Ireland understandably wary of Scottish threat

PRE-MATCH PRESS CONFERENCES:IF THEIR eve-of-match press conferences are any kind of barometer, the Scots would appear to be quite chipper whereas Ireland seem quite wary, and understandably so. There was enough grief against the Scots throughout the late '80s and winless '90s in this fixture to put any Irish team on guard.

Sure, Ireland’s only defeat in the last nine clashes was the World Cup warm-up in August ’07 but Brian O’Driscoll, having scored four tries in his first three games against Scotland, has scored none in the last seven. Hence he felt compelled to remind us yesterday that the last three have been close, bruising affairs.

“Scotland are always tough. People don’t realise the difficulties of a Test match, and how hard it is to break down teams. Scotland are a team that live with any opposition right to the death. I wouldn’t envisage tomorrow being any different.”

Kidney pointed out that the Scots have only conceded one try in their last two outings, and stressed the insider knowledge of ex-Munster and Irish defensive coach Graham Steadman and ex-Leinster forwards’ coach Mike Brewer.

“It’s one of those variables we understand but can’t do anything about, we have no control over it. They have a lot of information, they know what makes us tick. We have to be sharp.”

“Yeah, we know their players inside out,” admitted Brewer, “But it comes down to who wants to win the most, who has the best body position and who is going to die before the other guy does. We have the personnel to compete and provide enough position to win the game,” said Brewer bullishly.

Glasgow coach Sean Lineen has been quoted as saying that Ronan O’Gara “wouldn’t fancy tackling a fish supper” while former Scottish and Lions coach Jim Telfer said of Peter Stringer: “I think he’s past it.”

When told that O’Gara’s defence had been highlighted, Kidney smiled, paused and said: “I suppose before all matches different things are said. I didn’t see it, I wouldn’t take up on it, let’s see what happens tomorrow.”