Short of thumping the top table in front of him, the Scotland captain, Jamie Ritchie, could not have made his point any more forcibly. “We’re not going to die wondering,” emphasised Ritchie, when asked how his side planned to knock over Ireland in this weekend’s make-or-break Pool B fixture. “We’ve got to fire every bullet in our gun and play our best game. I know that if we put out our best performance we’re in with a shot.”
Just a few moments earlier, his head coach, Gregor Townsend, had sounded equally bullish after his side’s relocation from Nice to the suburbs of Paris prior to Saturday night’s showdown with the world’s No 1 ranked side. “The players have performed in massive games before when we were underdogs. We believe we’re there mentally, physically and as a group … they’re ready to play their best rugby.”
