TIME TO DELIVER

Hogg: We must show Ireland we are the real deal

SCOTLAND captain Stuart Hogg has warned his team-mates not to get carried away with the praise lavished upon them by Six Nations rivals Ireland.

Ahead of today’s clash at Murrayfield, Paul O’Connell, who won 108 caps for Ireland and is now part of their coaching staff, claimed this is the best Scotland team he has faced throughout his career.

Brian O’Driscoll is another Irish legend who has been fulsome in his praise for Scotland, most notably after the victory at Twickenham last month.

Those comments are far removed from those of Eddie O’Sullivan, the ex-Ireland head coach who branded Hogg and Scotland ‘delusional’ after their defeat in Dublin in last year’s Autumn Nations Cup.

Hogg had no intention of being drawn into a war of words. Instead, he has challenged his team-mates to justify the praise from O’Connell and O’Driscoll and prove they are the real deal.

Bidding for a first win over Ireland since 2017, Hogg said: ‘I think everybody’s entitled to their opinion at the end of the day.

‘It seemed that mine wasn’t valued (by O’Sullivan)

but the pleasing thing, from a Scottish point of view, is you’ve got some legends of the game backing us up about how we’re playing — Paul O’Connell and Brian O’Driscoll.

‘To have players of that calibre commend us and get excited about watching us, that’s a huge pat on the back. It’s those kind of comments that we’ll enjoy.

‘But, as I said, everybody’s entitled to their opinion. I had mine, Eddie had his, they probably didn’t match up. But look, what’s done is done.

‘We just need to go out there and show what we’re really about.

‘It (praise) will give us a little bit of confidence, but that counts for nothing unless we make it happen.

‘It’s fine these guys saying these lovely comments about us, but it’s another thing being able to back it up.

‘I truly believe that we can win the Test match. To do that, we’re going to have to be at our best for large

periods of the game and stay in every single moment.

‘We know we can beat any team on any given day, but we need a complete 80-minute performance.

‘Between the England and Wales games, we left four or five tries out there. It’s exciting for us to know we can create opportunities, but it’s a frustration and a disappointment that we’ve not really had that clinical edge in our game.

‘If we get these things right, take our opportunities, we’ll grow in confidence and you’ll see a true Scottish performance.’

Hogg also warned his team-mates that they must be squeaky clean this afternoon if they are to stay on the good side of referee Romain Poite and keep 15 men on the field.

The Scots had Zander Fagerson sent off last time out against Wales, Finn Russell sent to the sin bin against England, with Duncan Taylor also being yellow-carded against Ireland in December.

With Scotland players being shown cards in each of the past three games, Hogg said: ‘At times, we’ve let ourselves down with ill-discipline.

‘Giving away one penalty is fine. Giving away two, you start to question it. Giving away three or four is just unacceptable.

‘But we’ve got strategies now to overcome that and we feel we’re in a better place because of that. I’d like to think we won’t be making the same mistakes again.

‘As with all referees, you have to try and get on their good side. It all depends on the manner in which you come across.

‘I’ve got a lot of respect for referees because they’ve not got an easy job.

‘We need to make his job easier by making sure we do all the basics well, not giving him opportunities to penalise us, and making sure we don’t get on the wrong side of him.

‘We just need to be squeaky clean and do the basics right.’