Six Nations: Townsend cautions against ‘too much enthusiasm’

The Millennium Stadium was the scene of an abject loss of composure by the national team two years ago, when they threw away a ten-point lead to go down 31-24. But Townsend believes that, provided the team avoid the kind of brainstorm that beset them then, they have enough going for them in other areas to pull off a shock.

Instead of continuing to bemoan the things that went wrong in last week’s 13-6 defeat by England, the national attack coach insisted that the squad had to look at what nearly went right, and how it might be improved on tomorrow. Second-half breaks by Ross Rennie and Richie Gray might easily have led to tries if the right options had been taken, but Townsend thought the key example of what went wrong last Saturday was another break, by centre Sean Lamont.

“The one that stood out for me more was with about ten minutes to go, when Sean Lamont gets within five yards of the try line and the ball comes back and we just show too much enthusiasm,” Townsend said yesterday. “John Barclay and Allan Jacobsen overran Mike Blair when we would have stretched them and scored. Then we gave away a penalty, so it’s not as if we went to that area and came back not scoring a try but getting a penalty ourselves.

“That’s the area where we can make improvements through coaching. There’s a great quote, I can’t remember who it’s from, but it’s ‘Enthusiasm kills accuracy’. We need composure in that area, trusting what the players around you are doing and trusting what we do as an attacking team.

“We came very close to winning [against England]. I thought the endeavour was fantastic and some individual performances were great.

“We did more line-breaks and tackle-breaks than in the three years we have been together [with me] as a coach. But I was disappointed with the result, because we are capable of better.

“We have to finish off our opportunities. The boys know that with composure in those areas, the technical points of completing passes, and we win that game comfortably.”

The coaching team was criticised nearly as heavily as the players last week, but Townsend insisted that the squad had made progress. “We believe we’ve come on so much over the last couple of years in the way we play. We were really disappointed at the weekend, because with the build-up work and the breaks we should have scored three or four tries there. ”

Tighthead prop Geoff Cross, who starts tomorrow instead of Euan Murray, backed up Townsend’s assertion that much of the team’s approach work was developing well. The front-row forward argued that the scrum, in particular, had functioned well against England, and said that the key to success in Wales was making better use of the good quality ball that the set-piece was delivering.

“I was satisfied with our scrummaging performance [against England],” Cross said. “I believe it gave us a platform from which to attack. What we’ve got to look to achieve, through getting our drills right, is really challenging at that platform so we can pressure teams from it.

“I was really impressed with the number of opportunities created last week. What we’ve been working on in training is supporting each other once we’ve created those opportunities, so we can finish them off. “

The squad that flew out of Edinburgh Airport for Cardiff yesterday was augmented by Rob Harley and Graeme Morrison. The Glasgow pair, both of whom played in the 19-9 win over the Scarlets on Thursday night, have travelled only as precautions. Flanker-cum-lock Harley has yet to play at full international level, while 32-times-capped Morrison was the only unused substitute a week ago.