Hard taskmaster Pieter de Villiers makes his presence felt in the Scotland scrum

Scotland’s first win in Wales owed much to the performance of the forwards and Gregor Townsend was quick to pay tribute to the work of his assistants in that department.

Scotland scrum coach Pieter de Villiers, right, with Gregor Townsend.

Pieter de Villiers joined as scrum coach before the Six Nations and has made his presence felt.

The former French international said the squad’s willingness to improve has helped make his job easier.

“I thought there was lots of potential, a young group eager to learn,” said de Villiers who has worked closely with captain Stuart Hogg and vice-captain Fraser Brown. “There were obviously things to work on, but when I met the players, they were very open to the subtle suggestions I had. I met with Stu and Fraser early on and they just said, ‘whatever you’ve got to suggest, just say and we’ll follow through’.”

De Villiers said “small tweaks made big differences” and there was no big secret but he did note that “the players might say I’m a hard task master”.