‘Something to smile about’: Townsend salutes Scotland after shocking England

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Gregor Townsend said Scotland’s supporters now had “something to smile about for the next 12 months” after his side regained the Calcutta Cup with a stunning 30-21 victory over England.The hosts ran out comfortable winners and Townsend said Scotland produced “some of the best rugby we’ve ever played” in the opening quarter.Given their wounding defeat to Italy on the opening weekend it will certainly rank among Scotland’s most memorable wins under Townsend, who has now been the architect of five Six Nations wins over England in six years.The head coach was full of praise for his players afterwards and says he was extremely proud of the reaction to the defeat by Italy.“I’m quite emotional,” Townsend told ITV Sport.

“After 20 minutes I thought that was some of the best rugby we’ve ever played,So much ambition,That’s all you want as a coach,Then the effort in the second half … we became a real team that will fight for each other and our supporters,It’s great we can give them something to smile about for the next 12 months.

“We were just true to ourselves,We moved the ball away from contact, were aggressive in contact and played at speed,That was one of Finn Russell’s best performances for Scotland,The work rate from our forwards was superb,“There are so many games where you play well but the opposition play well too and get narrow wins.

We know we’re up there with the teams we come up against.For coaches, there is more a feeling of relief but for the players it’s joy.But we’re back on it next week.We’ll go to Cardiff and build on what we’ve done today.”The Scotland captain, Sione Tuipulotu, acknowledged the Italian disappointment had fuelled his side’s desire to take down England.

“I did really feel desperate this week …I can’t remember hurting like that after a game,” said Tuipulotu, who felt his side had “bossed” an England team previously unbeaten in 12 Tests,“For us to pick ourselves up again … I’m so proud of the coaching staff and the group,It’s not easy to be in that changing room and not get the results,“It’s hard at times to sit in the chair I’m sitting in,Now I really want us to back up this performance next week in a stadium we’ve previously had problems in.

I feel this is a performance that can change a lot.”Scotland do have some injury problems to manage, with Jack Dempsey (biceps) and Jamie Ritchie (knee) out of next week’s game against Wales and Jamie Dobie nursing a shoulder injury.England’s head coach, Steve Borthwick, acknowledged his side were blown away in the first quarter and were left with too much ground to make up after Henry Arundell’s red card.“I am bitterly disappointed,” said Borthwick.“Scotland got an advantage from the aerial contest and from those loose balls they attacked really well.

Clearly playing such a large part of the game without a winger against a team moving the ball to the edge that much hurt us,Ultimately it gave us too much to do in the second half,“To have conceded the points we conceded in the first 20 minutes was disappointing,We played against New Zealand and were 12-0 down and we reeled them in,Unfortunately we gave Scotland too much of a head start and playing 30 minutes of that first 50 with 14 men hurt us.

He [Arundell] is disappointed as all the players are but he will bounce back.”
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