Gregor Townsend has paid tribute to the leaders in the Scotland squad for the way they inspired the comeback that allowed them to hold onto the Calcutta Cup at Twickenham on Saturday.
Stuart McInally had scored the stunning solo try which turned the momentum around as Scotland trailed 31-0 late in the first half, but the head coach also pointed to the work done by Greig Laidlaw, the man the hooker had taken the captaincy from, in helping turn things around on and off the field.
“It was massively important,” Townsend said of McInally’s touchdown.
“He had a couple of good moments as well, good carries, and he had a charge-down on a key player. To run past Jonny May, which I still can't believe he did, and finish off was a great moment. The team got behind him.
“I have to also mention that Greig Laidlaw at half-time was excellent. He has been excellent all week as one of our leaders who was not in the starting team. He spoke to Ali Price and Finn Russell at half time and he was a calming influence on the backs.
“It's tough when you're 30 points down. A lot of players played here two years ago and the final scoreline (61-21) was very different as well. It's tough to get back into the process of working out how to get some respect back.
“That was the first thing, not to win, just to have a good second half and win the second half. It was just amazing to see how that led to us getting right back into the game and going ahead.”
Play-maker Russell meanwhile revealed after the match that he had argued with Townsend during the interval before going out to take charge of proceedings and while the coach acknowledged that he had been central to bringing his side back to level the match at 39-38, he observed that he had needed help from others.
“He was, but not on his own,” he said, when asked if Russell had been the catalyst.
“He was probably getting better ball ahead of him and making decisions on the front foot to turn the opposition. It was easier than in the first half when all he was seeing was a line of defenders coming at him and the players outside him and not much space to kick into.
“Credit also goes to our forward pack for giving us front-foot ball in the second half. Magnus and the other players were carrying hard and I felt our scrum was very good, as we had at least parity.”
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