Scotland captain Sione Tuipulotu insists he and his team-mates will be fuelled by desperation as they bid to get their Six Nations back on track with a win over England on Saturday.
The Scots made a disastrous start to the Championship last weekend when they fell to defeat against Italy in a monsoon in Rome.
Gregor Townsend is now under huge pressure as head coach – and Tuipulotu admits it is last-chance saloon for Scotland if they want to mount a credible challenge this year.
Ahead of a win-or-bust Calcutta Cup clash, the Scotland skipper said: ‘That’s been my message to the group, that we’re desperate now.
‘Not only in the bigger scheme of things, but also just for our championship. That’s what I’m hoping to see, a desperate Scotland team.
‘We’re playing for our championship, there’s no doubt about that. You can’t lose two games in a Six Nations and expect to be in contention at the back end.
Finn Russell (left) isn’t in on the joke as Sione Tuipulotu and Duhan van der Merwe lark around
Tuipulotu has hit out at the media for the criticism after Scotland lost to Italy in their opener
‘So, yeah, we’re a desperate team at the moment, and I want to see that desperation in the players.’
Tuipulotu also feels a victory over England would be a fitting way to repay those supporters who have stuck with the team, especially the younger generation.
‘It’s obviously a game that means a lot to the country, and one that we really lean into,’ he said. ‘Ever since I arrived in Scotland, I know this is the biggest fixture of the year for everyone, for the supporters especially.
‘So it’s a game that we need to go out there and show up ourselves, for our supporters mainly.
‘That’s my main message. Although the last three or four games have been really tough for us, there’s a lot of supporters that haven’t quit on us.
‘There’s a lot of supporters that are going to be sitting in those stands on Saturday watching us play. So they’re the ones that we’re going to go out there and do it for.
‘That’s the most important thing to me, coming off the field and I see the kids there wearing their Scotland jerseys and I feel responsible for their joy. It does make me emotional. I want to make these kids proud.
‘We haven’t given them much joy lately at Murrayfield – and that’s who I do feel responsible for. I feel responsible for the kids in the stands. Their parents pay a lot of money to bring them to a Scotland game.
‘I understand that the fixtures have been disappointing, to say the least, over the last three, four (matches), even leading back into the autumn.
‘But we’ve got to remember that we’re the ones in the changing room, and we’ve got to stick together through this time.’
On the challenge of facing an England team who have won 12 games on the bounce and who are bidding to win a Grand Slam this year, Tuipulotu noted similarities between the two camps.
‘It’s quite funny, looking back at England’s journey to the last Six Nations, they lost their opening game of the Six Nations, and before that, were on a massive losing streak,’ he said.
‘The media were on top of them, on top of their coach, and they did manage to turn it around. Credit to them.
Gregor Townsend and George Horne appear in good spirits ahead of facing England
‘Now they’re on a 12-game winning streak. So we’ve got to focus on ourselves and try to change the narrative, but also just get our championship back on the road.
‘Calcutta Cup matches are often a little bit different, and it doesn’t really matter what form any team are coming with. We are desperate to win this game for our supporters as much as anything.’
Townsend is now under huge pressure as head coach. The defeat in Rome last weekend led to fresh calls for him to be relieved of his duties.
This is not a small band of rebel supporters who have gone rogue and are calling for him to be sacked. Nor is it a media-driven narrative, no matter how much he tries to spin it that way.
This is now reaching Andy Robinson levels of anger, when he was finally put out of his misery on the back of a defeat to Tonga in 2012.
There is now an overwhelming majority of Scotland supporters who feel Townsend’s time is up. Tuipulotu acknowledged the noise and criticism, but insists the players also have to shoulder the responsibility as well.
‘Yeah, it’s gutting. I’m not hiding from that,’ said the skipper on the fallout over the last week. ‘I can’t remember feeling like that after a loss.
‘Everyone’s got a phone, you know, and we know about the things that are getting said about our coach. But we understand it as well.
‘At the end of the day, Test rugby is about winning and fans and people get frustrated when you don’t do that, especially I understand with the squad.
‘It’s not that we’re not delusional to the fact that we need to get results in order to avoid that type of stuff.
‘But it’s also a kind of thing where, you know, we open up our phones and you see the media and everything like that. It’s easy to sit in that chair that you [the media] are sitting in right now.
‘But we have to pull it together because it’s our only option. We understand the heat that our coach is under.
Townsend has come under pressure after a troubled spell in charge of Scotland
‘But I’m not going to get up here and say we should get rid of our coach or maybe give you guys the headlines, because that’s not how I feel at all.
‘I’ve always felt about the media that it’s easy to sit where you guys sit. And it’s hard to sit where I sit. That’s why I love playing rugby, because I like the idea of what I do is hard.
‘Sometimes writing the stories, I feel like that’s something easy to do. So we’ve got to wear that responsibility as well and what comes with it.
‘And, yeah, I’m fully on board with all the criticism that we’ve gotten, because in fact, we haven’t got the results to deserve any better. That’s OK.
‘I’ve never been someone that sits up here and bull*****. I’m going to say how I feel. This is how I feel. It doesn’t make me angry because what defines me is not rugby, it’s how I react to things that happen.
‘We’ve had a heartbreak on the field and I’m very emotional about that. But what you guys say has no effect on how I feel about my coach or about my team-mates. Not one bit.’
