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'For Scotland to win, they need the Finn Russell magic moments to come off'
By Jon Newcombe
Scotland have long identified this weekend’s Ireland game as a barometer of how far they have come as a side.
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In 2024, Gregor Townsend’s team scored more tries and points and picked up more wins in a calendar year than ever before, finishing with three wins out of four in the Autumn Nations Series.
But the fact remains that they have yet to properly deliver on their potential, and only a successful Six Nations will change that perception. Winning their first Six Nations title remains the goal. They got off to a solid enough start in beating Italy 31-19 at Murrayfield in round one, but there were still some alarming periods when their performance dropped off to give the visitors hope.
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Beating Ireland for the first time in eight years would go a long way to proving the doubters wrong, but neither of this week’s pundits on RPTV’s upcoming episode of Boks Office, ex-Springboks Jean de Villiers and Schalk Burger, can see that happening.
Burger opened up by saying: “Ireland has too much quality. Obviously, there’s Finn Russell, Huw Jones scored a hat-trick on the weekend, Duhan van der Merwe looked sharp, and there’s Darcy Graham. But I don’t know if they have the firepower to mix it up front with the Irish pack. I think there is too much quality in the Ireland squad.
“Scotland on the weekend when they were good, they were very good. But they go off the boil a little bit, it felt like Finn could feel the line speed, chucks the intercept to (Ignacio) Brex and makes a few mistakes in and behind the gain line.
“All of a sudden, Italy had a few opportunities to have a say in that game – they made a clear line break, and then a knock-on. They were over the try line a couple of times and got turned over or were held up. There was not a lot in that game.”
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Last weekend, Finn Russell had one of those games where most things he tried failed to come off. And de Villiers says Scotland needs their playmaker to be fully on song against the two-time reigning champions if they are to stand any chance of ending their 10-match losing run against the Irish.
“You almost feel for Scotland to win the game, you need the Finn Russell moments, the magic moments, to come off,” the former Springbok captain said.
“Even though they weren’t great in the Autumn, Ireland has that kind of consistency, where they can just go through their structure, put pressure on you, the dam will break, and you concede tries.
“I think with (Sione) Tuipulotu not being there, that’s a big loss for them. because that combination for them– that 10, 12, 13 combination – is huge.”
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Ireland are improving and the England match will have given them great confidence.
I sometimes think Scotland are too hung up about beating Ireland. If you treat beating an opponent like the holy grail you can end up beating yourself if a few things start to go wrong.
If anyone beats Ireland this year I hope its Scotland. But, I would love for the match between Ireland and France in Dublin to be a grand slam eliminator.
I reckon you will get your wish…