{"id":42536,"date":"2025-11-21T18:16:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T18:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=42536"},"modified":"2025-11-21T18:16:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T18:16:09","slug":"c5y9k8l9lkpoat_mediumrssat_campaignrss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2025\/11\/21\/c5y9k8l9lkpoat_mediumrssat_campaignrss\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;I&#8217;m here to address anything&#8217; &#8211; Scotland head Gregor Townsend responds to critics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A spike for Tonga? If that&#8217;s true, it&#8217;s a curious response to a soul-destroying defeat by Argentina. Scottish rugby fans really must be gluttons for punishment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It&#8217;s great to know that the atmosphere that was created in the New Zealand game and the atmosphere when Argentina scored and Flower of  Scotland was ringing out &#8211; the supporters are behind the team,&#8221; Townsend explained. &#8220;They&#8217;re very disappointed that we didn&#8217;t win, like we are.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We have no right to beat every team in the world\u2026 but we believe we can. Our supporters and our players can expect, with what we have here, that we can take on the best teams in the world.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Scotland can take on the best in the world for passages of games for sure, but their  win record against teams sitting above them in the rankings has been dismal for an age. They are currently ninth in the world having been fifth just before the start of the last World Cup. They are falling away in terms of winning games (as opposed to Townsend&#8217;s mantra of being competitive).<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">How does he explain the drop-offs, the moments in time that saw New Zealand and Argentina win, the passages in recent seasons that saw Italy roaring back from a big deficit and beating Scotland and that saw Wales, in 2024 and 2025, scare the life out of Townsend&#8217;s team despite being miles behind on the scoreboard?<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;That&#8217;s rugby, that&#8217;s sport,&#8221; is his response. &#8220;Look at New Zealand. During 20-30 minutes against us they didn&#8217;t hardly touch the ball. Argentina were 21-0 down.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;So that happens to the best teams. What we need to do is when that momentum does start to go in the favour of the opposition, we have to find ways to get it back.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">How long can he keep banging that drum, though? Yes, New Zealand were out-played by Scotland for a stretch and, yes again, Argentina were routed early on. Both of them still won, which is really all that matters. That winning mentality still eludes Scotland despite all the years Townsend has had to instil it. There&#8217;s still a softness that&#8217;s ruinous.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Is he expecting a review of his own performance at the end of the autumn? &#8220;I don&#8217;t know,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We review every campaign, but you&#8217;d have to ask someone else on that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Questions have been asked, but there&#8217;s been no answers from Murrayfield as yet, just as there is little sign that Scotland are anywhere closer to becoming the kind of ruthless team they need to be. Townsend thinks otherwise. It&#8217;s a grim impasse.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#address #Scotland #Gregor #Townsend #responds #critics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A spike for Tonga? If that&#8217;s true, it&#8217;s a curious response to a soul-destroying defeat by Argentina. Scottish rugby fans&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42536"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42538,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42536\/revisions\/42538"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}