THE player every other player is talking about in Scotland has vowed to return to Hongkong after his side regained their sevens pride yesterday.
Gregor Townsend, the 19-year-old stand-off rated as the most promising player in Scotland, soaked up the atmosphere of his second tournament as the Scots bowed out in the quarter-finals to Western Samoa. But unlike their debut in 1991 when then captain John Jeffrey apologised for a poor performance, Scotland were given a rousing send-off by the thousands of fans. Townsend, who scored one try in their first preliminary match against Romania, said the side are close to achieving the aims set out when they began their three-country sevens tour earlier this month. ''Our aim when we set out was to peak in time for the World Cup Sevens,'' said Townsend, a history and politics student.
''When we began the tour, we didn't play very well, but in Hongkong things started to go better and against Western Samoa we saw that some of the aspects are coming together.'' Scotland failed to reach the main Cup competition of the March 13 Canberra Sevens, where they were the top seeds on the strength of their triumph at November's Dubai Sevens. The side also failed to make an impression at last week's Fiji Sevens. But Townsend believes the Hongkong tournament will put them in good stead for the April 16-18 World Cup at Murrayfield, where Scotland have been grouped with Australia, Argentina, Italy, Tonga, Kwang-hua Taipei in Pool C. And with their performance in Hongkong, the Scots should be favourites to join Australia into the second stage of qualifying. The top two teams after a round-robin enter the next stage. The Scottish side is packed with top names includi