We’ll take the whirlwind of pelters out on foes – Taylor

BY RODDY DUNCAN DUNCAN TAYLOR insists Scotland will unleash their frustrations on Samoa after facing those of a nation over their Irish flop.

Sunday’s Pool A opener in Yokohama was forecast to be played out in extreme conditions as Typhoon Tapah hit Japan.

While the worst of the weather predictions failed to materialise, Gregor Townsend’s men were knocked over as Joe Schmidt’s side ran up a 27-3 triumph.

That horror start has blown away much of the optimism that had swirled around the Scotland camp in the days leading up to the World Cup.

The loss leaves Toony’s troops facing the reality that they must win their three remaining games, starting against Samoa in Kobe in five days’ time, if they are to make the quarter-finals.

And Saracens centre Taylor said: “I know that fans aren’t happy. We’re not happy, believe me. We need to make sure we front up now.

“We’ll take the whirlwind that will come at us and we’ll brush ourselves down and prepare for Samoa. We’ll go out there and give it everything we’ve got.

“We’ve got to win the next three. We have to be on top of our game from here on in.

“It hurts a lot. We’re a proud bunch and that changing room after the game was about as bleak as I’ve seen it.

“Everybody is sad and down about that performance. Sunday was a really tough day and we’re going to have to take a really good look at what went wrong.

“We don’t have too much time to dwell on it. We have to look to Samoa now. We need to get back on the horse.”

The wheels had come off by the sixth minute, skipper Stuart McInally’s slip letting James Ryan in for the first of four Irish tries.

Taylor, who was guilty of a wild throw into touch before that with Ireland under the cosh, said: “It was a funny old first 20 minutes. We seemed to get ourselves in decent enough field positions but a few errors, myself included, and we end up putting ourselves on the back foot.

“We have to beat Samoa, we have to beat Russia and we have to beat Japan in the final game.

“Samoa are a good outfit and they’ll fancy themselves against us. But we have to focus on ourselves. If we’re on top of our game we can beat just about any team in the world. We need to get back to where we need to be.”