention, saying: “It is simply the beginning. We’re delighted to win and retain the cup.
“All of us got here collectively put up match and stated we have been on this place earlier than and never backed it up. We want to verify this 12 months we do.”
