'Gregor Townsend is the Ole Gunnar Solskjaer of rugby'

Manchester United fan Hamish Watson admits he is relieved to see Gregor Townsend is still at the wheel with Scotland. When not pick-pocketing opponents at the breakdown, Edinburgh forward Watson spends his time cheering on the Red Devils.

And he believes he can see similarities in the way Old Trafford boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Townsend have faced down their critics in recent months.

United have turned their season around on the back of a 10-game unbeaten run to put themselves back in the hunt for trophies and a Champions League slot.

Likewise, Scotland have regained momentum after a post-World Cup slump by beating Italy and Grand Slam-chasing France. Watson said: “If you’re doing comparisons then yeah maybe (there is one between Ole and Gregor).

“As a United fan, I’m pretty excited we can still win the FA Cup, the Europa League and still get top four. And Liverpool might have to win their title behind-closed-doors, so no-one will see it anyway.

“In our squad, we’ve always believed in what we were doing. Even though we had a bad World Cup, we’ve always known what this squad is capable of and we’re starting to see that now.

“We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves as we’ve only won two games so we have to back it up on Saturday. But when we lost our first two games we still knew that they were not far away from being wins. There was pressure on us but it’s great to see the way the squad has fronted up to get the wins against Italy and France.

“Gregor did really well to take all the criticism on the chin and look at us now. If we win against Wales we’ll be looking back at this as a tournament of ‘what ifs’. That’s how quickly professional sport changes and I know that from watching Man United and we all know that with rugby as well.”

– Press Association 

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