Gregor Townsend hails Scotland’s strength in depth after beating Portugal

Gregor Townsend felt Scotland displayed their strength in depth after his second string pulled off a nine-try 59-21 victory over Portugal at Murrayfield.

The head coach made 14 changes to the team that started last weekend’s defeat by South Africa and his stand-ins proved too strong for their visitors, ranked 15th in the world.

Leicester prop Will Hurd and Sale wing Arron Reed – who scored a second-half double – both marked their first Murrayfield outings with tries as the Scots made it two wins from three Autumn Tests ahead of their final match of the series against Australia next weekend.

“Portugal brought a lot of physicality and line speed that we had to just adjust to and find solutions and the players did that,” said Townsend. “The first half was probably more clinical at times, once we got through a sticky five, 10 minutes.

“The second half, with the changes we were making and the fact we didn’t have as much possession in the second half, maybe it wasn’t as fluent. But that was a good performance and a very good win against a Test team.

“I think it’s definitely the most strength in depth we’ve had across the board. We’ve made 14 changes today, it would have been 15 changes if Harry Paterson had been fit and I’m sure Harry would have gone well today.

“We were selecting players that hadn’t played for us before, hadn’t played many games and they performed well. So I think our depth is better than I’ve ever seen it.”

Townsend handed debuts to three players, with Edinburgh flanker Ben Muncaster and Glasgow lock Alex Samuel winning their first caps in the starting XV, while 19-year-old Edinburgh back-rower Freddy Douglas – having never previously played a competitive match at club level – came off the bench to become the youngest Scotland debutant since Donald White in 1963.

“Ben managed to get a few carries, that’s a big strength of his,” he said. “He defended well and brings real speed.

“I thought Alex was very physical. He’s got a real carrying strength too. Alex has got that power. And in terms of Freddy, I thought he was unlucky not to get one jackal, but really pleasing that he didn’t go looking for things.

“He stuck to the defensive system, came up, put his tackles in.

“I’ve been very impressed with his maturity and professionalism this week, from obviously a huge occasion for him and huge news this week that he was going to be playing for Scotland.

“And you could see the emotion in Ben and Freddy during the anthems, what it means to players to play for Scotland.”

Darcy Graham was the only established member of Townsend’s preferred starting XV who played against the Portuguese and he marked the occasion by scoring a magnificent first-half try to move level once again with Edinburgh team-mate Duhan Van Der Merwe on 29 at the top of the national team’s all-time try-scoring list.

“The fact he got 80 minutes was a real positive,” Townsend added. “He had to take a few hits as well, more from him tackling than being tackled.

“I believe he’s now equal with Duhan, so that’s a sub-plot story that will continue next week and throughout the season, no doubt.”