Gregor Townsend urges Scotland to finish tour ‘on a real high’ against ‘battle-hardened’ Uruguay

Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend is determined for his players to finish their tour of the Americas with a clean sweep of victories next weekend.

After notching victories against Scotland and the USA, the Scots were in a rampant mood against Chile in Santiago on Saturday as they cruised to a 52-11 triumph.

Scotland outscored their hosts by eight tries to one with Kyle Rowe and Jamie Dobie leading the way with a brace apiece while Josh Bayliss, Matt Currie, Dylan Richardson and Kyle Steyn also dotted down.

The Scots will bring down the curtain on their tour when they face Uruguay in Montevideo on Saturday, but Townsend will only be able to pick a team of Scottish-based players due to the match falling outside the designated Test window.

Not underestimating Uruguay

“It will be a new challenge, none of us have been to Uruguay before,” he said. “They were very good in the World Cup, I was really impressed with them against France and they pushed Italy close as well.

“They’ve had some matches (this month), they’ve played France and Argentina, so they’re battle-hardened, they’ll have a cohesive team and we’ll have a new team.

“We’ve got a number of players leaving to go back home but the group that’s still going to be here can’t wait to play against Uruguay and finish the tour and the season on a real high.”

Scotland weather Chile physicality to claim eight-try victory in Santiago

Townsend gave an international debut to Edinburgh hooker Patrick Harrison who came off the bench in the 47th minute against Chile to the delight of the head coach.

“I’m really pleased for Patrick,” he said. “He’s had to wait three weeks for his game but he’s trained really well and he showed a fair bit of what he’s been doing well in training: really accurate line-outs, strong maul carrying and really good energy in attack and defence.”

Despite fielding an experimental Scotland side against Chile, Townsend praised his players for the performance they delivered.

‘A proper Test match’

“I thought it was a proper Test match in terms of the atmosphere, the physicality that Chile brought, the pressure they put us under early on but I was really pleased with how we responded and how our accuracy improved as the game went on,” said head coach Townsend.

“It was a new team but they gelled on the field. I thought the communication was very good and then we showed our fitness in the second half.

“I thought we could have played for another 10 or 20 minutes as well, our players are looking really sharp even this close to the end of the season which is a credit to them.

“It was a pleasing final 60 minutes of the game, particularly the second half when we went through the gears and looked really sharp.”

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