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Townsend makes shock admission about Scotland's halftime team talk

Scotland have named their team to take on Georgia on Saturday

Gregor Townsend believed Scotland had no chance of turning around their Six Nations clash with England before a stunning second half at Twickenham.

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The visitors trailed 31-0 in the first half after England made a sensational start, yet Scotland could have won the tie after six tries without reply saw Sam Johnson’s score put them in front late on.

There was still time for England to belatedly rally and cross through George Ford to earn a draw, although Scotland retained the Calcutta Cup.

And visiting coach Townsend admitted afterwards that the second-half display from his side was beyond any expectations he had at the break.

“Do you want to talk about the first half or the second half?” Townsend joked to ITV Sport. “We showed a lot of character today. To respond the way we did in the second half, I was more than proud.

“We set a goal of winning the second half – not winning the game. We thought it was gone when you’re 31-7 down.

“But it’s amazing what can happen in a game of rugby. Momentum can swing and we can get confidence and take the game to the opposition like we did in the second half.

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“Ultimately, we’re the team that’s really disappointed to have drawn the game.”

Outlining his half-time team talk, Townsend added: “We talked about winning the second half and coming out with respect. How we did that was to stick with the tactics.”

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fl 1 hour ago
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I don't listen to Nigel Farage. Really not sure where you'd be getting that from. Maybe you should stick to responding to what I've actually said, rather than speculating about my sources.


I'm not sure what you think Putin is going to do. He'll probably conquer Ukraine, but its taken him a long time, and cost him a lot of soldiers. Hitler overran France in a matter of weeks and then started bombing Britain. At this rate Putin might make it to Paris by 2080? I think he'll give up long before then!


I don't see what Stalinist language policy has to do with any of what we're talking about. De-Ukrainization took place in the 1930s, but the genocide of Palestine is taking place in 2025. If your argument is that the invasion of Ukraine is part of a longer history of Russian suppression of Ukraine then you might have a point, but that really just underlines the key difference between Hitler and Putin; Hitler wanted to dominate as much area as possible and so posed a threat to all of Europe, whereas Putin wants to force the assimilation of those who have historically been within the Russian sphere of influence, so only poses a threat to eastern europe and central asia.


"Read and think for yourself."

What would you recommend I read? On the genocide of Palestine I've found Patrick Wolfe's "Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native" and Sai Englert's "Settlers, Workers, and the Logic of Accumulation by Dispossession" especially useful - they might disabuse you of the notion that what we are witnessing is an "authoritarian criminal syndicate" fighting a nation! - rather Zionist genocide is a largely democratic process, arising from a structure of settler colonialism which has no analogue in Ukraine.

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