Catt believes Ireland need to 'go up another level' for Scotland clash

UP ANOTHER LEVEL: Mike Catt believes Ireland need to go up another level from the South Africa victory when they take on Scotland. Pic: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

Ireland are prepared to meet fire with fire when they face an expansive Scotland attack on Saturday, backing themselves to play their game better than their Pool B adversaries.

The Six Nations Grand Slam winners have over the past two years and more shown an ability to win in a variety of ways, not least by rolling their sleeves up and edging an arm wrestle if necessary, as was the case 12 days ago against World Cup rivals South Africa.

Yet their modus operandi is to keep the ball in play and alive for long periods, and at a high tempo, just the way the Scots like it too. Which begs the question, do the world number one-ranked side attempt to stifle their Celtic cousins, just like the Springboks attempted to do to them at Stade de France when the ball-in-play time was just 27 minutes and 19 seconds, thus risking negating their own rugby DNA. Or do they stick to their guns and trust they can outperform Scotland in all facets of that game plan?

Ireland attack coach Mike Catt is no doubt.

"One of our strengths is attack, we want the ball in play but in international rugby you can't dictate that to be honest,” Catt said yesterday.

"We know where we're at attacking wise, defensively we've been superb over the last year and a half and it's something we put a lot of effort, work into.

"It's contrasting styles that are being played, Scotland will play wide-wide but they are going through the middle a bit more now, with Darcy Graham and those guys running off number nine, which we're well aware of.

"But we'll keep on building our attack in terms of making sure we're making the right decision at the right time."

Catt, a 2003 World Cup winner with England, is also confident Ireland’s attack can only improve, a feeling based on the chances his side are creating but not yet converting.

“We missed a fair few opportunities over the past two or three games and for me it’s those opportunities in international rugby, especially at World Cups, you have to nail.

“So there’s still a bit of work-ons there, in terms of our accuracy, what we’re seeing and how we get the ball to where we want it to go. But yeah, we’re happy with the number of points we’ve got currently and so again Saturday is just another opportunity for us to show our stuff again.” 

Recent history in this fixture is in Ireland’s favour and although the attack coach insists eight wins in a row against the Scots will have no bearing on this Saturday’s outcome in Paris, the rising levels of expectations for this team will also have little impact on the Irish players.

“I think that’s where the trip to New Zealand last year put ourselves in those situations, the Six Nations and winning the Grand Slam on the back of that with England and Scotland, those games.

“So, we’re well aware and we understand what needs to be done and if we put in a performance defensively and in attack, then there’s a chance that things will go our way but it’s going to be a proper Test match, and that’s why we play the game.

“History is history. It doesn’t come into it at all, from our point of view. We’ve prepared well for this game, we’ve had a weekend off on the back of that South Africa game and we need to chase our potential.

“We need to make sure we go up another level to what we were against South Africa."