Quote Originally Posted by Sergio sledge View Post
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Yeah, the next 6 Nations has to be an improvement or he'll be gone I reckon. We're not far off being a really good team and I like the style of play in attack that we are trying to play, but the team is so open that we just leak tries at an alarming rate.

One of the problems is that we can't seem to hold on to the ball for any great length of time. Japan actually play a very similar style of rugby to the one Scotland are trying to play, but they accuracy they do it with is so much better than ours which means they hold onto the ball longer and build up momentum and pressure on the opposition. We just always seem to make that one mistake or bad decision which means the ball is handed back to the opposition.

We need to be able to be more accurate and not kick the ball away so much, play some possession rugby. Townsend and the players need to be a bit more pragmatic.

Townsend still has the best win rate of any of the Scotland coaches in my lifetime (including the 1990 grand slam side) and has turned us into an exciting attacking team scoring more than 3 tries a match on average. I still have nightmares about the bad old days under Andy Robinson where we were scoring less than a try a game.

We're capable of beating anyone on our day, but equally capable of losing, Townsend needs a to get some consistency into the team and, I think, win 3 games in this years 6 Nations. Winning at home vs France (on current inconsistent form) should be do-able, and England at home has got to be targeted for a win. Then beating Italy away is expected. Do that and he'll buy some time.

Despite the maddening play sometimes, I'd still rather watch us playing this way and sometimes losing than some of the dross we have been subjected to in the last 19 years.
You make some very good points and I agree with majority of what you are saying.

However, it’s been pointed out massively that we don’t have a plan B when we come up against nations that are going to prove a big challenge to Scotland and that the expansive style of rugby isn’t going to work. Playing the expansive style of rugby is definitely great on the eye and works so well against the smaller rugby nations like Canada, Georgia & Russia etc but when he deploys it against nations that are better than us i.e. Ireland, Wales etc we get battered as they know how to work round it.

Will see what happens at this upcoming 6 Nations. As mentioned not only does he need results but also good performances that make you feel at the end of the game, we were fantastic and deservedly won/unlucky to have lost. Bring that positive feel good factor back that we had under Vern Cotter. Make us more solid defensively and cut out those silly errors. Show us that he can make us compete away from home as other than the 2nd half at Twickenham earlier this year, we have been brutal on the road for a very long time.