Townsend thrilled with Scotland improvement

Gregor Townsend hailed Scotland’s character and their improvement from the thrashing at the hands of Wales after they came from behind to beat France 32-26 in the Six Nations.

Having been thumped 34-7 by Wales in the tournament opener, Scotland appeared on course for another defeat when France raced into a 10-0 lead inside 10 minutes.

Les Bleus led 20-14 at half-time at Murrayfield but Scotland fought back brilliantly in the second half, six second-half penalties from Greig Laidlaw turning the game in their favour.

Next up for Scotland is a pivotal clash with defending champions England in Edinburgh in two weeks’ time as they aim to win the trophy for the first time since 1999 – the last year of the tournament being the Five Nations.

Speaking to BBC Sport after the match, Townsend said: “[I’m] happier than last week that’s for sure. The effort it takes to win a Test match is huge and doing it from behind shows the character in the squad.

“We were a bit more direct in the second half and we got our reward. France were excellent at the breakdown, at times they did go off their feet and they got penalised.

Greig Laidlaw also surpassed 600 points for Scotland this afternoon pic.twitter.com/11M8eDd4Cu

— Scottish Rugby (@Scotlandteam) February 11, 2018

“Our forwards had such a massive game in the set piece and did so well, but they were still carrying.”

Townsend took off fly-half Finn Russell with 15 minutes left, replacing him with scrum-half Ali Price and moving Laidlaw to the number 10 spot, and the decision paid dividends.

“It was mentioned during the week and we ran a couple of plays this morning. It was really seeing how Greig was and Ali brings so much from the bench. Greig’s kicking was important so we kept him on,” Townsend added.

“We were much better this week. To get back into the game and to be much more accurate than last week was pleasing.”