‘We should be going to Dublin with four wins in the bag, says Townsend
GREGOR TOWNSEND admits Scotland will have to ‘do something special’ in Dublin as he challenged them to score at least 20 points against Ireland and give themselves a fighting chance of a first Triple Crown since 1990.
The Scots are looking to save face after a shock defeat in Italy all-but ended their hopes of winning the championship and left them staring at the possibility of finishing fifth if results go against them tomorrow.
Townsend is braced for a formidable test against a side the Scots have lost to in each of their last nine meetings - including a chastening 36-14 defeat at the World Cup just five months ago.
‘We know how tough it’s going to be,’ he said. ‘They’re one of the top two teams in the world and at home they’ve been virtually unbeatable so it’s going to require something special.
‘We’ve got to accept that they’ll score points on Saturday. I think before (losing 23-22 to) England they were averaging 30 points a game, so it will be a test for our defence, and we have to score points. We have to get to 20 or more, which will be tough but we believe we can do that against any team.’
Townsend conceded there is a sense of regret that Scotland — who have two wins out of four so far — are not heading to Ireland with a genuine chance of winning the title.
‘The frustration is that we’re not going to Dublin on the back of four wins,’ he said.
‘We feel we had a win taken away from us against France, and obviously Italy deserved their win but we feel we could have been better that day.
‘But we have this game ahead of us to show our best performance of the season.
‘We’re still playing for
something, not just a place in the table, it’s for a trophy (the Triple Crown), and also we’re playing one of the best teams in the world so that’s got to inspire us to deliver our best rugby.
‘It’s weird to think we’re the only team that can win the Triple Crown but the focus is on the performance.
Despite last weekend’s disappointment, Townsend has opted to make just two changes, with Glasgow centre Stafford McDowall replacing Cam Redpath in the inside centre sloy and firstchoice scrum-half Ben White returning at the expense of George Horne. SCOTLAND: B Kinghorn, K Steyn, H Jones, S McDowall, D van der Merwe, F Russell, B White, P Schoeman, G Turner, Z Fagerson, G Gilchrist, S Cummings, A Christie, R Darge, J Dempsey. Replacements: E Ashman, R Sutherland, E Millar-Mills, S Skinner, M Fagerson, G Horne, C Redpath, K Rowe.