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Townsend thrilled with Scotland improvement
By Nicholas McGee
Gregor Townsend hailed Scotland's character and their improvement from the thrashing at the hands of Wales after they came from behind to beat France 32-26 in the Six Nations.
Having been thumped 34-7 by Wales in the tournament opener, Scotland appeared on course for another defeat when France raced into a 10-0 lead inside 10 minutes.
Les Bleus led 20-14 at half-time at Murrayfield but Scotland fought back brilliantly in the second half, six second-half penalties from Greig Laidlaw turning the game in their favour.
Next up for Scotland is a pivotal clash with defending champions England in Edinburgh in two weeks' time as they aim to win the trophy for the first time since 1999 - the last year of the tournament being the Five Nations.
Speaking to BBC Sport after the match, Townsend said: "[I'm] happier than last week that's for sure. The effort it takes to win a Test match is huge and doing it from behind shows the character in the squad.
"We were a bit more direct in the second half and we got our reward. France were excellent at the breakdown, at times they did go off their feet and they got penalised.
"Our forwards had such a massive game in the set piece and did so well, but they were still carrying."
Townsend took off fly-half Finn Russell with 15 minutes left, replacing him with scrum-half Ali Price and moving Laidlaw to the number 10 spot, and the decision paid dividends.
"It was mentioned during the week and we ran a couple of plays this morning. It was really seeing how Greig was and Ali brings so much from the bench. Greig's kicking was important so we kept him on," Townsend added.
"We were much better this week. To get back into the game and to be much more accurate than last week was pleasing."
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It took a whole season to wash the Foster stink out to be fair. There's still been substantial change though. I think only 7 starters from the RWC QF v IRE started the IRE test in Dublin. This year wasn't the year for full innovation, transition needs to be balanced, & incremental. The new coaches will be able to stamp their full mark on the ABs from 2025 when Razor will select his first proper squad from a mega talented player pool. Exciting times ahead.
Go to commentsWhat on earth is Tele'a doing passing the ball away so quickly on his line break, like a fatty making a bust and trying to find a winger to give the ball to lol
The amount of inconsistency with the head contact law coming into the game. No red yesterday and no yellow today, but then another player gets a suspension for a side on headonhead (as apposed to these two sweet shoulders) contact last week. Happy if there is a referee change to having a bit more commensense.
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