Scotland to take more risks

RUGBY:Scotland coach Frank Hadden will be acutely aware of a growing impatience amongst the national team's supporters since the start of the Six Nations Championship.

There was a genuine expectation that the Scots would ally substance to ambition in underpinning a meaningful challenge for honours in the tournament.

They haven't. It's not simply the defeats suffered against France and Wales but the manner of them that rankles and has inspired a decision to tweak playing patterns.

Hadden has discarded the blanket of conservatism and instead suggested that his team might be prepared to take a few more risks in trying to reverse the current losing sequence.

His critics may view it has re-arranging the deckchairs on a listing ship. Saturday at Croke Park will provide a more definitive statement than any pre-match hypothesising. Central to a more progressive approach is Hadden's decision to name Chris Paterson at outhalf rather than the left wing.

He expected to inspire a more freewheeling and fluid approach in orchestrating the Scottish backline.

It's no secret that outhalf is Paterson's favoured position although he's far too diplomatic to make it an issue.

"I'm happy to play anywhere and I'm excited about the challenge this weekend. The game time I've had at 10 for Gloucester has helped." The player has played all his rugby at outhalf for the English club but has enjoyed just four starts.

Paterson continued: "And I have also encountered totally different views about how you approach the game, because there is more than one way to skin a cat, and by playing elsewhere and picking up new knowledge you become a better player."

He expresses sentiments that won't be alien to Irish ears about the fact that the Scottish team is better than recent performances suggest.

"Having lost two games in a row and having not played particularly well, things have to change.

"We said after the Welsh game that we could understand how disappointed the supporters were because we know we are a better side but we didn't prove that. We looked poor and we didn't perform. We looked worse than we really are. So we need a good performance.

"In many ways we let ourselves down against Wales and we let the travelling support down as well. This is another away game and we have to be ready for it. In my opinion, we have very little to lose because we have not performed and we have lost two games, so we can't be as bad again. We'll just have to get out there and go for it."

He remains defiant that the Scots will not be hamstrung by low self esteem at Croke Park.

"Confidence is a big part of it, but we all believe in our own ability and with a good week's training we have nothing to fear. The big challenge for us is to prove everyone wrong.

"There is still a lot of confidence and there is still a lot of desire to win the last few games in the championship. Our aim is to score tries and to win games, and we'll definitely go for it this week.

"Most of the World Cup games were quite restricted because there was so much at stake, but we seem to have carried on that conservative ebb, which we didn't plan to: with that we have had two defeats so we are looking to change quite a few things this weekend."

Scotland flanker John Barclay has been ruled out of Saturday's match. Coach Frank Hadden has named Edinburgh captain Allister Hogg at openside with Kelly Brown of Glasgow at number eight.

SCOTLAND: H Southwell; N Walker, S Webster, A Henderson, R Lamont; C Paterson, M Blair (capt), A Jacobsen, R Ford, E Murray, N Hines, S MacLeod, A Strokosch, A Hogg, K Brown. Replacements: F Thomson, G Kerr, J Hamilton, R Rennie, C Cusiter, D Parks, N De Luca.