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'It's St Paddy's weekend, it will be a pretty hostile environment'
Scotland centre Chris Harris will use recent away success as inspiration when Gregor Townsend’s men look to finish their Guinness Six Nations on a high. The Scots face title-chasing Ireland in Dublin with third place in their sights. Scotland have lost ten of their last eleven meetings with Ireland and have not won in Dublin since 2010.
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However, Townsend’s men have upset the odds to claim rare victories in Wales, England and France in their previous two campaigns. Scotland midfielder Harris said: “They [Ireland] have been a quality side for a long time and to play them away from home is especially hard.
“It’s St Paddy’s weekend as well so the crowd will be up for it. It will be a pretty hostile environment, I would imagine. I have only played there once with a crowd but I remember it being pretty intense. But you have got to relish that and enjoy it. We are just looking at ourselves and how we improve that and go and impose that on them.
“I’m not too bothered what the outside think, with all due respect. We have just got to look within this group and believe what we have achieved in the past. I have never been to Ireland and won and it’s been a while so that’s in the back of your mind.
“It’s not going to be an easy game. Just because we have won a few away games doesn’t mean we just have to turn up. We have got to be on it for 80 minutes, we have got to be mentally switched on and really go after them and stick to the game-plan.”
Scotland got the bonus point against Italy on Saturday but the concession of two late tries in a 33-22 win took some shine off the triumph. Having followed up their opening win against England with defeats against Wales and France, Saturday’s game will go a long way to defining how their campaign is viewed. “You can’t dwell on things too much,” Harris said.
“We got five points on Saturday. There was a bit of disappointment to concede a few tries but we were happy with the win and to bounce back from a pretty poor performance against France was huge. We are just purely looking forward now.
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“To win would be massive, potentially the difference between finish fifth or third. It would be quality for us on a group to finish on a high from what’s been a bit of an up-and-down tournament.”
Harris goes into the game in Dublin on a personal high after notching two Scotland tries in Rome. “Scoring’s fun, isn’t it? I was delighted to get over for two,” the 31-year-old said. “It was a combined metres of five maybe with ball in hand but it was quality to score, regardless. It was quality in the set-up from Ali (Price) to go from one end to another and a lovely chip off Kyle Steyn’s shin.
“And the other one was a set-piece play that we have prepped a lot in training and never used so I finally got given the ball and scored, so it was quality from a personal point of view.”
Comments on RugbyPass
The game was already over leave the bloke alone ….from a Welsh fan 😀👍
2 Go to commentsShamefully the Toulouse players acted like footballers, falling down feigning injury at the slightest knock. About time refs penalised this play acting.
6 Go to commentsAnother non Scot for the anti Scot Townsend. Soon there will be no Scottish born and bred players in the National team.
1 Go to commentsGreat comeback to the playing field by Richie Mo’unga after the loss of his father. A great performance by Richie . I know him well and he is a great guy. On and off the field one of the greatest for the Crusaders. Scott Robertson would have loved him in his All Black’s side. A very missed player and person.
2 Go to commentsYeah nah he comes across as a funny bloke, but that stopped abruptly after the Nutcracker Prince debacle✋
2 Go to commentsAt this point I can’t watch him without thinking he’s a dirty slimebag. He should have been banned for the same amount of time that Quinn was out. It took Tupaea near on a fricking year to get fit enough to play again and his leg will never be the same. The other crap thing is that he was at ABs level and now he has to claw his way back there when he could have had several games under his belt.
4 Go to commentsThe Black Ferns 7’s have been without Captain Sarah Hirini now since Dec 23 in Dubai where she suffered a bad ACL injury - hopefully she is on the road to recovery for Madrid and Paris. Now also have Tyler King and Shiray kaka on the Injured List but the Team still found a way to win in Singapore and claim the overall Title.
1 Go to commentsUtter grub, hope he gets his leg broken. Shocking he is still playing after intentionally breaking quinn tupaeas knee
4 Go to commentsGreat to see NZ 7s teams finally coming into form and playing at the level that is expected of them.
2 Go to commentsChief Cheapshot on the market again.
4 Go to commentsCrusaders went all in to buy Hotham and Kemara staight from Hamilton Boys. Then they picked up Reihana and Hohepa; all have been dropped for superstar Havili, who is a very good fullback, that’s it. Ennor and Goodhue were schoolboy stars too but went backwards at the Crusaders. Maybe they have finally decided to give another poach Levi Aumua the ball?
13 Go to commentsJoe S has some talent to pick from. The Reds loosies look the best in Super? Aus might just give Razor a headache this year. Int. experience v Cantab greenhorn:) Should be fun.
13 Go to commentsEnd to end play, “THE FANS” this game was entertainment of the best. The conditions added to the spectacle.
1 Go to commentsSorry to say, but sadly the sadas were just ordinary and havilli at 10 as an abs selection just won’t cut it. He’s better suited in the centre’s and is a victim of past charge down kicks, he’s too slow under pressure. There’s better talent further north and I don’t mean dmac however I believe razor will sort him out. A feature of his presents on the park is the fact that the guys will follow him.
13 Go to commentsMarler was brilliant throughout both in the scrum and open play. His slap made virtually no contact with Ramos who milked it for a penalty when he could have been a decent sportsman and laughed it off, it was non-violent and shouldn't have been penalised. Smith failed repeatedly to kick when necessary and put up a couple of bombs into the TLS 22 that just handed back possession at key moments to the other side.
3 Go to commentsCros was outstanding and rightly awarded France TVs player of the match award. Mallia was brilliant as usual (the y is below the 6 on a UK keyboard and he deserves better than that). Level also seems to have been scored harshly as he walked the ball into touch under pressure from a Lynagh kick from well outside his own half which should never have led to a 50-22. Agree with BullShark that Dupont, while class at times, seemed to go missing for patches in the second half with props, hookers and wings frequently filling in at 9 as he couldn't get off the deck and up to the next ruck on time. A 7 by his standards at best, his kicking was also too long, too often. Kinghorn's overall contribution was worth well more than a five.
6 Go to commentsThe Harlequins team must be in minus figures. Did the reporter actually watch the game?
6 Go to commentsHow on earth did Walker escape a red card? Not dangerous? Dupont has his face in a mask earlier this season. Shocking decision. What is the point of TMOs? We had the Fassi ‘non-penalty try’ yesterday and now this.
2 Go to commentsCould have been a different result but yet again French tv able to affect the result by not showing the very clear high shot on harlequin centre if this would have been on a French player would have been on screen at least five times
3 Go to commentsAmazing. The losing team’s ratings are higher than the winning team’s. Mallia definitely didn’t deserve a y. What game were you watching? Should have got a w or an x. ADP hardly featured in that second half. At one point I wondered when he’d been subbed. Seems to me as if he gets an automatic 9 just for getting onto the team sheet.
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