Brown wary of resurgent Irish

KELLY BROWN insists Scotland must leave nothing to chance against Ireland at Croke Park and be prepared for the hosts to be back to their best.

Scotland have lost both their opening matches in the RBS 6 Nations Championship on the back of desperately disappointing performances.

But Ireland were unconvincing in their 16-11 win over the Italians at the start of the month, and were then put to the sword by France in Paris, in the first 50 minutes of their Stade de France clash on February 9.

An astonishing fightback almost saw the Irish overturn a 26-6 deficit, only to lose 26-21. That performance gave an illustration of how strong the Irish can be.

Eddie O’Sullivan’s men were expected to be among Europe’s leading contenders at the World Cup, and Brown recognises Ireland have not gone from being a formidable outfit to a team who will roll over in a few months.

“It’s hard to say whether this is a good time to get Ireland,” said Brown.

“Every team in this competition can be dangerous on their day, and that is certainly the case with them. They have consistently been one of the leading teams in Europe in recent years, and they are a very complete team.

“They have a big set of forwards, a fast back row and their backs can be very dangerous when they are on fire — so we are expecting a thorough overall test. But we have confidence that we can get the win we need to generate a bit of momentum for the rest of the championship.”

After defeats to France and Wales, under-pressure head coach Frank Hadden’s side are in urgent need of a much-improved performance. Brown admits the Scots will need to vary their play in an effort to get across the Ireland line for their first try of the campaign.

“We’ve got to mix it more because against Wales we were far too slow, all the time,” said Brown.

“It is about mixing and matching at the right times. That’s what we’ll be aiming to do on Saturday, because we believe in what we are trying to do — and we know that we are not far away from being the sort of team which can win matches like this one.”

Brown is one of the few players to have been involved in Scotland’s campaign who can justifiably feel his stock has risen since the tournament kicked off.

He began on the bench against France but made a positive impact as a second-half substitute in place of Dave Callam.

Brown was promoted to the starting XV for Scotland’s next match against Wales, and despite the humbling 30-15 defeat in Cardiff he has retained the number eight jersey.

With Jason White and John Barclay dropping out of the side through injury, he is the only back-row player to have been involved in all three matches.

Brown said: “It’s always good to be involved. I was aware at the start of the tournament that there is so much competition in the back row that it was going to be tough to get in and stay in. So it’s basically a case of taking each game as it comes and making the most of every opportunity.

“The first two games have been very, very disappointing. So we want to go out there on Saturday and put on a show that both we and our fans can be proud of.

“There’s so much more to come from myself and the side as a whole and that’s something we’ll aim to prove on Saturday.”