After dominating yet another match without maximising the return on the scoreboard, Scotland now face the daunting prospect of a trip to Paris to take on high-flying France, the one team scoring even more freely than Scotland. They will probably thrive on it.
Gregor Townsend acknowledged that Scotland face the toughest assignment of all on Saturday night. “France scored 70 points against a very good Italian team,” he said. “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, probably this is 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.”
A very different prospect, then, to what Scotland faced here. Once again, just as they had against England in round three – when they actually managed to lose the game – they ran rings around the opposition for most of the match but could not finish them off. In the end, they held on for a six-point win, but it might even have been a loss, but for an intervention by the television match official, when Taulupe Faletau thought he had scored with five minutes remaining. Alas, Blair Murray had jumped into a tackler earlier in the move, so the try was 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 the offence had occurred, even if it must frustrate that it seemed so unnecessary. Had the try stood, Wales might even have earned the unlikeliest of wins. There was time for Max Llewellyn to score Wales’s fourth try at the death, with the conversion bringing them back 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 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 in those sets was outstanding.”
Wales, too, have a classic Test to look forward to 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.”
