Gregor Townsend said his side’s response to a stirring Uruguay comeback to finish the summer tour unbeaten showed they have learned from past mistakes – and given him food for thought come the autumn.
Scotland raced into a 19-0 lead thanks to tries from Ewan Ashman, Luke Crosbie and Duhan van der Merwe, but Uruguay fought back with two scores of their own and trailed 19-14 at the break before levelling the scores in the second half.
Townsend said memories of the Six Nations defeat to Italy in Rome were on his mind during the break.
Read more:
- Five things we learned as Scotland stumble past Uruguay
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He said: “The one game this year when we were favourites and didn’t do as well was Italy, and I said to the players at half-time that we are in a very similar situation to that match in Rome.
“We scored two or three tries but let a team back into it before half-time, and we didn’t deliver in the second half that day whereas today we did – so that is pleasing with a young group and guys coming off the bench to help the team on.
“At 19-all, we were facing a real challenge, but straight after the restart you could see the intensity, physicality and determination to win was much higher, and it got us the win in the end.”
He said to finish with a tough test was a valuable experience for the squad having been through three one-sided wins on the tour.
Townsend continued: “You obviously want the games to go as well as they can, but we didn’t really have that test in tour when in the second half a team is looking like they can go on and win so we had to respond, so I am really pleased with how we coped that that aspect.
“Yes there were a few areas where we could have finished things off better, and our discipline could be better, but to come back and win this game was good for this group.”
Townsend reiterated his belief that the tour will benefit Scottish rugby in the long run.
"There is two different strands,” he said, in reference to judging the success of the four-match trip.
He added: “As a team, there’s learning about the game we are trying to put in place – but that is more dependent on opposition and what they are doing.
“I also think we’ve learned more about individuals – players we have never worked with before, players who have never played Test rugby before – so we’ve seen how they train and how they have improved in training over the last four or five weeks.”
He said creating depth had been a focus of the tour and was pleased with the performances of some of the younger players on tour.
He said: "Over the past few days we’ve met as coaches to assess every player, so we can give them feedback but also establish in our own minds where we see the players in the depth chart at the moment, but also where they can get to in the coming months and years.
“That’s really exciting, especially with players we’ve maybe not thought about very much previously because they haven’t played much at pro level or haven’t played at all at Test level.
“Now we know more about them and what they have done in that Test match environment.”
Meanwhile, the head coach explained Scott Cummings' late withdrawal was due to an injury he picked up in training during the week. The Glasgow lock aside, Scotland will return with a clean bill of health.
"It’s a foot sprain," Townsend said of Cummings.
"He got it in the Wednesday session and we thought he would be okay for today, so we gave him the opportunity until this morning, but it wasn’t totally right and given the circumstances with season he’s had we decided not to include him."
With the match falling outside the World Rugby summer window, Scotland had to ask Oyonnax for permission to play Ewan Johnson, who came off the bench to help the tourists close out the result.
The Scotland head coach continued: "It was great that we spoke to Oyannax about whether Ewan Johnson could be available and they said yes, so that’s a positive that Ewan got another cap because he’s been a success."
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