Angry Williams pledges Scots will ‘put up a performance’

MATT WILLIAMS last night lashed out at a number of former Scottish greats and promised his side would “put up a performance” against Ireland at Lansdowne Road this afternoon.

The former Leinster coach who took over the reins at Murrayfield at the start of this season, claimed his detractors were "ignorant and impatient" and described some of the vitriol that has been fired in his direction as "humiliating". However, he accepted: "This kind of stuff comes with the territory and the only way to answer it is with a performance and now we've got an opportunity to produce that."

The articulate Australian doesn't appear to be one of the most popular personalities on either side of the Irish Sea. There are those in Leinster who feel he let them down badly when leaving for Scotland, blissfully overlooking how far he had brought them after inheriting a ragbag of an outfit three years earlier.