Another Six Nations ends, another disappointing finish for Scotland. Here, former Scotland captains ANDY NICOL and JASON WHITE give their take on the tournament… and the future of head coach Gregor Townsend.
Gregor Townsend has a year left on his contract — is he still the right man for the job?
ANDY NICOL: I think he is.
Scotland have improved under Gregor. The trouble is so have all the other countries apart from Wales.
He will be hugely frustrated that the most games he has won in any Six Nations championship is three and that doesn’t get the job done; you need to win a minimum of four to have a chance of winning the title.
Scotland have probably the best back line in the Six Nations but the injuries up front to the like of Scott Cummings and Alex Williamson meant that we didn’t have the power and the bulk to compete against the French or the Irish.
The key to Gregor staying or going may not be down to what he has or has not done in the job; it might be determined by other vacancies.
Franco Smith is in the shop window and Wales may come calling to take him away from Glasgow which could, in turn, force the hand of Murrayfield to act quickly if they want to keep Smith in the Scottish system.
JASON WHITE: There are many positives around how we are playing as a nation and our attacking intent. Gregor deserves a lot of credit for that.
There is, however, the frustration from the fans and ex-players like myself that we can’t take that next step and produce the level of performance that we need once or twice every tournament and it hurts us so much as fans.
Would anyone coming in make a difference when it is the players who need to deliver on the pitch? Overall, my feeling is that Gregor still has the respect of the group and they give everything they can.
There will undoubtedly be a full review now trying to pinpoint the areas to improve and I expect David Nucifora to have the chance to have an impact and start to put his mark down.
Townsend’s future as Scotland coach could be determined by developments elsewhere
Franco Smith has put himself in the shop window with his work at Glasgow Warriors
What positives did you take from the tournament for Scotland?
NICOL: Scotland’s attack is world class. We scored some stunning tries and when we are on, we are brilliant to watch. We caused France all sorts of trouble on Saturday night with the pace and flair that we attacked with.
Finn Russell is world class and so are the back three of Duhan Van der Merwe, Darcy Graham and Blair Kinghorn, who complement each other well.
I thought Tom Jordan looked class and played really well but we did miss Sione Tuipulotu. The emergence of Gregor Brown was encouraging.
WHITE: Our style of play is excellent to watch and suits our players. Our backline was on fire for every game (except the Irish fixture) and we have a number of players who can rightly be described as world class. Kinghorn has really stepped up to be a key player alongside Huw Jones, Graham and Russell. They are all very good.
And negatives?
NICOL: The injuries to key players highlighted the lack of real depth in certain positions.
We are light at tighthead with no real replacement for Zander Fagerson. Losing at Twickenham encapsulated the real negative for me and that is that Scotland were not ruthless and clinical enough.
The game was there to be won at Twickenham, so many line breaks, so many opportunities to put England away and we didn’t take them.
We had Wales on the floor at Murrayfield but let them back into the game. We could easily have done to Wales what England did if we had been more clinical and ruthless.
WHITE: Not having Sione was a real blow.
He has developed so quickly into a key player and leader. We will never know what difference he would have made. Our inability to put in an 80-minute performance has been so costly and is a mental drop off more than anything else.
Most frustrating for me is our match-up versus Ireland every year going the way of the men in green.
Their style of play and ours have not produced a genuinely close game in a number of years. It is going to take something special to win in Dublin when we next play them.
Is it realistic to expect Scotland to be able to increase the depth of talent they have?
NICOL: Yes. However, we do not have the number of players like other countries and we only have two professional teams, which means there is no real opportunity to blood young players in a professional environment.
However, we simply must do better developing young players than we have done in the last decade or so. The Under-20s have been really struggling of late. They beat Wales and narrowly lost to France recently, which is encouraging, but the system must improve fundamentally.
WHITE: It is always going to be a real challenge only having two professional teams to make our pool deeper.
We need to find a way for our younger players to be exposed to higher levels of rugby sooner. This is the main area in which David Nucifora can make a real impact and show his value.
If I had a magic wand, it would be a third pro team in the North of Scotland, but that costs a huge amount of money that the SRU just don’t have and would need external investment.
Duhan van der Merwe is one of several Scotland players who can be described as world class
And finally, were France worthy victors?
NICOL: Yes, but they will rue it not being a Grand Slam. They absolutely blew it at Twickenham when they butchered so many tries from their own handling errors.
They scored 43 points against Wales, 73 against Italy, 42 against Ireland, 36 against Scotland and would have scored over 40 against England if they had taken some of their chances.
They are some team right now, mixing power and physicality with incredible speed and flair.
Quite the modern-day combination and only South Africa can compete with this type of game at the moment.
WHITE: France for me were excellent and worthy winners. Their style of play, strength in depth and a super bench coming on to close out games made them the best team.
Their defence in the first 25 minutes versus Ireland won that game and set them up for the title.
Even without the injured Antoine Dupont, they had too much across the board and it is a fair reflection of the strength of the Top 14 getting its act together and working well together.
