The Scotsman Rugby Show in Dublin

The Scotsman

Graham Bean joins us from Dublin to discuss Scotland's match against Ireland on the final weekend of the Six Nations.

Transcript

00:00 Hello and welcome to this episode of the Scotsman Rugby Show.

00:05 My name is Mark Atkinson, Sports Editor, and I'm joined by our Chief Rugby Writer, Graham

00:10 Bean, who is in Dublin ahead of Scotland's final Six Nations match of the year against

00:15 the Irish.

00:16 Graham, good morning.

00:17 How are you?

00:18 Morning, Mark.

00:19 Very well, thank you.

00:20 Settled in Dublin, looking forward to the game.

00:22 Excellent.

00:23 I imagine Dublin's quite a busy place this weekend, not just for the rugby, but St Patrick's

00:27 weekend as well.

00:28 Yeah.

00:29 It's a huge weekend in Dublin.

00:31 A sense of anticipation, both for rugby and, as you say, St Patrick's Day weekend.

00:36 So, it's a popular event.

00:38 It's certainly very busy in the town centre.

00:41 Good, good.

00:42 That doesn't help Scotland, does it?

00:44 The date of this match and what's on the line for the Irish as well, a potential title

00:50 win on St Patrick's weekend.

00:51 Yeah, it all seems to coincide, doesn't it, for Ireland?

00:55 They seem to have these big weekends built around St Patrick's Day and usually do quite

01:01 well off the back of it.

01:03 But yeah, I think it's an extra motivation and certainly helps the crowd get well lubricated

01:09 beforehand, I think.

01:11 Absolutely.

01:12 Both teams come into this match on the back of defeats last weekend.

01:17 Both teams were announced yesterday.

01:19 Ireland are unchanged, but Scotland have had a couple of alterations.

01:22 Can you talk us through those?

01:24 Yeah, just the two changes.

01:26 I mean, Gregor Townsend was keen to point out he wasn't about to make wholesale changes

01:32 because on the back of that disappointing performance against Italy, he highlighted

01:38 the good that had gone before in the wins over Wales and England and the good performance

01:44 against France as well when they were very unfortunate to lose.

01:48 So he's just made two changes.

01:51 Most interesting one being at Inside Centre where Stafford MacDowell comes in for Six

01:55 Nations debut.

01:56 He's got one cap previously, which was against Italy last summer in the World Cup warm-up

02:01 game.

02:02 But this is a huge match for him and a real reward for the way he's been playing.

02:06 He's been excellent for Glasgow over the last couple of seasons.

02:10 And Gregor Townsend says he's in for, well, first and foremost, the way he's been playing,

02:15 but also because I think he poses more of a physical threat than maybe Cameron Redpath,

02:20 who played at Inside Centre against Italy.

02:23 He expects it to be a really tough physical battle against the Ireland centre, Robbie

02:29 Henshaw and Bundy Aki.

02:31 And he feels that Stafford MacDowell is better equipped to deal with that.

02:35 He's also a real try scoring threat.

02:37 He's been good for him for Glasgow.

02:38 He's got three tries over the last couple of games, manning the match in both of them.

02:44 I think he's 26 now.

02:47 He's been captain Glasgow a lot this season in the absence of Kyle Steyn and has really

02:51 taken on that responsibility and deserves this chance, I think.

02:59 The other change is at Scrum Half, with Ben White returns as expected.

03:03 Gregor has arrested him last week, felt he just played too much rugby and brought George

03:09 Horn in for this late game.

03:10 But White's back and will start again with Horn on the bench and Ali Price dropping out

03:17 with the 23.

03:18 But they're the only two changes to the starting 15 that are made for this game.

03:22 As you say, Graeme, that's an indication that Townsend is reasonably happy with how the

03:27 team has performed in this tournament.

03:30 Therefore, it is important, despite Ireland being pretty warm favourites to win here,

03:35 that Scotland bounce back to firstly vindicate what Townsend's done with his team selection,

03:42 but also just stop any doubts creeping in that progress is being made?

03:47 Yeah, definitely.

03:49 It is a show of faith in this team and they really need to reward him.

03:58 This is by far the toughest game Scotland have got in the Six Nations this year and

04:03 Townsend said they have to deliver our best performance of the season to get anything

04:08 from it.

04:09 It's nine defeats in a row Scotland have had against Ireland and that World Cup match

04:15 still very fresh in the minds, where Scotland lost 36-14.

04:19 It could have been a lot more.

04:22 It looked, you know, the way the game started, it was running away from Scotland from about

04:28 the 20th minute and it did look at one point that they could be absolutely ripped apart

04:34 before they pulled off a slight second half revival.

04:38 Yeah, Gregor Townsend said yesterday Scotland will need to score at least 20 points to have

04:42 any hope on Saturday.

