IRELAND VERSUS SCOTLAND in Paris on Saturday 7 October is already shaping up as a massively important game.
It will be both teams’ final fixture of Pool B of the World Cup and the result will likely secure a quarter-final spot for one of them while sending the other side home.
So how worried should Ireland be about facing the Scots in that decisive game? Murray Kinsella and former Ireland analyst Eoin Toolan discussed that on today’s Rugby Weekly Extra, a podcast for subscribers to The 42.
Scotland get their warm-up games going this weekend as they host Italy in Murrayfield on Saturday, with former Munster man Ben Healy at out-half.
Ireland also met Gregor Townsend’s side in the pool stages of the last World Cup in 2019. Back then, it was their opening game of the tournament and Ireland had a 27-3 bonus-point win.
That victory was part of Ireland’s current eight-game winning streak against the Scots, but Toolan has some concerns about the upcoming World Cup meeting.
Toolan: “I definitely remember four years ago sitting in Yokohama after we’d beaten Scotland utterly comprehensively and you almost felt a little bit sorry for the Scots because they went into that game with some hope that they could do Ireland on the day. They just offered nothing in the game.
“I sat there and thought that we would play Scotland in four years’ time and I had this horrible feeling they would return the favour, so I hope that gut feeling is wrong.
“They have the potential. If they turn it on, on the day, they have the potential to beat any of the top teams. They ran New Zealand close in Murrayfield last year, they ran Australia close, they beat Argentina convincingly. They have the talent to do so, it’s just whether they can do it when it really counts.
“They’ve got South Africa first in the pool and then whichever way that goes, their focus is always going to be on that Ireland game which is the last game of the pool. It will be a massive, massive occasion and I don’t by any means think it’s going to be a foregone conclusion. It makes me nervous even thinking about that game.”
Kinsella: “The fact that there’s a two-week build-up to it as well makes it all the more fraught for Irish supporters but I don’t think Ireland themselves will feel that way about Scotland.
“How many times have we on the outside spoken the Scots up and they’ve flattered to deceive, even the most recent game. They had a Triple Crown on the line and Ireland were, judging from the outside, in total disarray with injuries all over the place, the pack was a mish-mash with Josh van der Flier throwing into the lineouts and Cian Healy at hooker.
“We later found out Ireland were laughing about it all in the changing room at half time, but Scotland just faded out of that game in the second half when there was a major opportunity there. That will be foremost among Irish thoughts.
“This is a talented crop of Scottish players. Most people I speak to in Scotland say this is their most talented generation ever and yet they don’t have silverware.”
Kinsella and Toolan continued to discuss the early retirement of Scotland fullback Stuart Hogg so soon before the World Cup.
The lads also took stock of how Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, and Japan are shaping up for the tournament as they continue their warm-up games this weekend. Toolan predicts that one of them will have a huge impact on the World Cup.
And the pod includes focus on this weekend’s final round of the Rugby Championship, with 22-year-old Carter Gordon set for a big opportunity at out-half for the Wallabies while the All Blacks look to seal their fourth title in a row.
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