Scotland players rally behind Gregor Townsend as squad reveal how he's been acting

Ahead of last weekend’s Calcutta Cup clash with England, Townsend’s position was put in the spotlight following a Six Nations opening-day defeat by Italy, which came on the back of a disappointing Autumn Nations Series campaign.

Scotland flipped the narrative by beating England 31-20 at Murrayfield on Saturday to take some off the heat from Townsend - and one of his top performers in Gregor Brown admitted he and his teammates felt they needed to step up.

“We knew after last week we owed everybody a performance,” said Brown. “Obviously the weather last week probably didn't allow us to play the kind of running rugby that we want to play and that's our identity. You can't get better conditions than that on Saturday for running rugby, and I think we showed that we want to move the ball, play with the ball in hand, and obviously got the result off the back of that.

“I think we definitely owed him [Townsend] a performance. It's tough seeing your coach taking criticism for what you’re doing on the field. He's not out there with us. But everybody has complete 100 per cent backing in the game plan.

“We love the style of rugby we play. I personally love the way we play the game, getting the forwards in the game, rolling on the ball. And it's tough when things don't go our way that it lands on his head. So I'm honestly really, really pleased about the result for him more than anybody because he's come under so much tough criticism which I think we all think has been unjust. And we're the ones out there at the end of the day. It's tough seeing somebody else take the blame for mistakes you've made.”

Townsend keeps his cool

Asked if he noticed anything different in Townsend in the build-up to the match, Brown continued: “No and I think that's massive credit to him. No matter what's going on, we often talk about the bubble within the camp. We need to just keep focused on the opinions that matter, the ones of your teammates and your coaches really.

“I think such a major strength of this group is that outside noise doesn't really affect us. We obviously knew that off the back of last week in Italy there was some pressure to perform this week but that was more from ourselves than anybody else. We knew that we had way more in the tank, and we wanted to play a different kind of game, and so I'm glad we did that. It was awesome.”

Scrum-half Ben White also echoed Brown’s sentiments. “Obviously we’re aware of everything that goes on outside of the environment,” said White. “People are passionate and when you’re playing for your country, people just want wins and success, and that’s what we want as well.

“It’s nothing personal, it’s part of the privilege of playing for your country. With how tough the week had been, I think to put on that performance it made it extra sweet.

“I just love it, that’s why I play rugby, to see the crowd, the atmosphere, people smiling and cheering and staying after the game and enjoying it with their kids.

“Gregor is proud of the performance that we put in, the way we played, the charisma we showed. He’s awesome, he’s an amazing coach to play for because he gives us so much confidence in what we do.

“Obviously he has a lot of detailed stuff in how we play, but he gives us courage and belief in the style of rugby that we play, so that’s awesome to be a part of.”