After dominating yet another match without fully capitalizing on their chances, Scotland now face the formidable challenge of a trip to Paris to take on a high-flying French side that has been scoring even more freely. Despite the difficulty of the task ahead, Scotland are relishing the opportunity.
Gregor Townsend acknowledged the scale of the challenge his team will face. “France scored 70 points against a very good Italian team. They got 40 points against Wales, 40 points against Ireland. I think they could have 40 or 50 points against England with the amount of chances they had. Just now, this is probably the toughest fixture in world rugby. They beat the All Blacks in November. So we can’t wait to be involved in it. They’ll be going for the title, but it’s an opportunity for us to go out and play against one of the best teams right now.”
This will be a very different encounter from their recent match. Once again, just as they had against England in the previous round when they ended up losing despite their dominance Scotland controlled most of the match but struggled to finish off their opponents. They eventually secured a six-point win, though it could have ended differently if not for an intervention by the television match official. Taulupe Faletau thought he had scored with five minutes remaining, but Blair Murray had jumped into a tackler earlier in the move, leading to the try being disallowed.
“I think we thought straight away that you can’t jump to evade a tackle,” said Townsend. “Jamie Ritchie, who was captain at the time, was asking the referee to check it, but the TMO had already highlighted it. I thought it was an easy decision.”
Wales’s coach, Matt Sherratt, agreed that the offence had taken place, though the ruling was undoubtedly frustrating given how unnecessary it seemed. Had the try stood, Wales might have pulled off an unlikely victory. There was still time for Max Llewellyn to score Wales’s fourth try at the end, with the conversion bringing them within six points.
“Obviously it was a really brave effort to come back and get two bonus points,” said Sherratt. “But I’ve seen enough of those games where the reality is, Scotland probably thought they’d done enough and maybe dropped off 5%.
“But there was a hell of a lot of effort from our boys in that last 20 minutes. It was nice to get the bonus points, but more pleasing to me was seeing the desperation in defending their line in the final quarter. It was almost like it was a one-score game. The amount of tackles some of our forwards were putting in during those sets was outstanding.”
Wales, too, have a thrilling encounter ahead in the final round. “I can’t wait. Straightaway, in the huddle, the players said it’s not a week to lick your wounds. There’s no greater challenge than England in Cardiff. It’s something the boys can’t wait for.”
