Six Nations 2025: Gregor Townsend says Scotland ‘bum cheek away’ from converting

“We didn’t get the breaks,” added Townsend, who refused to be drawn on the decision to only show a yellow card to Peato Mauvaka for a headbutt on Ben White.

“We had the bad luck before half-time [with a disallowed try] and a mistake and they scored just after half-time.

“We were a bum cheek away from converting in the first half when Blair was just in touch. You need to have patience and accuracy and that was a little bit missing.”

Scotland opened their campaign with a staccato home win over Italy before being comprehensively beaten by Ireland a week later.

They dominated England for long spells at Twickenham but poor finishing and wayward goalkicking denied them a fifth straight Calcutta Cup triumph.

Last weekend, they raced into a 20-point lead against Wales but wound up winning by a single score after losing their way in the second half.

Asked if Scotland deserved to place higher in the table, Townsend replied: “No, if we don’t win when we have a lot of the game, that’s where we are going to finish.

“It is a very tough competition. Teams can’t play well every game and no-one won a Grand Slam.

“We are a quality side. It just didn’t go our way this year.”