Scotland's Six Nations hangover lingers as England ref decisions examined ahead of Wales clash

Townsend answers more questions on Twickenham match

Gregor Townsend gave feedback on the contentious decisions at Twickenham. | Getty Images

The focus should be on this weekend’s home match with Wales but Scotland’s Twickenham hangover continues to linger and Gregor Townsend spent part of Thursday’s media session fielding questions about the contentious refereeing decisions in the 16-15 loss to England.

Scotland supporters were aggrieved at a number of key interventions by Pierre Brousset, the French referee, including the award of Tommy Freeman’s try, when there was no conclusive footage of the ball being grounded, the award of the penalty that allowed England to go 16-10 ahead, and, most egregiously, Finn Russell being asked to kick his late conversion from two metres wider than where Duhan van der Merwe grounded his try.

While reluctant to criticise Brousset, Townsend agreed that the official had been wrong to make Russell reset the ball and it was one of several incidents the Scotland coach flagged up in the post-match review with the referee.

Gregor Townsend gave feedback on the contentious decisions at Twickenham. | Getty Images

“Yes, it's the same process in every game,” explained Townsend. “You're allowed to put a certain amount of clips on our review portal and you get direct feedback from the referee. All the head coaches have a relationship with the referee manager as well, so you can have further discussions with him, which we certainly had after the England game.

“It doesn't really change anything. Whether you get the feedback that you're looking for, ‘that should have been a penalty, that should have not been a try, that conversion should have been closer’, whatever it is that we asked, it doesn't change anything.

“The scoreline won't change. It doesn't really make it even less or more frustrating. The game has happened and we have to look at the things that we could have done better to get the win.

“And in the knowledge that referees make mistakes, so do players and so do coaches, so you're going to get those games where the referee is not being error free.”

The coach wouldn’t go into detail about Brousset’s response but confirmed Scotland had flagged up the last-gasp conversion which Russell missed.

French referee Pierre Brousset during the Six Nations match between England and Scotland. | AFP via Getty Images

“That was one of the things we asked feedback for, so I'll keep that to the relationship we have with the referees, but yeah, it was one area that we'd ask the question,” said Townsend.

“Obviously there was [a mistake] because I think we all knew that the try was scored further infield, so yeah, coaches probably make the most mistakes, players and then referees, so it happens and we can't change history now.”

The Scotland coach stressed the continuing importance of respecting the referee and dismissed the suggestion that co-captains Russell and Rory Darge should be doing more to influence the officials.

“No, and I don't think it's good for the game to have captains in referees’ faces. You've got to trust the referee to make the right decision.”

He cited the controversial ending to last season’s Six Nations against France at Murrayfield when Scotland were denied a try despite Sam Skinner appearing to ground the ball. Russell took up the matter as the referee viewed replays of the incident with the television match official.

“France, I remember Finn at the time asking questions, but he was sent away, which is right.

“Same at times at the game, the referee with the TMO, that's a really crucial relationship now. They are the ones that have to make the decisions without captain influence and some referees will respond even more negatively if captains are constantly asking them questions.”

The defeat by England, following on from the loss to Ireland in round two, means the victory over Italy on the opening weekend is Scotland’s only win of this season’s Six Nations thus far. Their title hopes are all but over as they go into the match against a Welsh side who have lost 15 Tests in a row but travel north buoyed by their performance against Ireland in their first game since Warren Gatland stepped down.

Wales, under the interim charge of Matt Sherratt, gave the champions a scare and led at half-time before going down 27-18. It was a vastly improved Welsh performance as they shook off the doom and gloom that had come to characterise the Gatland reign.

Townsend said it felt like a new dawn for rugby in Wales and played down the significance of the losing run which stretches all the way back to the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

“I think it's different now that they've got a new coaching staff in place, and it's almost like the start of this Welsh team, since two weeks ago. And part of that is the rugby they're playing, but also their mindset,” said the Scotland coach.

“Different players are playing this game, they played the first game of the Six Nations, the first two games of the Six Nations, and they're playing with freedom. They've got nothing to lose, and that's a really dangerous opponent.”

Darcy Graham is back in the Scotland team. | SNS Group / SRU

Scotland, who have brought back Darcy Graham on the right wing in place of Kyle Rowe, need a win to revitalise a campaign that is in danger of fizzling out. A home defeat at Murrayfield would put Townsend’s own future under scrutiny and he acknowledged that going into a tough final match against France in Paris on the back of three losses from four games would not be a good position to be in.

“It wouldn't be, but we've just got to focus on how we get the victory, how we build on what we did well against England,” he said. “And we're going to not think of anything else outside of that.”

Scotland: Blair Kinghorn; Darcy Graham, Huw Jones, Tom Jordan, Duhan van der Merwe; Finn Russell, Ben White; Pierre Schoeman, Dave Cherry, Zander Fagerson, Jonny Gray, Grant Gilchrist, Jamie Ritchie, Rory Darge, Jack Dempsey. Replacements: Ewan Ashman, Rory Sutherland, Will Hurd, Gregor Brown, Matt Fagerson, George Horne, Stafford McDowall, Kyle Rowe.

Wales: Blair Murray; Tom Rogers, Max Llewellyn, Ben Thomas, Ellis Mee; Gareth Anscombe, Tomos Williams; Nicky Smith, Elliot Dee, WillGriff John, Dafydd Jenkins, Will Rowlands, Jac Morgan, Tommy Reffell, Taulupe Faletau. Replacements: Dewi Lake, Gareth Thomas, Keiron Assiratti, Teddy Williams, Aaron Wainwright, Rhodri Williams, Jarrod Evans, Joe Roberts.

Referee: Andrea Piardi (FIR).