Scotland’s Townsend takes swipe at Boks ahead of France clash
To all those South African fans think that being the world champions and number one in the world rankings make the Springboks the best team in the world, Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend begs to differ.
The Scotland boss labelled France as the ‘best team in the world’ ahead of Saturday’s visit to Murrayfield in the Six Nations rather than South Africa. This is despite the fact that Les Bleus have not even played South Africa since 2018, rather this is based on their victory over the All Blacks in the autumn and Ireland two weeks ago.
Townsend may still be feeling slightly bitter towards the Boks, not only because he was part of the British & Irish Lions coaching team last year that lost to them, but his Scotland side were also beaten by South Africa later that year, where he accused Rassie Erasmus of a “character assassination” during the match.
This is what Townsend said about France: “It’s one of the biggest challenges you get in world rugby when you’re playing arguably the best team in the world, on form a team that’s full of confidence that’s had some big wins and has every player available to them, so it’s one of those challenges that we believe in our squad. They rise up to it. We’ve seen it before and we know from our disappointing defeat to Wales we have to play better, and we’ve seen that reaction in training, and we know we’ll get that reaction at the weekend.”
Scotland XV
15. Stuart Hogg – Exeter Chiefs – (Captain) – 90 caps
14. Darcy Graham – Edinburgh Rugby – 24 caps
13. Chris Harris – Gloucester Rugby – 33 caps
12. Sione Tuipulotu – Glasgow Warriors – 3 caps
11. Duhan van der Merwe – Worcester Warriors – 15 caps
10. Finn Russell – Racing 92 – (Vice-Captain) – 60 caps
9. Ali Price – Glasgow Warriors – 48 caps
1. Pierre Schoeman – Edinburgh Rugby – 6 caps
2. Stuart McInally – Edinburgh Rugby – 45 caps
3. Zander Fagerson – Glasgow Warriors – 44 caps
4. Sam Skinner – Exeter Chiefs – 17 caps
5. Grant Gilchrist – Edinburgh Rugby – (Vice-Captain) – 50 caps
6. Rory Darge – Glasgow Warriors – 1 cap
7. Hamish Watson – Edinburgh Rugby – 47 caps
8. Magnus Bradbury – Edinburgh Rugby – 16 caps
Replacements
16. George Turner – Glasgow Warriors – 22 caps
17. Oli Kebble – Glasgow Warriors – 11 caps
18. WP Nel – Edinburgh Rugby – 45 caps
19. Jamie Hodgson – Edinburgh Rugby – 3 caps
20. Nick Haining – Edinburgh Rugby – 10 caps
21. Ben White – London Irish – 2 caps
22. Blair Kinghorn – Edinburgh Rugby – 29 caps
23. Mark Bennett – Edinburgh Rugby – 22 caps
“It’s one of the biggest challenges you get in world rugby.”
Head Coach Gregor Townsend reflects on his team selection and opponents France ahead of Saturday’s return to BT Murrayfield.#AsOne
— Scottish Rugby (@Scotlandteam) February 24, 2022
