Williams hails Paterson threat

Scotland coach Matt Williams claims captain Chris Paterson is every bit as dangerous as Jason Robinson.

Paterson moved to full-back during Scotland’s opening RBS 6 Nations Championship defeat in Wales last week but he will be back at stand-off for the visit of England.

The 25-year-old will no doubt be under the cosh again for the world champions’ trip to Murrayfield tomorrow, but Williams believes he is up their with Robinson as one of the best players in the world at turning defence into attack.

He said: “Chris is an excellent defender and I can’t recall Chris missing a tackle in any position.

“Chris is also a scintillating counter-attacker and is one of the best counter-attackers in world rugby.

“He’s one of the only guys in the world you could put in the same class as Jason Robinson with the ball in his hand.

“We did see a bit of that last week when we were allowed to counter-attack a little bit more rather than when Chris was back there.

“Once or twice in the first half he was covering for a kick that he shouldn’t have. I’m confident he will tackle.”

Paterson insists stand-off is his favourite position but as long as Scotland turn the corner under Williams he does not mind where he plays.

“I want to be playing at Murrayfield on Saturday,” he said. “I would want to play at number 10 yes. It’s not a personal thing, it’s about what’s best for Scotland and it’s about Scotland moving forward.

“It’s a team game and the more you concentrate on one individual you automatically detract from the fact that it’s a team game.

“I would prefer to be at 10, I was a little bit disappointed about how things turned out at the weekend but that was purely the Brendan (Laney) injury.

“It’s early days, it’s the first game. To get carried away with one position after 80 minutes of rugby and one individual is a bit unfair.

“As a captain my responsibility is to lead the team and do the best I can in whatever position I play.”

Williams believes his players got caught up in the atmosphere of the Millennium Stadium last week and their gameplan went out of the window.

But his assistant Todd Blackadder has urged the players to have faith in the system they have put into place.

“I would say trust in the system,” said the Kiwi. “They should have self-belief and real urgency.

“I thought that was exceptional but it is the little detail things that we didn’t have in our game last week that let us down like missed tackles, missed rucks and line-outs.

“When they put us under pressure last week we didn’t respond and when we did it was too late.

“We just can’t go out there against anyone from the kick off and not be on our game because we’re not good enough.

“We’ve got to come out flying from the off to give ourselves any chance.

“We can’t miss tackles, line-outs, have a bad scrum or watch one of our players take the ball and not put pressure on.

“I really feel our players are up for it and we do have some great players and I’m sure they will do that.”

Williams acknowledges everything will have to go his side’s way to shock England and he has urged the Scotland supporters to get behind his players.

He said: “I can ask the Scottish supporters that we are really going to need their support this weekend.

“There is a lot of support for the white team coming up but we really need them with these young guys for the full 80 minutes.

“We want to put a performance in so I want that support.”

Scotland: Hinshelwood (Worcester); Danielli (Bath), Philip (Edinburgh), Laney (Edinburgh), Webster (Edinburgh); Paterson (Edinburgh, capt), Cusiter (Borders); Smith (Northampton), Bulloch (Glasgow), B Douglas (Borders), Murray (Edinburgh), Grimes (Newcastle), White (Sharks), Mather (Glasgow), Taylor (Edinburgh).

Replacements: Russell (Saracens), Kerr (Leeds). Hines (Edinburgh), Hogg (Edinburgh), Blair (Edinburgh), Parks (Glasgow), Henderson (Glasgow).

England: Balshaw (Bath); Lewsey (Wasps), Greenwood (Harlequins), Robinson (Sale), Cohen (Northampton); Grayson (Northampton), Gomarsall (Gloucester); Woodman (Gloucester), Thompson (Northampton), Vickery (Gloucester), Grewcock (Bath), Kay (Leicester), Jones (Sale), Hill (Saracens), Dallaglio (Wasps, capt).

Replacements: Regan (Leeds), Leonard (Harlequins), Shaw (Wasps), Sanderson (Sale), Dawson (Northampton), Barkley (Bath), Paul (Gloucester).