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Townsend to lead Scotland to 2023 Rugby World Cup

10 Dec 2020

Gregor Townsend

Scotland Head Coach Gregor Townsend will lead his country to the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France after signing a new contract for a further two years, the union have confirmed.

Townsend took on the Scotland role in 2017 and becomes Scotland’s longest serving Head Coach of the professional era with this extension to his current agreement.

The former Glasgow Warriors Head Coach has been at the helm for 40 Tests at the conclusion of the 2020 Autumn Nations Cup, with 22 victories and a draw equating to a 55% win percentage to date, and had previously taken Scotland to its highest place in the world rankings of fifth in 2017/18 season.

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Townsend has restructured the Scotland coaching group following Rugby World Cup 2019, laying the foundations for a five-match unbeaten run during 2020.

Under Townsend in 2019, Scotland also retained the Calcutta Cup for the first time since 1983 after victory over England in 2018 at BT Murrayfield and a thrilling 38-38 draw at Twickenham the following year.

Speaking on the new deal, Gregor Townsend said: “I am honoured and privileged to have been given the opportunity to continue in my role as Scotland head coach. I will be doing all I can, alongside an outstanding support staff, to improve the team as we build towards Rugby World Cup 2023 in France.

“Over the past year I believe we have made progress on and off the field which give real grounds for optimism around what this team can achieve.

“I know how much our supporters want the team to do well and the backing for the team has been fantastic, especially during the difficulties of the past year with Covid, knowing how much of a lift the country gets when the national team is successful.

“We have a very talented and hard-working group of players, with growing depth in a number of positions. We will be putting all our efforts into unlocking that potential and helping our players deliver their best performances when they come together for our future campaigns.”

Scottish Rugby Chief Executive, Mark Dodson, said: “I am really pleased we can continue to have Gregor lead the Scotland team over the next couple of years and into the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

“I’ve been impressed with how Gregor has refocussed his approach over the last 12 months following the disappointing results at the RWC 2019 and believe he the right man to continue an anticipated upward trajectory of this group of players and coaches.

“International rugby has never been such a competitive arena and Scottish Rugby is determined to keep pace with other nations and having a talented and respected coach like Gregor on board is an important factor in helping us achieve that.”

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Comments on RugbyPass

SG 35 minutes ago

All Black's England switch hanging by a thread

England have absolutely no need for him. Tom Willis and Ben Earl are better with a much higher work rate.

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Thomas Walsh 40 minutes ago

Super Rugby Pacific's rebirth can finally restore the missing All Blacks edge

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0 Go to comments

JW 58 minutes ago

'Ulster, though no one wants to admit it, isn't much more than a development province right now.'

No full games on the IRU YT channel unfortunately, all on subscription? Looks a fairly good level (1A).

Yes I mean I wouldn’t really know the local ratio of origin here, but certainly as a province with less resources mine has a ratio that veers heavily towards club rep. The club stories are often the best so get probably an imbalanced proportion of coverage to where most players actually come from though.

Those were a couple of Ulster (regional) clubs too, good good. Those clubs/size towns are very much where you find most talent coming from (compared to the big city), so your productivity depends very much on your systems in place for scouting talent. With the more wealthy and popular sport of NRL (hence more info out there) I’ve seen some interesting studies on player origins in this respect, which I think would be a very balanced base of data to draw conclusions from.

Yes I’m wondering how those names as examples compare to the likes of Bryne getting squeezed out for a lack of places. I’m only thinking of effects far down the line as a result of Irelands #1 ranking and increased publicity/interest and how Irelands system will take advantage of them.

47 Go to comments

GP 1 hour ago

James O'Connor earns first Crusaders start against Moana Pasifika

Regarding the Crusaders side . Great to see promising young lock Jamie Hannah back in the starting team. He has certainly been through the mill since debuting for the Crusaders, even before playing for Canterbury. All his hard work has paid off. Antonio Shalfoon , who has been rested for this match has been amazing locking with AB captain Scott Barrett. I really rate Jamie Hannah as one of the best young locks of which there are a few coming through. Including his Canterbury and Crusaders team mate Liam Jack. Father is Graham Jack ,he played for Canterbury and the Crusaders in the 1990’s. Older brother of Chris, who of course was an All Black.

4 Go to comments

Andrew Nichols 1 hour ago

All Black's England switch hanging by a thread

Gloucester are in the market for a top-class replacement ..Well why would they then be talking to HS?

7 Go to comments

Utiku Old Boy 1 hour ago

All Black's England switch hanging by a thread

I include Cunningham-South. He was born in England but moved to NZ at 4 yrs and learnt his rugby there. His dad was a schoolboy coach. In recent years, Teimana Harrison was - as was Brad Shields.

7 Go to comments

GB 1 hour ago

All Black's England switch hanging by a thread

Cunningham-South was born in the UK but raised in NZ.

Makes a good point, wouldn't walk into the English set up.

Better to roll his sleeves up and play himself into the ABs

7 Go to comments

Spew_81 1 hour ago

Rugby down under could have hit high gear with Anzac Tests

Not sure what the ethical issue is. If it’s going for the money, it’s either do that or NZ rugby slowly dies as all the better players leave. So it’s the more lesser of two evils. Sell out a bit more as a Union, or the players sell out one by one.

41 Go to comments

Spew_81 1 hour ago

Rugby down under could have hit high gear with Anzac Tests

Yes, the team was similar. But the two locks made a huge difference. Kaino wasn’t a lock and Tuipolutu has only very recently started playing close to his potential (his work rate was terrible until recently).

The Irish lineout maul wouldn’t have been the weapon it was on that day if Hansen started Whitelock and Retallick (or even two proper locks). Though they wouldn’t have been guaranteed to win.

Doing the new haka when the Irish were mourning a great of theirs didn’t help. The action at the end of that haka has been interpreted negatively and some see it as a but disrespectful.

Still if the All Blacks did their normal haka they wouldn’t have been guaranteed to win.

41 Go to comments

Koro Teeps 1 hour ago

All Black's England switch hanging by a thread

Absolutely no certainty he would make the current English squad. He’s not in the All Black conversation either. Physical, explosive player with ball in hand but sometimes struggles to impose himself fully on all aspects of the game.

7 Go to comments

DC 1 hour ago

All Black's England switch hanging by a thread

Who are the Kiwis (plural)? The only one I can think of is Ethan Root.

7 Go to comments

Gradier Walter 3 hours ago

Don't get out over your skis on the Highlanders