Gregor Townsend: Scotland can be match for anybody in remaining 2026 fixtures

His team beat England, Wales and France but lost their opener to Italy and, on Saturday, their final match against Ireland who continue to hold a hex over Townsend’s side.

The coach’s theory will be put to the test in July when Scotland face a searching examination of their credentials in the inaugural Nations Championship.

The new tournament pits the Six Nations teams against the best of the Southern Hemisphere across the summer and autumn Test windows.

The Scots open with an away game against Argentina in Cordoba on July 4 followed by a trip to Pretoria to play world champions South Africa at altitude a week later. The first part of the campaign ends back at Murrayfield on July 18 against Fiji who will play their ‘home’ games in Europe.

It doesn't get any easier in the autumn, with Scotland scheduled to host New Zealand, Australia and Japan in Edinburgh in November before a final play-off match at Twickenham to determine final standings.

The Nations Championship will have a more competitive edge than the traditional tours and Townsend hopes it will raise standards.

“It's the first time that I've been involved as a coach that we've had two top five teams in the world that we're going to take on in the summer,” he said. “We tend to go to more developing nations or nations outside the top six or seven. And we've had a lot of young players involved in those tours. Whereas now we want to carry on what we've obviously been delivering in the last few weeks and go to these venues with the best team we can select and give it a real crack.”

Mainly positive for Scotland

Scotland had to settle for third place in the Six Nations, equalling their highest finish in the competition, and there was a sense of frustration that they couldn’t break into the top two for the first time. Their stunning 50-40 win over France in round four set them up for a shot at the title and the Triple Crown in Dublin but Ireland’s 43-21 triumph put paid to that.

It was, nonetheless, a mainly positive campaign for the Scots, particularly after the trauma of autumn which saw them lose to New Zealand and Argentina after being in positions to win both games. The match with the Pumas was particularly harrowing as Scotland let slip a 21-0 lead by conceding five tries in the final 23 minutes. Townsend felt his squad had learned from that experience, as evidenced by the way they played in the Six Nations wins over England, Wales and France.

“I think the team knows that when they're able to get certain areas of the game right, they can be a match for anybody,” said the coach. “We've played some top teams in this tournament and obviously the level of performance against France was at a very high level, extreme level. That should give the players confidence no matter who they play. But, again, you have to go through the hard work to get the outcomes and you have to go through the defeats, too.

“We have no right to win any game of rugby - no team does - and sometimes those lessons when you lose are painful but they make you a stronger team. That's what we have found from the Argentina defeat.

“This [loss to Ireland] is going to be painful because it's the last game of the campaign so there's nothing we can do about it in training on Monday. But we have Argentina and the Springboks as our next two opponents so we will take a lot out of this game to make us a better team.”

Townsend, who is contracted until the end of next year’s Rugby World Cup, has now presided over nine Six Nations campaigns as head coach, with Scotland finishing third three times, fourth five times and fifth once. He said his desire to lead Scotland remains undimmed.

“I feel hugely privileged to be in this role. And coming off the field at Rome in a monsoon and speaking to the players, I knew we had another opportunity the following week against England. It's disappointing because we didn't get our best performance against Ireland. We didn't get that third quarter performance for 10 or 15 minutes longer. But I was really proud of seeing that performance and knowing that this team has what it takes.”

Scotland lost George Turner, Jack Dempsey and Kyle Rowe to injury in Dublin but none was serious, according to Townsend. Turner went off in the first half after clashing heads with team-mate Max Williamson and also hurting his neck but seemed okay in the changing room. Dempsey was hampered by “a couple of niggles” which were not related to the bicep injury he sustained against England. Rowe suffered a dead leg soon after coming off the bench in the second half and was replaced by Tom Jordan.