Scotland’s players have earned themselves a day off today following their narrow defeat by the All Blacks, but the message from the camp was that they must now show they are capable of sustaining the excellence shown for long periods on Saturday.
Their performance, in losing just 22-17 to the world’s best side, was uplifting on a day of high emotion which began with a moving tribute to Doddie Weir, the former Scotland international who has been stricken by Motor Neurone Disease and saw the team’s Stuart Hogg-inspired performance thrill another full house at BT Murrayfield. However they know they must play at least as well against a wounded Wallaby side next weekend to end their autumn Test series on a high.
“We’ll not have as heavy a week as last week,” said coach Gregor Townsend. “The effort the players put in I don’t think many will be around on Monday.”
Read more: Gary Armstrong: Emotion and Scotland's effort made Saturday special against the All Blacks
That is partly down to having less in the way of homework to do on opponents they have already played this year and in three of the previous four, but he echoed the attitude espoused by the side that beat his men on Saturday by urging them to keep seeking improvements.
“We know Australia better than New Zealand, having played them twice in the last 12 months and played them in the summer so it’ll be fresh in the memories of the players. We’ve got to be better next week. Every game we want to take what we’ve learned and be a better team.”
While the Wallabies were ultimately heavily beaten by England, losing 30-6, Townsend noted that it would be a mistake to read too much into a scoreline which was a consequence of the home team scoring three tries in the last 10 minutes, while he knows Australia also have a point to prove in Edinburgh.
Read more: Doddie Weir will always be a Scotland hero
“I watched a lot of the Australia game today and it was much closer than the scoreline suggested. They’ll be hurting, for the defeat to England and against us in the summer,” he said. “We’ve got arguably an even bigger challenge next week. We’ll have to be better.”
Scotland’s have gained ground on Australia in the last decade that has seen the sides claims three wins apiece in six Test matches and they know they need to beat them to reinforce the impression of real improvement.
“They will be looking to come here to get revenge, but at the same time we want to prove that that wasn’t a one-off,” said scrum-half Ali Price, referring back to the win in Sydney last summer.
“We are a side that is improving and when we come back in, we are geared up to win next Saturday. It’s a huge challenge because they are on a bit of a roll, bar the result [against England], but we won the last game against them and we will be looking to continue that.”
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