Scotland's Six Nations dip against Wales exposed their bench as Gregor Townsend talks 7-1

Scots cannot afford to drop off against title-chasing France in Paris

Gregor Townsend knows that Scotland’s tendency to drop off in games will have to be corrected if they are to have any chance of winning in Paris in the Six Nations finale.

The coach watched his side go from being 35-8 up early in the second half against Wales on Saturday to a final scoreline of 35-29. The slump coincided with a raft of substitutions as Scotland lost the grip of a game they had utterly dominated in the first 50 minutes.

The departure of players of the quality of Finn Russell, Zander Fagerson, Pierre Schoeman and Darcy Graham was always likely to weaken the home side but Townsend must have felt his side had a big enough lead to cope. They did - just - but the last 10 minutes were nervier than they should have been. Had Blair Murray not been penalised for jumping over a tackle in the build-up to Taulupe Faletau’s disallowed try in the 76th minute then it would have been even more fraught.

Darcy Graham scores Scotland's third try in the 35-29 win over Wales at Murrayfield. | PA

As it was, Scotland still conceded 21 unanswered points in the final 20 minutes. Townsend had one eye on Paris when he removed his big guns. It is a quick turnaround and he was mindful of easing the burden on a group of players whose workload over the past few weeks has been intense.

The importance in particular of Russell and Zander Fagerson cannot be overstated if Scotland are to have any hope of spoiling France’s bid to win the Six Nations title on Saturday night. Russell said he was cramping up in the second half against Wales and Fagerson put in his usual huge shift in the front row before making way for Will Hurd.

“We were looking to make changes and sometimes that disrupts the flow,” said Townsend. “We've spoken about how important recovery is this week. It's our last game of the Six Nations, we're playing a very physical side away from home and that was a high energy game on Saturday. We did a lot of defending in the second half and we did a lot of attacking in the first half, so we need to be in the best place physically to give it a real crack next week.”

The concern for Townsend will be how much poorer his side were when the replacements were on the pitch. Scotland talk regularly about their strength in depth but it is not true of all positions. It should be noted that they also had to cope without Rory Darge for more than half the match after the co-captain injured his hip and had to come off just before half-time.

Finn Russell converted all five of Scotland's tries against Wales. | PA

His replacement, Matt Fagerson, did a fine job but Townsend will want all four of his frontline back-row forwards fit for Paris. The French pack is as formidable as they come and Fabien Galthie again went with seven forwards on the bench in the stunning 42-27 win over Ireland in Dublin.

It is not a tactic that Townsend likes although the Scotland coach did go with a six-two split of forwards and backs against Ireland and England. South Africa were the pioneers of the seven-one split and it was a topic that was discussed at a recent World Rugby ‘Shape of the Game’ summit. It undoubtedly helps the power game favoured by the world champions but is less suited to a Scottish side whose strength lies in their brilliant attacking back play.

“If you want my view, I don't think the bench was set up to suddenly have a new forward pack coming on,” said Townsend. “But that's for World Rugby to decide what you do with the bench, and to make any changes

“But just now you can put eight forwards on the bench if you want. We've faced it already with South Africa [who had a seven-one bench when they beat Scotland 32-15 last November]. We thought we rose to that challenge really well when they brought their seven forwards on and our forwards matched them.

“If it happens again this week, we've got to do even better.”

While he’s clearly not a fan, Townsend stopped short of saying he would never himself select a seven-one bench.

“Who knows? All options are on the table,” he said. “We do have players that can play in different positions. France have that, but so do we.”

“Where do we think the game might end up?” he added. “Is it going to be more a game where we need forwards in a 6-2 or 7-1? Or is it a game where we need backs because it's going to be so open that we've got to make sure we're bringing backs off the bench?”

It was the backline who supplied the tries against Wales, just as they have done throughout this championship. Fourteen of the 15 scored in Scotland’s four games have come from the backs, with Rory Darge’s opener against Italy the only try scored by a forward.

It was Blair Kinghorn, Tom Jordan and Darcy Graham who crossed on Saturday, with the former two each scoring a brace. Graham, back in the side after missing the England game due to concussion, set up Kinghorn for the opening try after Gareth Anscombe had given Wales the lead with an early penalty. A second try quickly followed when Jordan benefited from a searing break by Duhan van der Merwe and Huw Jones.

Wales hit back through the impressive Murray but Scotland had the bonus point in the bag before half-time through further scores from Graham - after a brilliant delayed pass from Russell - and Jordan. Wales were in disarray by this point and lost prop WillGriff John to the sin-bin. Kinghorn got his second try early in the second half and Scotland seemed to be in cruise control. Russell, back in his kicking groove, converted all five tries and a record win against Wales looked on the cards. But the visitors came storming back in the final quarter and tries from Ben Thomas, Teddy Williams and Max Llewellyn, all converted by replacement fly-half Jarrod Evans, ensured they took two bonus points home from Murrayfield.

Scorers: Scotland: Tries: Kinghorn 2, Jordan 2, Graham. Cons: Russell 5. Wales: Tries: Murray, Thomas, Teddy Williams, Llewellyn. Cons: Evans 3. Pen: Anscombe.

Yellow card: WillGriff John (Wales, 31min)

Scotland: B Kinghorn; D Graham (K Rowe 66), H Jones, T Jordan, D van der Merwe; F Russell (S McDowall 62), B White (G Horne 55); P Schoeman (R Sutherland 62), D Cherry (E Ashman 55), Z Fagerson (W Hurd 62), J Gray (G Brown 66), G Gilchrist, J Ritchie, R Darge (M Fagerson 36), J Dempsey.

Wales: B Murray; T Rogers (J Roberts 9), M Llewellyn, B Thomas, E Mee; G Anscombe (J Evans 55), Tomos Williams (R Williams 69); N Smith (G Thomas 55), E Dee (D Lake 46), WG John (K Assiratti 46), D Jenkins, W Rowlands (Teddy Williams 63), J Morgan, T Reffell (K Assiratti 35-40; A Wainwright 46), T Faletau.

Referee: Andrea Piardi (FIR).

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