Scotland and Wales will both blank taking the knee before Saturday’s Six Nations clash at Murrayfield and instead have a “moment of reflection”.
Gregor Townsend’s side came under heavy fire last weekend when four players took a knee while the rest the squad remained standing ahead of their historic win over England at Twickenham.
It later emerged the players hadn’t discussed the issue beforehand, leading to the confused response.
Having taken stock of the fall-out from the incident, head coach Townsend explained his squad will now all follow the same protocol as the Autumn Tests and the other two Six Nations games last weekend for the Rugby Against Racism campaign.
He explained: “We know what is happening this weekend – both teams are going to stand and recognise rugby’s stand against racism and discrimination like we have done in all previous games.”
While taking a knee before matches has become universal in football, Townsend rejected the suggestion rugby is in danger of being seen as out of touch for not following suit.
He said: “Everyone’s got an opinion on anything and if people have an opinion on that, then that’s up to them.
“There’s a moment to reflect, there are messages going up on the screens, everyone is watching on TV, they’re not at the stadium.
“It’s what rugby has chosen to do and we’ll follow that.”
The difference between last weekend’s match and Scotland’s previous response to the ‘moment of reflection’ is that several English players decided to take a knee, which prompted Chris Harris, Ali Price, Jonny Gray and Cam Redpath to follow suit.
Meanwhile, the rest of the squad stuck to the established protocol of standing to attention with head bowed.
Townsend added: “There was no conscious decision to do anything differently to what we’d done in previous games.
“The surprise was that it happened with the English players taking the knee and some (Scotland) players saw that and thought, ‘I’ve got a decision to make on the spot, do I do this or do I not’.
“We back our players no matter what decision they make – it was just the fact that no-one was aware that that was going to happen.”
Townsend added that while the players were taken aback by the criticism which has overshadowed their first win at Twickenham in 38-years, it has not dented team morale.
He said: “Not really – we chatted about it with the leaders – but it was such a surprise for us.
“There was no conscious decision to do anything differently to what we’d done in previous games.”
