Gregor Townsend: Scotland head to France with optimism for Six Nations finale

Gregor Townsend believes Scotland have shown enough quality against France in recent seasons to go to Paris with optimism for Saturday night’s Guinness Six Nations finale.

The Scots face what their head coach described as “probably the biggest challenge in world rugby right now” as they bid to stop Les Bleus landing the victory they are likely to require to seal a first title since 2022 at Stade de France.

However, Townsend is heartened by the way his team have performed against the French recently.

The last three meetings between the the teams have all been decided by three or four points, while the Scots – who won in Paris in 2021 – were in contention for victory on their last Six Nations trip to the French capital two years ago, until the hosts scored late to seal a 32-21 win.

“From our perspective, we’ve played well in the (France) games,” said Townsend. “We’ve had to recover at times from two red cards in the last two or three games against them.

“One, we got back into position two years ago at Stade de France to really put them under pressure (in the 2023 Six Nations) and then a World Cup warm-up game (at Murrayfield) to come back and win with 14 men.

“We’ve gone well in this fixture, our players are a quality group, they thrive in that atmosphere. They thrive with the challenge and this is what we’re asking them to do again this weekend.”

The Scots have little to play for other than pride after losses to Ireland and England effectively ruled them out of contention.

Having seen home victories over Italy and Wales undermined slightly by lengthy losses of control, Townsend played down any notion that what happens in France will decide whether they emerge from the championship with any credit in the bank.

“We’ll evaluate every game and what we could have done better and where we were,” he said. “It’s up to others to evaluate where we are. I feel strongly that this has been a very good tournament in terms of how we’ve played.

“Down in Twickenham was one of the best performances I’ve seen from this team.

“We came off the back of a narrow defeat there and showed some outstanding rugby against Wales. It was a record points we’ve scored in the first half in a championship game.

“The team involvement as well and the team tries were great to see. Darcy Graham’s try went through 11 phases and had 11 different players on the ball. Those are very encouraging. Team performances are giving us chances to score.”

Townsend has made two changes to the side that started the 35-29 win over Wales, both in the pack.

Glasgow forward Gregor Brown, 23, is in for his first Six Nations start in place of Jonny Gray in the second row and Matt Fagerson replaces the injured Jack Dempsey at number eight.

“I think Gregor’s done really well off the bench,” said Townsend. “The energy he brought at the weekend and his carrying was excellent, he came very close to scoring a try.

“He is very good in the line-out, really athletic, technically really strong. Same at scrum time as well, technically very good.

“He’s shown for us and for Glasgow that he can perform at the highest level in the second-row position.

“It allows us to have someone who has got the skill and speed of a back-rower but the technical ability of a second-rower to bring that out from the start this week.”