Gregor Townsend believes it was not the “true” Scotland who were well beaten by Wales in their Six Nations opener and he is backing his players to salvage their hopes in the competition at home against France on Sunday.
Townsend’s team were expected to mount a serious bid in the Six Nations this year after impressive autumn performances. But they fell flat in an error-strewn display to lose 34-7 against Wales in the opening match of the championship.
“The responsibility for last week lies with the coaches and myself,” said Townsend, who has made six changes to the team which will take on Jacques Brunel’s side. “We put a team out to perform. Whether it is selection or how we prepared, the first thing we look at is how we could have done it better.
Scotland’s gamble of starting with Ali Price against proves costly error | Andy Bull
“We, as a coaching group, and especially the players, believe that what we showed at the weekend wasn’t a true reflection of what we are capable of and what we have done throughout 2017. But I really believe in the group of players. We underperformed – it happens every now and again. You don’t want it to happen, you think hard about why it happened and you go to a lot of measures to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
“But this is an excellent group of players that have shown that over the last year.
“Our focus is now on France. We have two huge games coming up at Murrayfield to show what we are capable of.”
The Scotland XV which starts on Sunday contains 132 more caps than the side humbled by Wales. Townsend has recalled the former captain Greig Laidlaw as well as the centre Peter Horne, the wing Sean Maitland, the prop Simon Berghan, the lock Grant Gilchrist and the No 8 Ryan Wilson.
The scrum-half Ali Price – whose intercepted pass handed Wales’ Gareth Davies the crucial opening score in Cardiff – is joined on the bench by last week’s starters Jon Welsh, Ben Toolis and Chris Harris. Cornell du Preez and the injured Byron McGuigan drop out of the 23-man squad.