Scotland boss Gregor Townsend is looking to bring the “physicality” to Ireland in their final match of the 2026 Six Nations, as they look to take home the trophy for the first time in their history.
Scotland are famously the last team to have won the Five Nations, but since Italy have been included in the championship, the men in dark blue have struggled against their rival nations.
This year’s crop are currently three games unbeaten, and sit level on points with France in first place. If Scotland beat Ireland on Saturday, then they will give themselves a very real opportunity to finish top of the championship, but only if England are able to do a job in Paris.
Focusing on their upcoming opponents, Townsend said: “They were great against England, and they’ve won three in a row, so they’ll be full of confidence. They’ve got some outstanding individuals who started for the Lions.”
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Scotland have not beaten Ireland since 2017, having lost 11 matches since, including two World Cup pool stage defeats. So a result, Townsend knows the challenge that his side faces.
“They seem to raise their game against us. I know sometimes we’ve not played as well, but they definitely played some of their best rugby against us,” he said.
“Two years ago, we delivered a real physical performance, and we were in the game for most of it, and we did have a chance at the end, but they were deserving winners.
“But that’s the physicality we’ll need. We’ll need a huge effort. I think you will see next week that there’s going to be some fatigue. You play five Test matches in six weeks, the game will open up. So let’s hope it does open up.
“There’s been a great championship so far, and I think that we feel that suits our game. But if it’s a tight game, we’ll have to make sure our defence and what our forwards are doing is at the top level.”
Scotland showed just how dangerous they can be in their victory over France at the weekend, putting 50 points on the previously dominant visitors.
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Injury update
Townsend has effectively ruled out second/back-row Gregor Brown from the upcoming match after struggling with a hamstring issue, but the Scotland boss remains positive about Jack Dempsey and Kyle Steyn.
“Kyle Steyn told me he’s fine. So, I hope he’s right, because he’s on a pretty good run of form.
“He was amazing today again, and the best thing he did, it involved his injury. That hassle back to try and stop a French try, whether there was one or two, forward passes in there, we don’t know, but that effort for your teammate. Obviously, we were well ahead on the scoreboard, but that was great to see. He’s got a deep cut. So let’s hope it heals.
“I want to mention Jack Dempsey, who not only got himself back to playing this game, a really big game for us, but was outstanding, probably had his best game of the tournament, and doing that with not 100% was great to see, but I think he’ll be fine. Today would give him a lot of confidence that he can play a physical game and play 80 minutes.
“I think the other two might be tougher ones. I think Gregor Brown’s hamstring issue, so I would think he wouldn’t turn that round and Scott Cummings’ calf.
“Sometimes these can be neural, and what they feel is a torn calf or a torn hamstring, might not be what we fear, but it looks like certainly Gregor will be out, and we’ll see about Scott over the next few days.”
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