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The feeling that Scotland might just have the hang of this winning thing continues to build. Playing dazzling rugby every now and then has never been a problem. Meaningful wins? Harder to come by.
Perhaps the most entertaining part of the extraordinary win over France – and there were, how to put this, quite a few of those – was watching the resolutely unmoved disposition of Gregor Townsend. As if there were nothing much to see here. Seven tries and 50 points against the red-hot favourites for the title. All in a day’s work.
Townsend knows better than anyone how quickly the latest hope can turn to despair. He also knows that Scotland’s next assignment is the one in the Six Nations that has caused Scotland more grief than any. Ireland in Dublin.
Scotland have not won there since 2010, and that was at Croke Park. They have not won on the Lansdowne Road since 1998, in the distant days of the Five Nations. All too often Ireland in Dublin has followed hot on the heels of Scotland’s latest cause for optimism, some brilliant win over exalted opponents. And then they collide with reality in green.
“We have been maybe guilty in the past of looking in too much depth into Ireland,” Townsend said. “They’re a team that plays a lot of shapes and a lot of starter plays. Maybe we focused a little bit on them. So now we’ll be building on what we did well. Success leaves clues. The reasons we won today, the reasons we won against England and against Wales, that’s what we want to build on.”
Scotland and France go into the final round level on 16 points, with the latter boasting a healthy-enough points difference to require Scotland, realistically, to win in Dublin in match one on Saturday and hope England do them a favour in the finale in Paris. If they win with a bonus point, France will need maximum points against England as well to prevail.
Which makes those four tries (for 26 points) France scored in the last 15 minutes all the more painful. At 47-14 up with 15 to play, Scotland probably felt their job was done. But by then we were into seven-a-side mode, which France are very good at. Their bonus-point fourth, scored by Thomas Ramos with five minutes to play, regained them the initiative in the title race. The two they scored in the dying minutes, after Finn Russell’s penalty in 77th brought up the 50 for Scotland, swung the points differential another 28 points in France’s favour. Thus the destiny of the title remains in French hands.
But let’s not quibble. What we witnessed on Saturday in the Edinburgh sunshine was rugby of the highest order. Nor did it feel unfamiliar. We have seen this generation of Scotland play like this time and again, just not for any significant number of matches in a row. A high-speed, all-court game is harder to make work consistently, but when it clicks Scotland are unplayable.
Townsend is well used to the perennial questions about his tenure. Why the accusations of underachievement linger is anyone’s guess, given Scotland have by some distance the fewest registered players of any major nation, but this third win in a row is vindication for him and his patient stewardship of Scotland’s talents. It also guarantees Scotland only their sixth top-three finish in the Six Nations. They have never finished in the top two.
But Ireland are also still in the hunt, even without that history of dominance over Scotland in the 21st century. They need to win and hope France do not. Scotland go into the match with a potential crisis in the second row, Gregor Brown and Scott Cummings both injured against France, both in doubt.
That would not normally bode well against a set-piece team like Ireland, but these are not normal times. If Scotland really are able to treat round four as no more than a stepping stone to round five, they have the potential to prevail in Dublin. And if they do that we really, really will be looking at a new Scotland.
