When Scotland last visited Dublin a couple of years ago, the Six Nations series on Netflix had just been released and it gave an interesting insight into their mindset when facing Ireland.
Whilst the series as a whole may have lacked punch, to the point it was eventually discontinued, this was one of its better moments.
Having been filmed the previous year, Gregor Townsend was addressing his players prior to facing Ireland at Murrayfield in 2023.
Referencing the Irish media and players, Townsend said: ‘They believe we’re soft, they believe we’re the team that’ll go for 60 minutes and then fade. This is not happening. We win.’
Scotland didn’t win. They lost 22-7 in a match which saw Ireland lose both their hookers, with flanker Josh van der Flier having to throw in to the lineout for the final half-hour.
When the teams met six months later in Paris in the Rugby World Cup, it was an annihilation as Ireland won 36-14 to knock Scotland out of the tournament in the pool stage.
Gregor Townsend has yet to beat Ireland in his role as head coach of Scotland
The Stade de France was a sea of green that night, with thousands of Irish voices singing along at full-time to their unofficial anthem of Zombie by The Cranberries.
‘In your heeeeeead, in your heeeeeead…’ Well, you know the rest. Having failed to beat them in 11 previous attempts, you do wonder if there’s a part of Ireland that lives rent-free inside Townsend’s head.
It would most probably be the Irish media, who have openly mocked and ridiculed Scotland at times in the past. They view Scotland as a team who are all talk and no trousers.
Just earlier this week, an article was published in a national newspaper in Ireland which claimed that ‘sniggering at Scotland’s expense has become a national pastime’.
Why, then, is Townsend so reluctant to engage on the topic? On the eve of tomorrow’s Six Nations showdown in Dublin, his media conference yesterday to announce his team was a non-event.
Nobody was expecting him to come out all guns blazing. That’s not his style. Never has been and never will be. But this was monosyllabic evasion on a whole new level.
One reporter asked him where this would rank in his career if Scotland pull it off and finish as champions. ‘No, I’m not going to answer that,’ came the reply.
Why not? It was a perfectly legitimate question. But the refusal to engage on anything before his team faces Ireland is now the norm for Townsend in this fixture.
He is terrified of saying anything that could be blown up as a headline in the Irish media and construed as Scotland getting above their station or over-confident.
We know exactly what he thinks of Ireland. The Netflix series left us in no doubt. But avoiding any headlines and jibes in the Irish media dominates Townsend’s thought process in the build-up to this fixture every year.
Scotland’s media activity this week has been a non-event. Rory Darge spoke on Tuesday and said the square root of nothing. Likewise defence coach Lee Radford.
It is their biggest match in a generation, the chance to win a Six Nations may not come around again any time soon, and they are treating the build-up – publicly at least – like an autumn international against Fiji.
You suspect that Darcy Graham got a clip round the ear for having the nerve to suggest that Ireland might be ‘there for the taking’ when he spoke in the Murrayfield mixed zone post-France last weekend.
In fairness, that was a bit silly. But Townsend’s refusal to engage on anything at all yesterday was pretty underwhelming for such a seismic fixture.
When he was asked about those comments on Netflix, Townsend said: ‘Sometimes I use those lines to get the players wound up. Whether they’re true or not, you’d have to ask the Irish public.’
Discussion over, followed by some waffle about how Ireland are strong physically in the contact area.
Will he give a similar speech this weekend? ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘We’ll see what is needed but it’s not about speeches. The players drive their own standards.’
Scotland know what they need to do. They need to win in Dublin for the first time since 2010, whilst hoping that England can do them a favour in Paris later in the evening.
Townsend has made three changes to his starting XV on the back of last weekend’s stunning victory over France, two of which were enforced by injury.
Scott Cummings and Gregor Brown both miss out, with Grant Gilchrist and Max Williamson coming in to start in the second row.
Zander Fagerson is restored at tighthead and, along with Pierre Schoeman, he should be licking his chops against an Ireland scrum which has struggled at times of late.
Ireland have their own ambitions of still trying to win the championship. Given that they would view a Scotland win at The Aviva as the first sign of the apocalypse, is there an added pressure on the home side?
‘Well, like ourselves, they’ve still got an opportunity,’ said Townsend, who has never beaten Ireland in 11 previous attempts as head coach. ‘They’ve still got a Triple Crown to play for [as well as possibly winning the championship.
‘We both lost our first games, and one of us is going to win four games in a row, so it would be a great way to finish the championship for the winner.
‘They’re playing at home, so they’re set up pretty well to playing a team they’ve beaten for the last ten years or nine years, being at home with silverware to play for.
‘I would say they’d be looking forward to that situation that they’re in.’
Townsend celebrates with skipper Sione Tuipulotu after beating France at Murrayfield
And what of Scotland’s chances of winning the title?
‘We’ve not talked about that,’ said Townsend. ‘It’s really another opportunity to play, the final opportunity for this group to go out and play.
‘You can see that they’re loving playing together. We see it in training, the togetherness in the group.
‘This is just our final chance to do that before they go back to their clubs.
‘We’re playing away from home, which is a big challenge in itself, and we’re playing against a top-quality side.
‘Over the past few years, Ireland have played well against us and we’ve not always played well.
‘Sometimes we have, two years ago in particular, we played very well, but Ireland seem to play really well against us.
‘We get that observation that we play really well against England. Ireland seem to play very well against us.
‘So that’s what we’re expecting: a real physical challenge. They’re a top side.
‘Their performance against England was one of the standout performances of this year’s Championship.
‘If they deliver that, which we’re expecting them to do, we’re going to have to be very, very good to win.’
Coming away from Townsend’s media conference yesterday, it was all extremely flat.
Do Scotland actually believe they can win this game? Or will this ghastly green nemesis continue to live in their head for another few years?
