Why Gregor Townsend is optimistic ahead of Scotland's Six Nations

Gregor Townsend is adamant there is plenty for Scotland to be optimistic about as they head into the Guinness Six Nations on the back of a chastening autumn.

The long-serving head coach came under fire in November after his side blew a 21-0 lead in losing 33-24 at home to Argentina.

In addition, the Scots passed up what was widely viewed as a golden opportunity to defeat New Zealand for the first time in their history after seemingly being in the ascendancy at 17-17 before losing 25-17.

Townsend believes the agonising nature of those defeats has helped sharpen minds within his squad, and he is also heartened by the fact all of his key men appear to be fit heading into the championship.

The fact almost half of his group is made up of players from in-form Glasgow is a further source of encouragement.

Fixture

Six Nations

Italy

06:10

7 Feb 26

Scotland

All Stats and Data

“I think, just in terms of our squad, we’re in a better place because just now over 90 per cent of the players are available for selection,” said Townsend, speaking at the Six Nations launch event in Edinburgh.

“That hasn’t always been the case. I do believe the way the team played throughout 2025 in some of our biggest games, when I think back to New Zealand, France, England, the players have performed at a really high level.

“Even though we had those painful moments of not winning against New Zealand and Argentina, I see that as positive.

“They were not positive at the time, obviously, but what we learned can help us when we’re going to have those moments of adversity, when the opposition score a try or break our line, so we’re better prepared now to deal with them.

“I think also the fact Glasgow are playing really well and a lot of our players come from the Glasgow team, that is a positive going into the tournament.”

Townsend is waiting for further news on fitness issues surrounding Liam McConnell, Dave Cherry, Jamie Dobie and Ewan Ashman but he was confident they would all be available for the championship opener away to Italy a week on Saturday.

The head coach is preparing for his ninth Six Nations in charge of Scotland and after back-to-back fourth-place finishes in the last two stagings, he acknowledged they require more consistency of results to contend at the sharp end.

“I think the Six Nations has been pretty open the last few years,” Townsend said. “You know that every team is going to face a tough day, even the best teams.

“You know that you can’t drop below a certain level of performance if you’re seen as someone who can win the tournament.

“Our challenge is putting those learnings (from autumn) into place, rising to the challenge, but also doing that for five games. Last year we played four games at a really good level, but we didn’t play the fifth one against Ireland anything like we needed to.

“If we can get that same level of performance over five games with the learnings that we’ve had since then, we’ll be a very competitive team.”