WE NEED OUR BEST TEAM SO MAITLAND RETURN IS RIGHT CALL
NEVER change a winning team. That certainly used to be a maxim that most coaches followed. Not now. Not if you are Gregor Townsend.
No, the Scotland head coach will pick the XV he thinks is best suited to win, irrespective what happened in the previous game.
And, even if you did score three tries in a Six Nations match and became the first Scot ever to have done such a thing, that is not enough to keep your place...
Indeed, Blair Kinghorn must be the most unfortunate player ever to be dropped in the history of Scottish rugby. But it is the right call and that is the harsh reality of international rugby.
When you are playing the big games, you want your best players on the pitch and that is why hattrick hero Kinghorn steps down to be replaced by Sean Maitland.
Maitland is Scotland’s firstchoice winger and, if fit, will be in the team because he is a very good attacker, a brilliant defender and brings experience to the changing room and team. Kinghorn will have many more caps, scoring many more tries for Scotland, but will need to be happy with making an impact off the bench if he is called upon this afternoon.
What a great challenge we have today. We’ll see exactly what this Scotland team is all about. We’ll know if the progress under Townsend is real and if we are genuine contenders in this Six Nations.
Ireland arrive bruised after a humbling 80 minutes last week when they were blown away by a resurgent and brutal England. I did not see that coming.
I liked the look of England but I thought Ireland would be able to cope with all they threw at them and still emerge victorious.
That is what the best teams in the world do and, after beating the All Blacks in the autumn, Ireland are certainly one of them. But they could not live with the ferocity and physicality that England produced and they showed the world what you have to do to beat Ireland.
Knowing how to beat them and actually doing it are two very different things and Scotland need to be careful not to try and replicate what England did.
In truth, we can’t because we don’t have the same type of players as England such as the Vunipolas, Maro Itoje and George Kruis. These guys dominated Ireland. We can’t — nor do we need to.
If Scotland can achieve parity up front and in the physical stakes, then that would be enough.
This would allow the back line to play, and that will give Scotland the best chance of victory today.
The back line looked good last week, with Finn Russell and Sam Johnson pulling the strings and Stuart Hogg and Kinghorn especially, finishing things off in style with five great tries. Scotland showed last year in Dublin that we can cause this Ireland defence real problems, by cutting them up on a number of occasions. The trouble was that Scotland only took two of the many chances they created.
Our back play has improved on the evidence of last week but the caveat to that is that it was against Italy who defended poorly at times.
Scotland must be ruthless and clinical. They must take any chances they create and then defend much better than in the last ten minutes last week when the Italians scored three tries.
I would have liked a full-strength pack for this game but WP Nel has joined flankers John Barclay and Hamish Watson as first-choice players we must do without. To be fair, Ireland are missing a few key men, but I am pleased Jonny Gray is back as his work rate and sheer bulk will be required today.
When you know the physical side of things needs to be right up there, you can sometimes focus too much on this and forget to play. Scotland can’t afford to do that.
They need to kick well, both from Russell and Greig Laidlaw, and have an effective kick chase, something England did very well last week.
They need to play with precision and accuracy in attack and intensity and attitude in defence.
We must expect a reaction from Ireland, they are too good a team and they are still slight favourites for me.
But, with the game being at Murrayfield, this brings Scotland right in to the mix and makes it too close to call.
Now we’ll see exactly what this Scotland side is all about