Gregor Townsend defiant over Scotland job threat question after Italy setback as he targets Triple Crown

"I believe in this group,” insists head coach as defeat in Rome shreds title hopes

Gregor Townsend believes he is still the right man to take Scotland forward despite his side’s 31-29 defeat by Italy in Rome.

It was their first loss to the Azzurri since 2015 and their first defeat in the Italian capital for 12 years. The Scots threw away a 22-10 lead and failed to score a point between the 28th and 77th minutes, a period during which they conceded 21 unanswered points.

Townsend, who has been in charge since 2017, signed a new contract in May which runs until April 2026. Asked if he felt his future had been placed under threat by the Italy result, he said: “I’m not going to answer that question. We’re disappointed with the result today, but we know this team have come on since the World Cup. We can look at this result and be really disappointed, but I’ve been really proud of how this team’s played during the championship so far.”

Gregor Townsend - Scotland head coach has much to ponder after his side were beaten 31-29 by Italy. Pic: David Gibson/Fotosport/Shutterstock (14383268ar)

Scotland opened the campaign with a 27-26 victory over Wales, their first win in Cardiff for 22 years, but they had to withstand a stunning Welsh comeback after leading 27-0. Then came the home defeat by France, dominated by the score that wasn’t given for Sam Skinner in the game’s final play, despite the Scotland man appearing to ground the ball. In the third round, Scotland beat England for the fourth year in a row and went to Rome with a chance of setting up a final day title decider in Dublin next weekend. England even did them a favour by beating Ireland but it would take a hugely improbable sequence of results for Scotland to now claim the crown.

Despite the huge setback, Townsend thinks he can get more from the squad.

“I believe in this group,” he said. “You can look at results and say: ‘We’ve lost to Italy, this team aren’t going to take that next step’ Or you can look at where we’ve grown since the World Cup. I still believe the performances the players are putting in can show we can beat anybody. But if we take our eye off the ball for a period of time, we can be beaten. That’s what happened today.

“We won in Wales for the first time [since 2002] this year. We retained the Calcutta Cup. We had a decision go against us in the game with France. This result is very disappointing. We’ve lost against a good Italy side, one of the best Italian teams I’ve seen. But today is not what defines this team. Next week will define it, but the weeks before defined it as well.”

Townsend said Italy deserved huge credit but admitted the result hurt. “It’s a massive blow. It would be worse if it was our last game of the tournament and you have months to stew on it. We’ve got a week now to improve and to make sure we don’t make the same errors as we did today.

“We’re playing an Ireland team who are the best out there right now. We’re still playing for something tangible, which is the Triple Crown. We’re disappointed we’re not going to be playing for any more than that, but it gives us huge motivation to improve from today. I’m disappointed we didn’t kick on in the second half. The minutes after the try was disallowed were clearly not good enough.”