Six Nations: Gregor Townsend in talks with SRU over new contract

GREGOR Townsend is expected to remain part of the Scotland coaching set-up, at least for the foreseeable future, despite reports claiming yesterday that he is to be released from his duties.

The assistant coach, who has responsibility for attack, has been held responsible in some quarters for Scotland’s recent failure to score tries. Greig Laidlaw’s touchdown in the 27-13 defeat against Wales on Saturday was the national team’s first try in five games.

Robinson confirmed on Sunday that his defence coach Graham Steadman will leave the coaching team when his contract expires in May, and some commentators drew from his after-match ‘no comment’ on the future of Townsend that the attack coach was also in line to be released. That was, however, wide of the mark.

Townsend told The Scotsman: “I have been in discussions about extending my contract beyond this season and am very hopeful that this will happen. Ultimately, that is not up to me and you never know what lies around the corner. If we do not manage to improve the ratio of victories, then I accept that international rugby is a harsh place and you might not get the time you want to make the improvements you want to make.

“But there have been no indications to me that I am no longer wanted, and I have had very positive discussions with Andy about what we want to do in the short, medium and long-term to take this squad forward. We remain confident that we can do it and these players are capable of pushing Scotland forward.”

Robinson’s record as Scotland coach has come under scrutiny after Scotland suffered their first exit from the World Cup in the pool stages and, while the team has increased its line-breaking ability and become more threatening across the past year, the ongoing failure to produce more tries and wins remains the Achilles heel. The picture seemed brighter this year, but a failure to finish a glut of chances against an England side that provided little threat was costly and the team’s coughing-up of chances in Cardiff was brutally exploited when a Welsh side boasting terrific fire-power seized on errors to run in three second-half tries.

Scotland came back strongly in the last quarter and scored twice, albeit with Stuart Hogg’s debut “try” wrongly ruled out by referee Roman Poite before Laidlaw dived over, and Townsend drew some confidence from that.

“The last two weeks have been tough,” Townsend acknowledged, “but actually the defeat to England was worse because we created so much and did not score against a team that scored only through a charge-down. Wales are stronger and I would not be surprised if they went on to win the championship, if not a Grand Slam, but still the guys are very frustrated.

“A lot of the problems we had against England, which was our first game together in four months, were ironed out in our attacking organisation and shape particularly, which we saw on Sunday against a very good Welsh defence.

“Winning teams execute well under pressure consistently and we’re still not there yet, but errors will come for every team at this level with the size of the hits and when you have two teams that want to play. The key is absorbing them without cost and, ideally, not losing a man never mind two, which was unfortunate.”

He added: “There is no doubt within the management and squad that we have come on from where we were a year or two years ago, but obviously we need the results to show that.

“Now it’s about looking forward. We all believe that we can beat France at Murrayfield and beat Ireland and Italy. It’s tough, of course, but we have the players to do it. The belief is definitely there.”