Gregor Townsend hinted he could be about to extend his reign after Scotland ended an encouraging Six Nations campaign with a bonus- point 26-14 win against Italy.
The head coach, who is out of contract after the World Cup later this year, said in January it may be his last tilt at the Six Nations, as he had held no talks with the Scottish Rugby Union about his future.
However, when asked about his position after the defeat of Italy, which secured third place in the tournament, Townsend revealed there have now been discussions and that he expects some clarity soon.
“I’ve had initial conversations, but it’s about getting some time over the next few weeks to have a bigger chat about it in more depth,” he said.
“The focus the last two weeks has been these games. After a few days off I’m sure these conversations will start up again. I’ve indicated I need some time to think about it, especially when the tournament was in full flow.”
Asked if he wanted to stay on, Townsend – who has been linked with other vacancies in recent months – said: “Yes, at this stage, but it’s not the time to be answering these questions. When you’re just off a victory, the crowd are behind the team and you’re connected with the players, of course it’s a great feeling, but I don’t want to commit to anything right now.
“There’s conversations that have started and I imagine they will start up again after some time off. Those weren’t happening a few months ago, so we’ll see how they develop.
“Honestly, I’ve tried to put this to the side. Your brain has only so much capacity on one thing and that for me is to do the best I can as the team’s coach.”
Blair Kinghorn scored a hat-trick of tries as he rose to the challenge of replacing Finn Russell at stand-off, The versatile Edinburgh back went over the line either side of half-time to add to an earlier touchdown by Duhan van der Merwe. He then completed the scoring in the last moment of a hard-fought game as Scotland fended off an Italy fightback to ensure they ended the championship with three wins out of five for the first time since 2018.
Tommaso Allan got Italy off the mark with a penalty but Scotland sparked into life in the 13th minute when Van der Merwe did superbly to ride the challenge of Paolo Garbisi and plant the ball down just inside the touchline. Yet Italy got their noses back in front three minutes later via another Allan penalty
The visitors suffered a blow when the prop Danilo Fischetti was shown a yellow card for repeated scrum infringements by the Italian front row. Scotland made the extra man count within a matter of seconds as Ben White took the ball from the base of the scrum, carried forward and played in Kinghorn, who spotted a gap and dived over, then converted his own try.
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The hosts continued on the front foot in the second half and Kinghorn got himself a second try just four minutes after the restart following another assist by White. The try-scorer again added the extras.
Just as Scotland looked in full control, Italy got themselves back in the match when Allan bounded over for a well-executed try on the left. He missed his conversion attempt but teammate Garbisi took over kicking duties four minutes later and sent a penalty soaring between the posts to reduce the deficit to five points.
Italy piled on the pressure in the closing stages but Scotland broke away in the last action of the match, Kinghorn racing gleefully behind the posts after being handed a clear run by Van der Merwe. Kinghorn capped a memorable afternoon for himself with a close-range conversion.
“Italy have deserved more from this tournament,” said the Scotland captain, Jamie Ritchie. “They’ve played a lot of good rugby and they put us under huge amounts of pressure so I’m delighted we won.
“Before the tournament, I said I wanted five good performances; we got four and a half. Today was a tough one, it was a solid performance. We dug it out, and we did well in the end. We’re third behind the two top teams in the world and that’s a positive.”
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