04:47 It is a tough, it's a very, very tough ask.

04:50 He also said Ireland have been virtually unbeatable at home over the last two years, during which

04:55 time they've been the top two in the world all the way through.

04:58 So if Scotland were to win it would be, I think, the best result of the times they've

05:03 ever produced as head coach over the seven years he's been in the job.

05:08 Absolutely.

05:09 But does that mean then that most people will accept the result is probably going to be

05:13 a defeat against this Irish team?

05:15 It's the manner of how Scotland bounce back and play that we're looking at.

05:19 Well, yes and no.

05:20 I mean, I think England showed last week that they're not invincible, you know, albeit that

05:26 England were at home.

05:27 But I don't know.

05:28 I mean, there's no reason why Scotland should be going in there with any sort of inferiority

05:35 complex, but it's just such a tough physical battle for Scotland.

05:41 And have they got the power up front to deal with Ireland?

05:46 I don't know.

05:47 I'd love to see it, but you've got to be slightly sceptical.

05:53 True.

05:54 In your piece today, though, you did mention as a positive that Undertowns in Scotland

05:57 have snapped long losing runs in England, in France and in Wales.

06:04 So this team has shown it can break the trend.

06:09 Let's talk about one man who's going to have a milestone moment, regardless of what happens

06:12 on Saturday.

06:13 Xander Fagerson, the prop, make his 67th cap against Ireland and that will make him outright

06:20 the top cap holder for a Scottish prop.

06:23 That's right.

06:24 Yeah, he takes, he would move one clear of Ewan Murray tomorrow, 67th cap, which is a

06:33 massive achievement for Xander Fagerson, who's still only 28.

06:38 So you look at WPNL playing on until he's 37, I think he is now.

06:46 Xander Fagerson could have another eight, nine years ahead of him.

06:51 So who knows how many caps he could win.

06:53 But he's a hugely important player for Scotland and it's a great achievement to become their

07:01 most cap prop of all time.

07:04 Is Xander Fagerson a little bit of an unsung hero in the Scotland team?

07:06 Because unlike a lot of props, he can last a long, long time in a match.

07:11 He's got good stamina, good longevity.

07:14 While he's in a couple of moments in a Scotland shirt in terms of yellow cards, ultimately

07:18 he's always picked and he's always a very solid person in the Scrums, isn't he?

07:23 Yeah, he's an absolutely vital cog for Scotland.

07:27 If they didn't have him, they'd be in a terrible position because it's such a specialised position,

07:33 tiehead prop.

07:34 And with WPNL struggling this season with an ongoing neck complaint, it's really brought

07:41 home how important he is, having to play a whole 80 minutes sometimes, which is a big

07:46 ask at this test match rugby and the toll that must take.

07:53 But yeah, he's hugely important for Scotland.

07:56 Yeah, of course, we're sitting here not of a gloomy complexion, but we're muted a little

08:01 bit.

08:02 But Scotland can technically still win the Six Nations, although it's fanciful to say

08:07 the least.

08:08 Can you talk us through the permutation Scotland would require to win the title?

08:12 Yes, I've tied myself in knots a bit with this over the last few days.

08:16 But yes, it requires a 77 point swing against Ireland.

08:24 So that's how far they are ahead of the points difference.

08:27 So Scotland need to beat Ireland, get a bonus point, deny Ireland a bonus point.

08:32 But the margin of victory has to be 39 points to overcome this kind of 77 points swing.

08:41 So that would put Scotland above Ireland, but then they'd have to hope that England

08:46 didn't beat Scotland's points total.

08:48 So that would mean them not beating France with a bonus point.

08:53 I think that's right.

08:54 Yeah, you've nailed that first time as well.

08:57 It is complicated and it's very, very fanciful, isn't it?

09:01 Yeah, I think Scotland would be happy with a last minute one point margin of victory

09:07 over Ireland.

09:08 And anything above that we'd bite your hand off for.

09:13 But yeah, yeah.

09:14 So your final captain's run of the Six Nations, Rory Darge, being put up again for press today?

09:20 I believe it is, yes.

09:22 He's been sharing co-captaincy with Finn Russell through this campaign.

09:28 But Rory Darge seems to be getting the lion's share of media duties.

09:34 So yeah, we'll be due to speak to him this afternoon down at the Aviva Stadium.

09:38 So interesting to see what he's got to say.

09:40 Absolutely.

09:41 Well, Graeme, I'll let you get on.

09:42 Thank you very much for joining us.

09:44 We'll have all the latest Scotland and Ireland news on the website and also in print across

09:49 the weekend.

09:50 Thank you for joining us and we'll speak again soon.

09:52 Bye for now.

09:53 Thanks.

09:53 Thank you.

09:54 Thank you.

09:55 Thank you.

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