Gregor Townsend believes the make-up of the All Black side that will face his men at Murrayfield tomorrow is already an indicator of having regained respect from the world’s best side and he is hopeful that will result in more opportunities to challenge them in future.
Depleted by the loss of vice captain Ryan Wilson as well as tighthead prop Willem Nel, resulting in respective call-ups for Cornell du Preez and Zander Fagerson, the Scotland coach has selected the 30th Scotland team to attempt to achieve what their predecessors have failed to by becoming the first to beat the All Blacks in a Test match.
In doing so he reckoned the recent improvement in Scotland’s performances under the tourists’ fellow New Zealander Vern Cotter, which carried into his own reign when Scotland beat the Wallabies in the summer, has made an impact.
Read more: All Blacks are taking no chances this time against improved Scots
“It shows that they view us as a very competitive side that they have to play their best to beat,” he said of opposite number Steve Hansen’s decision to keep changes to his side to a minimum following last weekend’s 38-18 thrashing of France in St Denis.
That was a shift away from their policy of the past decade in which they have tended to play sub-strength sides at Murrayfield, such was their confidence that they could do so and still win.
Townsend meanwhile chose to bring up the matter of how long it has been since Scotland were invited to tour New Zealand, which is another indicator of their view of the drawing power of opponents who shipped 215 points in their last four Tests on New Zealand soil in 1996 and 2000.
“We don’t play them very often New Zealand,” he said. “We’ve not been in New Zealand for 17 years, which is a real shame. We used to tour there every five or six years. Now we’ve got an opportunity at home in front of 67,000 to give our best and put pressure on them for 80 minutes.”
He played in all four of those tour Tests and, in spite of being on the wrong end of such thrashings, is keen to see Scotland tour New Zealand again, such is the opportunity to learn.
“It is disappointing that we haven’t been to New Zealand for such a long while, but that was the previous agreement on tours and we missed out on going there. I do believe that will change in the next few years,” he asserted. “I’d like to hope that we’ll be back out there within the next two or three seasons because it is a great environment to test yourself, to learn from. There’s a number of our players who are playing on Saturday have had experiences in New Zealand, Grant Gilchrist, Jonny Gray, Finn Russell have all been out there for three or four months and came back as better players for that experience.”
On a personal level he admitted that the prospect of facing the All Blacks always had an effect, while noting that if anything their aura of invincibility has grown since his playing days.
“I just think you knew it was the ultimate test, so the focus went up a few notches,” he said.
“It’s the biggest challenge that any country, any player faces in rugby, to play the best rugby team. They’ve been the number one ranked team for eight years I heard today. There’s not many nations or clubs that can do that in any sport, so you know it’s the ultimate test, so you know you’ve got to get the focus, the best out of yourself and your team-mates and view it as an opportunity. It’s a huge challenge and also a huge opportunity for our players (but) if you go to Paris in the rain and put thirty points on a French team in the first half that shows them how good they are and how quickly they have adjusted to playing in the northern hemisphere.”
Read more: All Blacks are taking no chances this time against improved Scots
In acknowledging that it is impossible to be unaware of the rugby standing of tomorrow’s opponents, however, he stressed that Scotland cannot afford to be overawed.
“We’ve got a job to do and that’s to play as well as we can to win the game for our country and in any game you’ve got to take the game to the opposition in attack and defence. So we admire the way New Zealand play, I love New Zealand as a country and the New Zealand people, but when you play any team, if you want to lose you’ll just sit back and admire their play, if you want to win you’ll really go at them. That’s what we have to do and that’s what we’re planning to do and I believe that’s what our players will do,” said Townsend.
In saying so there is an obvious awareness that the defensive failings that allowed the side ranked 16th in the world to score five tries against them last weekend would invite a full strength All Blacks side to run rampant as they have done so often before. While they have not gone past the 60 point mark since that Scotland tour of New Zealand in 2000, even when fielding weakened sides they registered a round century of points on the two visits to Murrayfield before the rather closer run affair in 2014 when Greig Laidlaw’s side lost just 24-16.
“Last week’s game we want to learn from (and) fix the things that did not work,” said Townsend. “We do feel there was a different context. This week we are very aware the threats New Zealand pose. The way the Samoan game went. It got quite loose and open. If we do that this weekend we will concede. We are not denying that so we must make sure we don’t give any cheap ball to New Zealand as close to our try line as we did last week.”
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