Following his side’s record breaking 53-24 victory over the world number three Australia, Scotland coach Gregor Townsend last night claimed ‘the best atmosphere in the international game’ has been a significant factor in their action packed performances this autumn.
Full houses have witnessed three matches that have seen Scotland register 16 tries in beating Samoa, narrowly losing to New Zealand’s All Blacks, then routing the Wallabies to hold onto The Hopetoun Cup and he believes there is more to come when the Six Nations Championship gets underway in the New Year.
“We get the energy from the crowd and BT Murrayfield the last two weeks has been fantastic,” he said.
“It’s the best atmosphere in the international game just now and it’s great for our players to experience that and thrive off that.
“There’s been a lot of positivity around Scottish rugby and a lot of work gone in, in the last few years. It’s great to get that win against the current third team in the world.”
Townsend noted that the squad has shown its resilience in coping with a number of setbacks in the course of these matches, not least when their inspiration of the previous week, Stuart Hogg, was forced to pull out of this match due to a hip injury just 25 minutes before kick off, his place taken by Byron McGuigan who scored two tries and won the man-of-the-match award on his first Test start.
“We’re well aware that there were a lot of players who could have been playing today who will come back into the mix, but it shows the depth we have and what the players are doing coming through from the age-groups and the pro teams,” said the coach.
“It’s an exciting time to be involved with Scottish rugby. Now we’ve got to build on that to bottle it to ensure that this energy, enjoyment and hard work keeps on going because we’ve got some hard Tests coming up – Wales, France and England are our next three games and they will really test us. They are excellent teams but we have to go into that Six Nations with real confidence that we can do well.”
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