Scotland's Peter Horne: 'We're not going to qualify by beating Ireland 8-0'

The Scots are plotting an upset in Saint-Denis on Saturday night.

ON TO PARIS: Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend during a training session at the Stade Pierre Mauroy. Picture: Adam Davy/PA Wire

Scotland’s Peter Horne is aware of the maths as they face Ireland in Paris this weekend. Win by less than eight points against the world’s top-ranked side and it is all for nothing. Ireland will still progress to the quarter-finals, the Scots will go home.

It’s a scenario that can’t help but loom larger over the World Cup Pool B meeting between these close neighbours and rivals and yet there is a realisation in Gregor Townsend’s ranks that this is not the time to get ahead of themselves.

Scotland haven’t won this particular fixture since 2017. The last time they pulled through with the sort of margin they need this time around was a World Cup warm-up 10 years before that. The last time they managed it in a competitive fixture was in 2001.

First things first, and all that, and it’s not like this is entirely new territory for a lot of the group. Almost a dozen of the current squad – as well as Horne – were involved four years ago when they faced Japan in the final pool game.

An opening loss to Ireland, coupled with Japan’s win against Joe Schmidt’s team, left Scotland needing to beat the hosts with four points to spare but they fell to a 28-21 defeat in Yokohama.

Horne has taken lessons from that experience.

“For me, I remember as the clock started to go on you felt like the game was getting away from you. It becomes a bit uneasy and you start to worry about the consequences of the minutes ticking away.

“We’ll have it in the back of our minds, [winning by a certain] margin, but we can’t worry about it too much. Maybe later in the game, some of our key decision-makers will start discussing it.

‘But if you start focusing too much on that, you forget about what’s happening in the moment. That’ll be vital this weekend, staying in the moment. If you worry about the scoreline, that’s when you’ll lose a handle on what’s actually happening."

Finn Russell turned the conversation away from points Scotland need to score this week to the points they need to prevent when bigging up the defensive challenge against Andy Farrell’s side and there’s no doubt but that the Scots will have to be tight in that.

But Russell and that exciting Scottish backline is still going to be key to their ambitions on Saturday and Horne was open and honest in accepting that his players will need to hit their markers in that regard over the 80 minutes.

“We’re not going to qualify by beating Ireland 8-0. They’re a quality side and they’ll have their moments in the game. We need to score points this weekend, we’re well aware of that. But we need to rise to it.” 

Scotland have had little problem in finding the try line this year, for the most part.

Townsend’s side averaged four tries a game in the Six Nations matches against England (4), Wales (5), France (3) and Italy (4). The one time they struggled was at home to Ireland when they had to settle for the one five-pointer from Huw Jones.

It goes to show how difficult it is to break this Irish defence down and a Scottish side that was restricted to just three points by a blitzkrieg Springbok defence will have its work cut out in Saint-Denis later this week.

“The Springboks are a lot more reckless with their linespeed,” said Horne. “The Irish team are a lot better connected, they have a lot more control. They are very well organised and a tough side to break down.

“They have some outstanding individuals. Garry Ringrose is one of the best at holding and holding then snapping on passes, getting out the back and making great reads. A lot of the time you look back and think there were opportunities around there, but he’s such a good defender that he always seems to get it right.

“They’ve got some great threats out in those wide channels. Mack Hansen and James Lowe caused us a lot of problems at the breakdown, they stole two or three from us in key positions [in the Six Nations].

“We’re well aware of the threat their defence has.”