Irish Daily Mail

The man who ensures Scotland can no longer be taken lightly

GREGOR TOWNSEND WILL HAVE A PLAN TO TAKE DOWN IRELAND

- Hugh Farrelly hugh.farrelly@dailymail.ie

THERE is a challenge everybody faces in life, the difference between the things we have to say and the things we want to say but can’t.

A (happily) married acquaintan­ce summed it up perfectly when recalling his wedding speech recently and the obligation to tick certain boxes when delivering it.

‘Every groom is expected to say, “I’m not just marrying the love of my life, I’m marrying my best friend”,’ he reflected.

‘She’s a great girl and I’m nuts about her but men and women have different levels of craic and the truth is you’re telling people you’re marrying your best friend while looking out at 40 lads you’d rather go for pints with.’

It also happens regularly on RTÉ’s hit ‘First Dates’ show when the girl goes ‘sure, of course we’ll split the bill, I wouldn’t have it any other way’ while secretly thinking ‘that’s the “I see us more as friends” brush-off and a separate taxi home for you, ya tight ***** ’.

That contradict­ion in public utterances and private thoughts Townsend is a phenomenal rugby coach has consistent­ly presented itself ahead of Ireland-Scotland encounters over the last 18 years.

The harsh truth is, the Scottish rugby team has been hard to take too seriously since the Six Nations began in 2000 and, while over the years you felt you had to say, ‘the Scots are incredibly dangerous, real dark horses and Ireland will have to be on their guard’, the internal narrative was along the lines of ‘there is no way we can lose to this shower’.

That has been the annual challenge and, last year, Oval Office failed to meet it, the headline here ahead of Ireland’s opener in Murrayfiel­d reading: ‘Scots are all talk and no trousers’ and we know what happened next.

A little over 12 months on from that disastrous defeat, there is no danger of making the same mistake again.

But not because we got burnt last year, it’s because the Scottish threat is now real and the ‘dark horses’ tag entirely justified.

There is the lethal pace of Stuart Hogg, devastatin­g lines of Huw Jones, sublime passing of Finn Russell and tenacious scrapping of John Barclay and Hamish Watson — players who would challenge for a place on any side in the world. But the most dangerous Scot taking on Ireland at Lansdowne Road tomorrow is not even togging out.

Gregor Townsend is a phenomenal rugby coach, a progressiv­e thinker on the game with a proven record of bringing on players under his charge, however limited.

Ireland are regularly described as having the best coach in the world in Joe Schmidt but his counterpar­t tomorrow is right up there.

As a player, Townsend was renowned as an out-half capable of producing magic out of nowhere and, while these bursts of brilliance would often appear to be entirely off the cuff, he thrived on the back of quick wits, canny analysis and ruthless execution.

He has brought those playing traits into the coaching arena and, while possibly not as meticulous in detailed preparatio­n as Schmidt, his greatest strength is finding something unexpected to unhinge the opposition.

You saw it against England a couple of weeks ago. The modern trend is towards committing the minimum amount of players to the ruck, facilitate­d by recent law changes stipulatin­g that the ruck now begins when at least one player is on their feet and over the ball.

This move towards a flow in possession was publicly embraced by England coach Eddie Jones ahead of their trip to Murrayfiel­d.

Townsend responded brilliantl­y by instructin­g Barclay, Watson and co to buck the trend and fight for everything on the ground and also played the trick hand of duping the English into thinking there would be no contest, before unleashing a furious counter-ruck when their guard was down.

It was the winning of the game for Scotland.

Schmidt will have studied these tactics and prepared accordingl­y but Townsend is not a coach known for standing still and will have concocted some other ploy to throw Ireland off their game.

What that is we will not know until tomorrow but, while he has stuck with largely the same team, you can be guaranteed Townsend will not be content to adopt a ‘same again’ approach on the back of the England win.

It is why he and his team carry such peril for Ireland. His biggest issue is addressing the psychologi­cal weakness that sees the Scots consistent­ly flop away from Edinburgh but he has spent the last two weeks working on that through one-on-one sessions with his players.

On paper, Ireland are bigger, better and more structured than their opponents but Townsend is well aware of this and will have been scheming accordingl­y.

Ireland are unbeaten at Lansdowne in the Six Nations under Schmidt and should still win tomorrow.

However, there is no longer the need to patronise Scotland on the back of it.

Gregor Townsend has made sure of that.

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