At the halfway stage of the year, the feeling around Scottish rugby is unmistakably brighter than it was only a few months ago.
When 2025 rolled into 2026, Murrayfield was under a very different cloud. Gregor Townsend’s Scotland had just come through a deflating autumn series, letting a golden chance to record a first-ever win over the All Blacks slip away before unraveling badly in a damaging home defeat by Argentina.
The scrutiny around Townsend only intensified amid the continuing debate over his decision to accept a part-time position with Red Bull, leaving optimism in short supply.
Things appeared to hit an even lower point when Scotland’s Six Nations campaign began in a rain-lashed Rome, where defeat to Italy sent them tumbling to 10th in the world rankings and left their championship ambitions in early trouble.
But Scotland responded with character. Another Calcutta Cup triumph over England steadied the ship, a hard-earned win in Wales added momentum, and then came the standout moment of the season: a superb Murrayfield victory over an outstanding France team. Any lingering dream of a first Six Nations title was ended, once again, by a familiar setback against Ireland, yet the broader direction of travel finally looked encouraging.
That sense of progress has been reinforced by Scotland’s results and performances in the opening half of the new Nations Championship. They gained revenge over Argentina in Cordoba before producing a spirited display in defeat against the Springboks.
Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend believes his side are now capable of matching the world’s top rugby nations
Duhan van der Merwe breaks into open field during Scotland’s 33-17 win over Fiji at Murrayfield
Fiji were then, eventually, overcome at Murrayfield yesterday to bring a long and tumultuous campaign finally to a halt.
Townsend is relentlessly positive about every scenario involving his team, a trait that can often be at odds with reality. It was hard, however, to argue with his stance that his squad has evolved and grown over the second half of the season. Their next match isn’t until November but this time they can prepare to face the All Blacks filled with belief rather than just hope.
‘To get the chance to play New Zealand is always something special, knowing that it’s an opportunity to finish higher up the (Nations Championship) table and potentially play New Zealand or South Africa or whoever’s going to finish high up the table on their side, in round four. That would help us for the World Cup.
‘The more opportunities we have playing the top four, top five in the world, can only be of benefit.
‘Obviously, if you win, that’s great. But even in our loss last week (to South Africa), I think we’ve learned some things that we know we can bring into our game and improve further.’
Rassie Erasmus, the mischief-making Springboks head coach, claimed after the match in Pretoria that Scotland deserved to be considered the third best team in the world, a piece of hyperbole that Townsend was wary of embracing. But the head coach did believe his team had shown they can now go toe-to-toe with the leading nations.
‘The world rankings change all the time,’ he added. ‘A couple of weeks ago, we were sixth, then fifth, and I imagine we’re back down to sixth again.
‘We know that there’s a group of teams that have been in the top three or four for a number of years. And we’ve played them all now.
‘We played New Zealand. We didn’t win that game but I know we were a match for them that night and we had opportunities.
‘We played England and France, who were in that top tier, and beat them. And we had a really good game against South Africa. I obviously forgot Ireland, who were in there and who beat us.
‘So you can’t really say whether a team’s top three in the world before you start to win more and more games against them. And then obviously the World Cup’s the biggest marker for that.
‘We’re getting closer but we know we’ve got more challenges coming in November and then again in the Six Nations to show who we are.’
A win over one of the big three who repeatedly thwart Scotland – Ireland, South Africa or New Zealand – would lend immediate credence to the argument that this is now an elite squad but Townsend was dismissive of the idea that one victory would be significant.
Jonny Gray scores the first of Scotland’s tries in a win that rounded off a tumultuous campaign
‘Maybe but I reckon if we beat South Africa, the next point would be that we’re still waiting for a Six Nations title or whatever. Obviously you want to win every game. But we can’t win every game. No team has won every game.
‘We want to be in a position where we are giving our supporters, more than hope, belief that we can beat any team. And I think we’ve done that and keep learning from those experiences.
‘People were asking me before we played France if they were the best team in the world. They were playing outstanding rugby. So, if that’s not a milestone win, then I don’t know what it is.
‘But I know there’ll be another game, there’ll be New Zealand, there’ll be whoever we will play in that fourth game in autumn. And then we’ll play Ireland, England and France, so you keep moving forward.
‘Even if we had had a big victory (against South Africa) last week, it would be, “okay, what about the next game?” And that’s the nature of sport and the nature of how we want to keep progressing too.’
