{"id":373843,"date":"2026-03-08T05:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T05:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/373843\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T05:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T05:38:10","slug":"gregor-townsend-keeps-his-cool-after-scotland-topple-france-to-stay-in-title-hunt-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/373843\/","title":{"rendered":"Gregor Townsend keeps his cool after Scotland topple France to stay in title hunt \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gregor Townsend<\/a> remained ice cool after Scotland\u2019s<\/a> exhilarating seven-try victory against France<\/a>, which keeps them in the hunt for the title with one round to play, a position Scotland have never known in the Six Nations<\/a>. The win was no big deal, he seemed to be saying.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been other games where it\u2019s probably meant a lot to the group,\u201d he said, \u201cwhether it was a response or to break a record \u2013 away from home in Paris or Wales, or beating England for the first time in a number of years. So they maybe are the ones that have more significance. This [win] is very significant, but just now it\u2019s round four. And it gives us a chance to win in round five.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cool though he may be, the result is vindication for Townsend and Scotland, who have persevered through hideous ups and downs throughout his long tenure as coach, never losing faith in their proactive, attacking game. \u201cA team shouldn\u2019t be judged on wins and losses. It should be judged on performance. Our forward pack stood up in Paris last year in much more difficult circumstances [and lost]. And they stood up today and got the rewards.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Ireland beat a dogged Wales side under the lights at the Aviva<\/p>\n

Kyle Steyn, the player of the match with two tries, expects to be fit for Scotland\u2019s final match in Dublin, the winner of whom will be clubhouse leader, with France playing England later that evening. But resources in the secondrow may be stretched, with Gregor Brown and Scott Cummings significant doubts, the former particularly.<\/p>\n

Sione Tuipulotu, who finished the match in the centre alongside Rory Darge, a flanker, following Steyn\u2019s withdrawal, remains equally level-headed as he prepares to lead his team into one last challenge. <\/p>\n

Tuipulotu said: \u201cIt\u2019s a proud day for us, but I think one we\u2019ve been building towards and one that maybe, if you\u2019d been on our training ground, it\u2019s not that we expected it, but it\u2019s one we felt we were capable of. Today was more about us being us, and probably less about us winning or losing. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s no different this week. We keep our feet on the ground. We know this is a good win for us, but we\u2019ll take the confidence from it and that\u2019s it. We just get back to the training field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scotland will be aware of how they have struggled to back up great performances in the past. This is a rare run of wins for them. One more is now required. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have momentum, definitely,\u201d said Scotland\u2019s captain. \u201cThe belief has been there since before the tournament. Maybe that\u2019s hard for you to see but I\u2019ve been inside the training room. I\u2019ve been in the meetings and listened to Gregor talk, listened to the other coaches. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a very tight changing room that believes, not just after this game but before it too. We\u2019ve got to take that into one final week. We\u2019ve got one more job to do.\u201d \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gregor Townsend remained ice cool after Scotland\u2019s exhilarating seven-try victory against France, which keeps them in the hunt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,116343,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,97580,96426,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-373843","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-gregor-townsend","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-scotland-rugby","23":"tag-six-nations","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116191946592164225","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}