Why November's game against Fiji is huge for Gregor Townsend

As Scotland’s four-match tour of the Americas came to a close with a hard-fought 31-19 win over Uruguay in Montevideo last weekend, Duhan van der Merwe’s achievement in becoming Scotland’s sole record try scorer was the only statistic that everyone was talking about.

Having drawn level with the retired/not retired Stuart Hogg on 27 tries earlier in the tour, the behemoth winger entered the Scottish rugby history books when he bagged his 28th try as Scotland raced into a 19-0 lead at Estadio Charrúa.

But another milestone has gone unnoticed – until now. After delving into World Rugby’s database and getting the figures verified by Opta, we can reveal that it was head coach Gregor Townsend’s 83rd Test as head coach – one more match than he played for his country during a glittering 10-year international career.

That makes the 51-year-old tied with RWC 2003 winner Sir Clive Woodward in terms of appearances, so unless Townsend dramatically falls on his own sword between now and the first of Scotland’s Autumn Internationals against Fiji at Murrayfield on November 2nd, he will become the most experienced British-born head coach of a tier one team in the history of the professional game.

Given Townsend’s seemingly unshakable popularity with the bosses at the SRU, Townsend could get into three figures before his current contract expires in April 2026.

Townsend succeeded Vern Cotter as Scotland head coach in May 2017 and celebrated his first game in charge with a 34-13 victory against Italy, in Singapore of all places, the following month.

Whilst delivering silverware has eluded him, Townsend has claimed enough decent one-off wins and got his team playing in such a style over the last seven years to prevent too much pressure being piled on him.

Only Ian McGeechan’s first spell in charge of Scotland between 1988 and 1993 (58%) can beat Townsend’s era in terms of win percentage over the past 50 years.

Townsend has an 57% win percentage overall as Scotland’s head coach (W47, D1, L35), with the prospect of improving that further this November against Fiji, South Africa, Portugal and Australia.