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IN FOR LONG HAUL

Townsend keen to stay as Scots boss

By Rob Robertson

SCOTLAND head coach Gregor Townsend will meet with SRU chief executive Mark Dodson to thrash out his future over the next few weeks with indications that his side’s performances in the Six Nations may be enough to keep him in a job.

Dodson has spoken to a number of coaches from around the world ahead of the Six Nations — Auckland Blues head coach Leon MacDonald among them — with a view to taking over from Townsend when his contract runs out after the World Cup in France later this year. Dodson had felt that after six years in charge it was time for a new person to lead the national team but he appears to have had a change of heart after being impressed by the way Scotland have played in the Six Nations where they finished third in the table for the first time since 2018.

Although they rode their luck

BLAIR KINGHORN will never get blasé about scoring tries for Scotland but he has lowered his sights in terms of the rewards he expects for touching down.

‘I got the match ball last time I scored a hat-trick against Italy in 2019 but I’ll just take a beer this time,’ admitted the Scotland international. ‘It was nice to get three tries again but I don’t get carried away with the personal accolade.’

The Scotland international started at ten in place of the injured Finn Russell and finished at full-back in place of Ollie Smith.

Three tries —the final one when he showed the pace of a winger — from playing in two different positions shows the versatility of the man who has scored 13 tries in 43 games for his country.

‘I just didn’t want to get caught by their defenders with that final try as I could feel them breathing down my neck,’ he said.

‘Duhan van der Merwe is so fast I knew he would get on the outside of

the winger and then it

Three tries is nice but I don’t get carried away with a personal accolade...

was just a two-on-one and I managed to keep up with him and he found me.’

Kinghorn’s versatility, which Chris Paterson was blessed with in his day, will make him a dependable squad member for Scotland but he wants to hold down a starting place which won’t be easy when you have Stuart Hogg as first-choice full-back, Russell at ten and Van der Merwe on one of the wings.

‘I want to be starting and have that opportunity,’ he said. ‘I have confidence in myself and the team have confidence in me so I felt good going out there starting at ten.

‘Having an early kick-off in the sunshine just makes you feel a bit better and play a bit better too. I just wanted to play my game and in parts I was able to do that.

‘Just being in the starting team is really good for me and ten or 15 is probably my preference. I felt really comfortable at ten out there as I’ve trained a lot there this campaign and I feel like I’ve been in pretty good form coming off the bench, so it was nice to get some more minutes in the shirt against Italy.

‘It’s quite easy to slot in when you’ve got people in great form around you like Sione Tuipulotu and Huw Jones. They’re constantly talking and that makes life a lot easier for me.’

Kinghorn hadn’t started for Edinburgh at ten since last December but felt he settled in well to the role despite his lack of time in that position.

‘It’s been a while since I got a lot of minutes at ten but I didn’t feel rusty out there,’ he said. ‘I’m confident in my own ability wherever I get picked. I know I can go out there and play my best and hopefully add to the team, which I think I’ve done in this Six Nations.’

The utility back was pleased that his team held on for victory but admitted they should have been out of sight after going 19-6 up early in the second half.

‘We just couldn’t seem to get a foothold in the game then and there were a couple of line-outs that didn’t go our way,’ he said. ‘We know the Italians like to play from everywhere, they’re dangerous from everywhere, and our discipline probably didn’t help that.

‘You’ve just got to be red-hot on certain things and we weren’t on everything. We knew that they like to throw the ball around so our defence would have to be really good and we talked a lot about our discipline but in certain areas of the game we kind of stacked penalties and that gave them a foothold in the second half.’

He may have felt his team could have thrown the game away due to their second-half lapse but his captain Jamie Ritchie (pictured with Kinghorn, below) was never in doubt they would win.

Although most of the Scotland fans would have shared the concern felt by Kinghorn, the Scotland captain went as far as to suggest the result was never in question. ‘I wasn’t worried and I didn’t feel anxious at all,’ said Ritchie. ‘When you win a Test match it’s always a good feeling. Italy have deserved more from this tournament, they’ve played a lot of good rugby and they put us under huge amounts of pressure. I’m delighted we won. ‘Credit to Italy who played some really good rugby and put us under a bit of pressure. At the end Italy were five metres away from our line but we were confident in our defence and in how we were playing and scored up the other end.

‘Before the Six Nations, I said we wanted five good performances and we got four-and-a-half as we weren’t good in the second half against Ireland.

‘Today was a tough one, it was a solid performance. We dug it out, and we did well in the end. We’re third behind the two top teams in the world in the Six Nations and that’s a positive.’

Italy head coach Kieran Crowley said his side could have won the game and felt his team had gained ‘respect and credibility’ despite losing all five of their Six Nations games.

‘Scotland finished their opportunities, we didn’t finish ours,’ he said. ‘We keep turning up at the office and not getting the breaks and hopefully a bounce of the ball will go our way one day. It was one hell of a game. Scotland gave it everything, we gave it everything.

‘We had opportunities to get over the line in a couple of games and we haven’t so we have to learn from that. Scotland dominated the first half and we could have folded but I’d go to war every day of the week with these boys. They just get back up. We had an opportunity to win at the end but didn’t take it.

‘Overall though we have made massive strides in this Six Nations.’

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2023-03-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

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