Scotland reaction: What made Townsend proud, Tuipulotu fitness latest, another injury blow

Gregor Townsend praised his players’ defensive solidity as Scotland edged Australia 15-12 in a Murrayfield arm wrestle in the Nations Championship.

The win lifts the Scots into fourth place in the six-team Northern Hemisphere table, five points behind England and Ireland, ahead of the final round of group games next Saturday.

First-half tries from Matt Fagerson and Jack Dempsey had the home side leading 12-5 at the break and a 75th minute penalty from Finn Russell moved them two scores clear at 15-5.

Darcy Graham made a big tackle for Scotland at the end. | SNS Group

But they had to withstand a late Australian rally as Max Jorgensen ran in a converted try in the final minute to reduce Scotland’s lead to three points. The Wallabies attacked again from the restart and Darcy Graham, with help from Blair Kinghorn, needed to stop Tom Wright by tackling him into touch.

Townsend praised Graham and the wider effort put in by his players which he described as “one of Scotland’s best defensive performances over the last few years”.

“I think if Blair and Darcy, who covered very well from that other wing, hadn’t made that tackle it would have been a tricky time defending the next few phases,” said Townsend. “But really proud of the players that they helped each other out there.

“We knew Australia were going to run it from deep so that's probably the frustrating thing that we still gave them a little bit of daylight for them to attack but [it was] brilliant cover and I think we deserved the win given the effort that had gone into the game.”

Townsend felt it was the correct decision to go for three points when Scotland were awarded their late penalty. It ended any hope of a bonus point but the coach stressed that simply winning the match was the priority.

“I think the right decision was to go for the three points to get more than a score ahead,” said Townsend. “We were here to win, we're here to win each game and obviously we lost to New Zealand last week so it was important that we got the win.

“And if we're not going to be winning the tournament as well, we can't decide who we're going to play in that Finals Weekend. But the important thing was to get the win and I felt tactically the decisions we were making were the right ones to set us up for the win.”

Scotland can’t catch France, who are six points clear of them at the top of the standings, and will need a massive points swing to overhaul England. Ireland are just about catchable but the Scots would need to beat Japan convincingly with a bonus point and hope Andy Farrell’s side lose heavily to South Africa.

Townsend were forced into a change on the morning of the match when Sione Tuipulotu was ruled out with a knee injury sustained last week against New Zealand. The captain aggravated the problem on the eve of the Australia game and is unlikely to be fit to face Japan.

His place at inside centre was taken by Tom Jordan, with Stafford McDowall summoned from his farm in Galloway to take his place on the bench. Rory Darge assumed the captaincy and was excellent.

“He's always important,” Townsend said of Darge. “The game today reminded me a lot of the England game [in this year’s Six Nations]. I think the weather was similar, a bit of a greasy ball, maybe not as bad as today and he was outstanding that day. You know the opposition are going to get phases of attack against us.

“We're all going to have to defend and Rory with his tackling, with his effort and also his post-tackle presence, he really helps us. But there were a lot of other players today that stood up physically. The shots that were going in in the first half, the effort that was going into the second half was outstanding and I think that's one of our best defensive performances over the last few years.”

Scotland suffered a further injury when Scott Cummings had to go off after 25 minutes with a thigh injury. Townsend also rated him doubtful for next weekend’s Japan game.

“He's had an ultrasound scan so it doesn't look too bad. He'll probably get an MRI scan as well. But obviously he left the field today, he felt he couldn't continue, so that would make him a doubt for next week.”

Townsend hinted that he would make several changes for the Japan match, with one eye on the Finals Weekend match at Twickenham the following week, where Argentina or Australia are the likely opponents.

He felt his squad adapted well to the loss of Tuipulotu and Cummings and was particularly pleased with how Jordan and Max Williamson stepped up to replace them.

“When the captain who's trained all week at 12 doesn't get through the team run yesterday, then there's obviously adjustments to be made.

“Stafford was on his farm in the south-west so he had to come in. We made a decision that if Tom goes into 12 then we need a 12 on the bench just in case Tom has to move during the game because he was covering 10 as well. So that was challenging. But the players know our game really well. And it's an opportunity for those players too.

“Tom was excellent when he played a couple of seasons ago and I thought he was excellent today. And leadership doesn't rely on one person or two people. There are other guys like Rory Darge who led very well by his actions and also just his calm demeanour.

“Finn was obviously very integral to what we do in an attack, Kyle Steyn as vice-captain, there's calming presences within that group.

“And the other change which we can't overlook either is Scott Cummings, our line-out leader, going off so early and Gregor Brown and Max Williamson, young internationals, let's say, I thought they were excellent. Their physicality, when the game's going to be played mainly off nine or pick-and-goes around the ruck, you need your front five to bring that physicality at both ends.”