Scotland: More of the same no longer good enough for Townsend

So, more resource for Townsend but also, it would appear, more pressure to deliver, albeit his chief executive, Alex Williamson, would not talk about specific targets.

“We’re not putting wins and losses as a hard target,” he said. “I just think that you collapse in on yourself on that basis.

“We are really focused on having the best coaches with what we think is a really talented group of players with more coming through our pathway and that we expect to land us in the very best place for the World Cup and, before that, the Six Nations.”

Williamson, was asked the same question about Scotland continuing to finish in and around fourth in the Six Nations and whether that was acceptable.

“No, I don’t think that would be true of any part of any organisation regardless of whether it’s high performance or not because the moment you become satisfied with where you are, you are immediately going backwards at a rate of knots,” he said.

“We are extremely ambitious, we’re investing at a level in our high performance environment that Scottish Rugby has never invested before. I want to be the leading union in world rugby and this is the first articulation, I guess, of our intent.”

So, no pressure, then. Townsend will be given more support on physio and rehabilitation, nutrition and other areas. These are the pillars of the new initiatives announced by Nucifora and Williamson.

“I would say that Gregor has been hamstrung slightly by the way that our structure has been set up,” said Williamson. “We’re changing that now so going forward he’ll have a full-time high-performance environment that’s dedicated to him.

“For the first time the men’s national team will have dedicated strength and conditioning physios, nutritionists, coaching resources (that are not shared by other teams in the organisation),” said Williamson.

“Immediately, he’s getting an uplift of, let’s say, 40% in terms of actual available time from individuals and that’s a huge boon for him.

“And then beyond that we have a pathway which is being designed to bring players through not only quicker but also with all of those specialist skills already embedded.

“I certainly think that they’ve got all of the substance they need to be the very best version of the Scottish national team both men and ultimately for the women as well. We’re giving ourselves the very best opportunity to be successful.”

Scotland will play four games in the autumn against the USA, New Zealand, Argentina and Tonga. Their Six Nation campaign begins in Rome before the Calcutta Cup takes place in Edinburgh a week later. That will be Townsend’s 100th Test as Scotland coach.

Wales away, France at home and Ireland away complete the campaign, Townsend’s penultimate Six Nations. His best-place finish is third, which he achieved in 2023 and 2018. Scotland have finished fourth on five occasions on his watch.

Is that good enough? Is it more of the same? In investing so much time and money in trying to get Scotland moving forward on all fronts, a title challenge worthy of the name is surely the target now.

Townsend should enjoy the challenge, but the heat has been turned up a little, on him and on everybody around him.