Gregor Townsend: Scotland head coach bullish over Six Nations hopes

Gregor Townsend is preparing for his first Six Nations as Scotland head coach

Gregor Townsend believes Scotland have a chance to win this year's Six Nations but accepts that would involve winning at least four Tests.

Townsend, taking charge of his first championship, has named a 40-man squad for the tournament, with their opening match away to Wales on 3 February.

The Scots won three games in last year's Six Nations.

"Every team goes into this championship believing they can win," said Townsend. "It's the whole reason we are here."

Asked if Scotland could win, Townsend replied: "I don't see why not."

And he explained: "We've got to set high standards, high ambitions for our team. We believe in them but we also know the hard work that has to go in to make that happen.

"There's only five games in the championship. Teams that do well obviously win four or five games.

"We know we're going to have to play very well in each of those five games to win."

'Competition for places'

The 44-year-old believes there is sufficient strength and depth to the squad to combat injuries and withdrawals.

Edinburgh prop Simon Berghan is suspended for the opening match and several front-row regulars are missing through injury, including Ross Ford, Zander Fagerson, WP Nel and Allan Dell.

Fraser Brown has been added to that list after suffering a series of head knocks this season, with veteran hooker Scott Lawson, 36, is back in the fold after a four-year absence.

"We are always going to be stretched if you do get injuries in one position," Townsend said.

"We only have two professional teams [in Scotland] so we're not going to have a huge amount of players playing in specific positions compared to Ireland, Wales and obviously England and France, who've got a lot more professional teams but we do have a lot of depth.

"We've a lot of competition for places. We have younger players now that are coming through that are able to play at a high level for their clubs, whether that's for their clubs on Champions Cup games or international rugby - and that's a real positive."

Uncapped players Murray McCallum, D'Arcy Rae, Nathan Fowles and Blair Kinghorn are included in Townsend's pool.

"Three of them have been involved before," he explained. "Blair Kinghorn, this is his first involvement and it's due to his great form he's been in this season.

"He's very good in attack, he's improved his defence. He's got an all-round skill-set because he used to play stand-off - his kicking game's excellent. He's obviously got real potential to be a threat in the air given that he's 6ft 5 but his key strength is his speed and his speed could give him opportunities somewhere in that back three other than just at full-back."

'He's been a great captain'

Flanker John Barclay, 31, will continue as captain despite the return of scrum-half Greig Laidlaw, 32.

"He's been a great captain for the team just as Greig Laidlaw was a great captain for the team before that," Townsend said of Barclay.

"Greig was going to be captain in the summer tour then got called up to the British and Irish Lions tour and was in line to be captain in the November Test series before he got injured.

"Greig obviously hasn't played for around three months now so that's a big part of why he's not named as captain but also the fact that John has done such a good job.

"If and when Greig comes back to full fitness, and we really hope it will be next weekend, we'll have two players in the squad that have captained the team very well in the last few years."