Gregor Townsend hinted he might be about to increase his reign as Scotland head coach after his aspect ended an encouraging Six Nations marketing campaign with a bonus-point 26-14 win over Italy.
The 49-year-old, who’s out of contract after the World Cup later this yr, stated in January it could be his final tilt on the Six Nations, as he had held no talks with the Scottish Rugby Union about his future.
However, when requested about his personal place after the Italy sport, which all however secured third place within the match, he revealed there have now been conversations and that he expects some readability “soon”.
“I’ve had initial conversations the last couple of weeks, but it’s about getting some time over the next few weeks to have a bigger chat about it in more depth,” he stated. “The focus last two weeks has been these games. After a few days off I’m sure these conversations will start up again.
“I’ve indicated I need some time to think about it, especially when the tournament was in full flow. I’ll have some reflecting and time off and I’m sure the discussions will start again soon.”
Asked if he needed to remain on, Townsend – who has been linked with different vacancies in latest months – stated: “Yes, at this stage, but it’s not the time to be answering these questions. When you’re just off a victory, the crowd are behind the team and you’re connected with the players, of course it’s a great feeling, but I don’t want to commit to anything right now.
“There’s conversations that have started and I imagine they will start up again after some time off. Those weren’t happening a few months ago so we’ll see how they develop.
“Honestly, I’ve tried to put this to the side. Your brain has only so much capacity on one thing and that for me is to do the best I can as the team’s coach.”
Gregor Townsend watched his Scotland group beat Italy to complete their Six Nations marketing campaign
(PA Wire)
Blair Kinghorn scored a hat-trick of tries as he rose to the problem of changing Finn Russell at stand-off.
The versatile Edinburgh again went over the road both aspect of half-time so as to add to an earlier landing by Duhan Van Der Merwe. He then accomplished the scoring within the final second of a hard-fought sport.
Captain Jamie Ritchie was happy his aspect ended the match on a excessive observe, holding off a late Italian fightback to safe a 3rd win from their 5 matches for the primary time since 2018.
“Italy have deserved more from this tournament, they’ve played a lot of good rugby and they put us under huge amounts of pressure so I’m delighted we won that,” he stated..“Before the tournament, I said I wanted five good performances; we got four and a half. Today was a tough one, it was a solid performance. We dug it out, and we did well in the end. We’re third behind the two top teams in the world and that’s a positive.”
