Bowe fit and ready to fire

Ireland winger Tommy Bowe has warned Scotland that he has been revitalised by his injury-enforced lay off.

Bowe returns for tomorrow’s RBS 6 Nations clash at Murrayfield after recovering from the knee problem that forced him to miss the opening two rounds of the championship.

A full 80 minutes for the Ospreys last weekend has provided an invaluable tune-up -and the 27-year-old, one of Ireland’s most dangerous players, is raring to go.

“I’ve only been only out since mid-January and it’s given me a bit of freshness back,” he said.

“I’ve played a lot of rugby over the last couple of years so it was nice to freshen the legs and mind.

“This is a difficult time of year because you play a lot of big matches over November and Christmas with the internationals and Heineken Cup.

“While it was frustrating not to be playing, I believe that in the long run it will be good for me.”

Ireland have endured an error-ridden Six Nations in Bowe’s absence with a narrow victory over Italy followed by a painful defeat by France.

The fall-out from being edged 25-22 by the champions – a match they should have won – has seen mixed messages over ebbing confidence levels emerge from the Irish camp.

Different explanations have also been offered for the number of mistakes being made.

Defeat to Scotland would be disastrous for a team that is struggling in World Cup year, but Bowe insists it is too soon to press the panic button.

“I wouldn’t accept making mistakes. We want to be winning, that’s what will give us the biggest lift,” he said.

“We want to be coming off a good campaign going into the World Cup, so first and foremost we want to win.

“But at the same time we want to know that we are able to take on the best teams in the world and play the type of rugby that will put them under pressure.

“When the small errors creep in, I suppose it does get into your head a little bit, but it’s not something we’re worried about.

“We play enough rugby and have dropped enough balls in training over the years that it shouldn’t really transfer into a game.

“But there are a lot of positives we can take out of the campaign so far.

“We are spreading the ball a bit and teams are looking a bit ragged.

“To be able to score three tries against France is very positive.

“There were also times in the Italy match where if we could have held on to the ball and not coughed it up in key areas of the pitch, we definitely would have scored more tries.”

Scotland have their own problems as they seek to register a first victory over the championship.

The good work achieved in an exciting defeat in Paris was undone by a 24-6 loss to Wales, resulting in coach Andy Robinson punishing probably the worst performance of his reign with seven changes. Bowe believes Ireland will face the backlash.

“Scotland have big, strong runners in the back line. Max Evans is good with the ball in hand,” he said.

“They’re playing at home and will be hurting from the first 20 minutes a fortnight ago when Wales really took it to them.

“They will be looking to start fast out of the blocks. It will be hugely physical.

“They have a great back row and you need to be careful of their offloading game when their tails are up.”