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How Huw Jones rates Scotland three games into Summer Nations series
By PA
Huw Jones is adamant Scotland are not fazed by sharing a heavyweight Rugby World Cup group with the might of Ireland and South Africa. The fact the draw was made in 2020 has led to a top-heavy Pool B containing three of the five best teams in the world on current form.
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With Ireland ranked number one, and world champions South Africa fourth on the list, the burgeoning Scots – despite being up to fifth themselves – will be up against it to reach the knockout phase.
However, three tightly-contested games against second-ranked France this year – including last Saturday’s agonising 30-27 defeat in Saint-Etienne – allied to strong periods against the likes of New Zealand and Ireland over the past year – have given the Scots genuine hope that they can finish in the top two in their section and progress to the latter stages.
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“It is a tough pool, and if people see us as underdogs we don’t mind that,” said centre Jones. “We know how good we can be and a game like Saturday’s, against a side ranked second in the world, gives us a lot of confidence.
“We think we can beat anyone, it’s just about putting together a complete performance. We are not fazed by the group. We are really looking forward to it, but we know we need to be at our best to beat the top teams and get out of our pool.”
The Scots have lost 32-21 and 30-27 in their two away matches against the formidable French this year, while they defeated Les Bleus 25-21 at Murrayfield earlier this month. All three matches against the highly-fancied World Cup hosts incorporated strong fightbacks from Gregor Townsend’s side.
Jones feels if they can cut out the minor issues that are leaving them trailing in the first place, they are playing well enough to fancy their chances against any opposition. “We weren’t really happy with our first-half performance at home to France but we were a lot better in the second half,” said Jones.
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“Then in Saint-Etienne, against France’s strongest team, it was a more complete performance in terms of the full 80 minutes, although it’s still about those small margins for us.
“We feel like we are there and thereabouts but there is also stuff we can work on. Saturday will spur us on to improve even more. We always want to win but a narrow loss like that away to one of the top teams in the world is good for the confidence.
“We know we can go toe-to-toe with the best and we feel we can win those games. We take confidence from that but we also know there are areas we have to tighten up in and not make a couple of silly errors that can cost us close games.
“Going out to France twice this year and running them so close in those games gives us real confidence, especially as the World Cup is out there.”
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As long as there are no slip-ups against Georgia in their final warm-up match at Murrayfield a week on Saturday, the Scots will head out to France at the start of September on the back of an encouraging summer campaign in which they have already defeated Italy and France in Edinburgh.
“We’re feeling good,” said Jones. “It’s been a tough pre-season. The fitness is there and the game fitness is coming along. We have got one more game against Georgia to really sharpen up and then we are into the tournament.
“We are in a really good place but we want to win that game against Georgia and put in a really good performance, which will give us confidence going into that first game against South Africa.”
