After Scotland and Italy served up a thrilling contest on the final weekend of the Six Nations, you would have been hard pushed to deduce which coach had the better long-term prospects.
While Gregor Townsend had overseen a largely positive campaign, his bosses had been talking to the likes of Warren Gatland and Leon MacDonald in the preceding months.
And if Kieran Crowley ended the 2023 tournament without a win, landmark successes over Wales and Australia the previous year, coupled with a clear uptick in performances and attacking ambition, might have been expected to count in the New Zealander’s favour.
As it was, Townsend signed a new deal that takes him to the end of the 2026 Six Nations, while Crowley, who had a year
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