Jamie Heaslip and Ireland turn focus to Scottish opportunities

The folly of regret is not something to which Jamie Heaslip and his team-mates subscribe on the evidence of how quickly they dispensed with the disappointment of last Saturday's defeat to Wales. Grand Slam aspirations have been shelved, instead sights have been recalibrated on beating Scotland at Murrayfield. No points available for moping.

He explained: “The video review was short and brief. We looked at some systems errors, some missed opportunities and then very quickly we moved on to the opportunities that await us this weekend.

“The eternal optimist takes from phrases like ‘learning more from winning’. Sometimes you can brush over things when you’re winning – we don’t do that – but sometimes it can happen. We looked at it quite analytically, in black and white, where we compounded errors through either a missed opportunity or giving them a penalty, or line-break.

“So we have to realise that but we can’t linger. We have to move on quickly and we always knew these two weeks were going to be like that. We did defensive stuff this morning, (about) five minutes; a lot of lads would have watched the game over the weekend. So they would have parked it and moved on.”

The first two days of the week have been spent on looking for Scottish weaknesses. The good news according to Ireland’s number eight is that they’ve spotted a few but they will remain undisclosed to outsiders ahead of kick-off in Edinburgh.

Scotland may be without a win but how they’ve contrived to find themselves in that particular predicament is owed to a large dollop of misfortune amongst other shortcomings. Heaslip knows his Celtic kin from the Guinness Pro12 well enough not to underestimate what lies ahead.

“I can’t tell you the game-plan. We’ve seen some opportunities, and also some threats from them. They’ve a big mobile pack, especially the back five who are big units. And down the spine of the team they have a lot of the Glasgow players who are with each other all the time in the Pro12 and they have a great relationship. We have to respect that threat (but) we spotted some opportunities.

“They (Scotland) have a multitude of threats and they have a good set-piece from which they can launch their big ball-carriers. That can give them quick momentum and get them into shape. Their halfbacks direct play well and they can punish you on turnover ball.”

The mantra emanating from the Ireland camp is singular in message and tone, if delivered by numerous voices, in that winning on Saturday is the main preoccupation. “I’ve been in these situations before and you can’t focus on points difference because if you don’t win the game, you’re left with nothing in your hands.

“You have to focus on the game. The last time we played them, the final score took away from a game that was 6-3 at half-time. We only pulled away in the last 10 minutes or so. So against a team like that, who are such a threat and can score off turnover ball, or from their own launch, you can only focus on those moments. We have to concentration on our launches and try to nullify theirs.”