Scots were not ‘bullied’ by Ireland, says Ritchie

SCOTLAND’S players definitely don’t like the suggestion that they were ‘bullied’ by the beastly Irish in their last big bash at BT Murrayfield.

As they nurse the bruises from back-to-back defeats, however, they must know that even a thorough thrashing of hapless, hopeless and helpless Italy on Saturday won’t dispel all suspicions about their bottle for the big occasion.

Whatever they might ultimately salvage from a Six Nations that once promised so much, a show of strength and steel is the least we should expect this weekend.

The Italians, a dispirited bunch who seem to consider conceding a fistful of tries a fairly standard Six Nations effort, will surely be dismantled with ease by Gregor Townsend’s men.

Even allowing for Scotland’s own recently-exposed failings, the days of anxious, awkward, antsy encounters with the Azzurri belong firmly in the past.

Edinburgh flanker Jamie Ritchie cites not only the season-opening win at Twickenham, but the tight nature of losses to both Wales and Ireland as evidence of the Scots having moved into a higher Championship orbit this season.

If losing bonus points are to make a difference to Scotland’s place in the final standings, however, they have to bag a four-try victory against a side who have so far shipped 50 points to France, 41 to England and 48 to both the Irish and the Welsh.

‘We’ve still got two games left, so there’s nothing to say we can’t finish at the higher end of the table,’ said Ritchie.

‘Yeah, we’ve had a couple of close results, but we’ve still taken a couple of bonus points from those games. If we win these next two games, that could be vital.

‘Obviously after the England game, we were all buzzing. We saw it as an opportunity to back it up.

‘But the Wales game didn’t really go to plan, and at the weekend we were off the boil.

‘There’s no reason why we can’t win these next two games and get back on track. I think it will still be a missed opportunity in the last two games we’ve just played. But you can’t look back, you can only look forward.’

The Ireland game still hurts, though. And you can only move on from a defeat once you understand exactly what went wrong.

Ritchie, bristling at the very idea that the Irish had dominated the Scots physically, declared: ‘We struggle when we win two out of eight line-outs. That obviously put us under pressure.

‘But, in terms of around the pitch, I wouldn’t say we were bullied. Our scrum worked really well.

‘They got a few turnovers at breakdown but they’ve got some quality individuals there. But I wouldn’t say we were bullied, no.

‘Any game in the Six Nations, we’re in a position now where, if we put our best game together, we can win. We showed that last year against France, who were on for a Grand Slam — we put a stop to that. We showed it this year by beating England, who were champions last year.

‘Wales are now on for a Grand Slam, but we ran them pretty close with 14 men. So any team in the tournament, we see it as a game we can potentially win.’

France in Paris on Friday week, assuming that postponed fixture is actually confirmed at some point, will be a very different challenge.

This weekend, it’s all about coping with the pressure of being overwhelming favourites.

‘Pressure is something we deal with on a daily basis,’ said Ritchie.

‘There’s not much going on at the moment — and rugby is a huge part of life for many people just now. So I guess there is more pressure.

‘For us, dealing with pressure shouldn’t really be an issue. But maybe it’s time for us to do better.’