Mike Catt laughs off suggestions of Ireland conspiring with Scotland

SHORT SHRIFT: Assistant coach Mike Catt during an Ireland rugby media conference at Complexe de la Chambrerie in Tours. Pic: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

Ireland have poured scorn on the suggestion they might conspire with Saturday’s opponents Scotland to engineer an early exit from the World Cup for pool rivals South Africa.

Pool B will head into the final weekend before the quarter-finals with the fate of all three of the world’s top five in the rankings hanging on the outcome of Saturday night’s all-Six Nations showdown between the Irish and Scots at Stade de France.

Defending champions South Africa have completed their pool schedule and currently top the standing with 15 points from four matches, with Ireland on 14 from three matches and Scotland on 10 points after three games.

The bookmakers and history heavily favour world number one-ranked Ireland and the South Africans to progress to the quarters. Yet among the myriad permutations for Pool B is the possible scenario that a Scottish victory over Andy Farrell’s men by 21 points or more with both sides collecting bonus points would see all three teams finish level on 15 points with Gregor Townsend’s team topping the table, and Ireland finishing about the Springboks having beaten them in Paris on September 23.

South African head coach Jacques Nienaber said on Tuesday that he “hopes” such a situation would not be manufactured by the Celtic nations, thereby adding credence to suggestions dismissed by others as pure conspiracy theory.

“Could I believe in a scenario that they will decide ‘do we want to get this amount of points and then get South Africa out of the way?’,” Nienaber asked. “That would probably be match-fixing, I would say. I hope not.” 

Ireland attack coach Mike Catt on Wednesday dismissed out of the hand the notion of match-fixing.

"Firstly I'd ask you, would we want Scotland to beat us by 21 points?” Catt said. “If you asked any player… any of us, would they want Scotland to beat you by 21 points?” Having laughed at the suggestion Catt added: "No, sorry."

Catt’s initial reaction to the suggestion that Nienaber had taken the conspiracy theory question at face value had been: "Oh dear...I don't know what to say about that to be honest, but anyway… but he was asked the question wasn't he? He didn't actually say it was match-fixing did he?

"Yeah, that stuff is just white noise in the background. No, we're not going to go in cahoots with Scotland.” 

An Ireland win would render the whole matter null and void, as would a draw, with just two points required to top Pool B and Catt said he was not paying attention to the permutations.

“What, me personally? No. I'm just focusing on our performance and the preparation of the players. But as a group of coaches, Andy is fully aware of what's going and what needs to happen.

“Ultimately, both teams need to win the game. If you do that then you put yourself in a good position. That's what we will try and achieve.”