Townsend praises Scotland’s performance

Editor

Scotland coach Gregor Townsend shared the pride he felts for his players for their momentous effort against New Zealand on Saturday evening.

He also said he that expects even more from his side against Australia this weekend. 

 “I don’t think we’ll have as heavy a week as we had this week," Townsend told scotsman.com. “The effort the players put in I don’t think many will be around on Monday.” 

The Scotland medical staff sadly have to deal with a few injury concerns following their narrow 22-17 loss. Flanker Hamish Watson (back), tighthead Zander Fagerson (concussion), debutant replacement back-row Luke Hamilton (ankle) and centre Alex Dunbar (concussion) were all injured in the in the Test.  

 Despite the injury concerns, Scotland's performance against the All Blacks will give them confidence going into the Wallabies Test.

“We know Australia better than New Zealand having played them twice in the last 12 months, including in the summer so it’ll be fresh in the memories of the players,” added Townsend. 
 
 “We’ve got to be better next week, every game we want to take what we’ve learned and be a better team. “I watched a lot of the Australia game and it was much closer than the scoreline suggested. 
 
"They’ll be hurting from the defeat to England and against us in the summer. “We’ve got arguably an even bigger challenge next week. We’ll have to be better.”