The mood around Scotland at the midway point of the year is undoubtedly a lot more upbeat than it was at the start of it.
Dark clouds hovered over Murrayfield as 2025 gave way to 2026 following an autumn campaign in which Gregor Townsend’s team failed to take a glorious opportunity to defeat the All Blacks for the first time in the country’s history and then capitulated horribly in a painful loss at home to Argentina.
Throw in the ongoing furore surrounding Townsend’s decision to take on a part-time role with Red Bull and it was hard to find much to be optimistic about.
It would get worse before it got better when Scotland’s Six Nations hopes appeared to be washed away in a Rome monsoon during an opening day defeat to Italy that saw them drop to tenth in the world rankings.
Then came the fightback. The now customary Calcutta Cup win over England was followed by a battling victory away to Wales and then the season’s piece de resistance, a stunning slaying of a brilliant France side at Murrayfield. Fleeting hopes of a maiden championship were again dashed with a wearily familiar loss to Ireland but there were signs that this squad was finally on the right track.
Results and performances across the first half of the new Nations Championship confirm as much. Revenge was meted out on Argentina in Cordoba before a stirring showing in defeat to the Springboks. Fiji were then, eventually, overcome at Murrayfield yesterday to bring a long and tumultuous campaign finally to a halt.
Head coach Gregor Townsend says Scotland can now go toe-to-toe with the leading nations
Duhan van der Merwe bursts clear in Scotland’s 33-17 victory against Fiji at Murrayfield
Jonny Gray scores the first of Scotland’s tries in a win that rounded off a tumultuous campaign
Townsend is relentlessly positive about every scenario involving his team, a trait that can often be at odds with reality. It was hard, however, to argue with his stance that his squad has evolved and grown over the second half of the season. Their next match isn’t until November but this time they can prepare to face the All Blacks filled with belief rather than just hope.
‘To get the chance to play New Zealand is always something special, knowing that it’s an opportunity to finish higher up the (Nations Championship) table and potentially play New Zealand or South Africa or whoever’s going to finish high up the table on their side, in round four. That would help us for the World Cup.
‘The more opportunities we have playing the top four, top five in the world, can only be of benefit. Obviously, if you win, that’s great. But even in our loss last week (to South Africa), I think we’ve learned some things that we know we can bring into our game and improve further.’
Rassie Erasmus, the mischief-making Springboks head coach, claimed after the match in Pretoria that Scotland deserved to be considered the third best team in the world, a piece of hyperbole that Townsend was wary of embracing. But the head coach did believe his team had shown they can now go toe-to-toe with the leading nations.
‘The world rankings change all the time,’ he added. ‘A couple of weeks ago, we were sixth, then fifth, and I imagine we’re back down to sixth again. We know that there’s a group of teams that have been in the top three or four for a number of years. And we’ve played them all now.
‘We played New Zealand. We didn’t win that game but I know we were a match for them that night and we had opportunities. We played England and France, who were in that top tier, and beat them. And we had a really good game against South Africa. I obviously forgot Ireland, who were in there and who beat us.
‘So you can’t really say whether a team’s top three in the world before you start to win more and more games against them. And then obviously the World Cup’s the biggest marker for that. We’re getting closer but we know we’ve got more challenges coming in November and then again in the Six Nations to show who we are.’
A win over one of the big three who repeatedly thwart Scotland – Ireland, South Africa or New Zealand – would lend immediate credence to the argument that this is now an elite squad but Townsend was dismissive of the idea that one victory would be significant.
‘Maybe but I reckon if we beat South Africa, the next point would be that we’re still waiting for a Six Nations title or whatever. Obviously you want to win every game. But we can’t win every game. No team has won every game.
‘We want to be in a position where we are giving our supporters, more than hope, belief that we can beat any team. And I think we’ve done that and keep learning from those experiences. People were asking me before we played France if they were the best team in the world. They were playing outstanding rugby. So, if that’s not a milestone win, then I don’t know what it is.
‘But I know there’ll be another game, there’ll be New Zealand, there’ll be whoever we will play in that fourth game in autumn. And then we’ll play Ireland, England and France, so you keep moving forward. Even if we had had a big victory (against South Africa) last week, it would be, “okay, what about the next game?” And that’s the nature of sport and the nature of how we want to keep progressing too.’
