Talked-up Scotland have reason to believe

RUGBY: THERE IS a niggling sense we have been here before, but Scotland are full of confidence going into this year’s championship…

RUGBY:THERE IS a niggling sense we have been here before, but Scotland are full of confidence going into this year's championship, the praise of fellow professionals and pundits ringing in their ears. The players are not allowed to buy into all the talk.

Coached by Andy Robinson, they have no doubt spent most of the last week in a hermetically sealed box with nothing but hot coals and bare feet for entertainment. They have been talked up before, but this year they have a string of results to back up the optimism. It is also fair to say none of their rivals have been making much of a case. Injuries and/or poor form bedevil all of them. Scotland score relatively well on both counts.

Graeme Morrison has quietly become one of their main points of reference in recent years and it is his loss from the midfield that will be most keenly felt in Paris today. But it gives Scotland a chance to field a new centre combination in Nick De Luca and Joe Ansbro, which has its fair share of pace and unpredictably. Elsewhere, Chris Cusiter and Johnnie Beattie are still working their way back from injury, but Scotland’s cover at scrumhalf and number eight is pretty sound.

“We’re going well,” says De Luca. “We’ve got five out of six wins, we’re confident and we’re looking to continue that. Last year we finished strongly but started poorly. We’re looking for a much-improved start.”

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That would mean winning in Paris, a feat they have managed twice in the past 42 years – in 1995 and in 1999, the year Scotland last won the championship. Now would seem as good a time as any to take on France. After their Grand Slam last season, they have fallen away spectacularly, losing three of their past five matches.

Much has been made, quite rightly, of their 59-16 defeat at home to Australia in the autumn.

“After these last two rounds of internationals in June (when France lost to Argentina and South Africa) and November, it’s difficult to be able to have great optimism and certainty,” coach Marc Lievremont said yesterday. “If you look at our last match, especially the last half hour, it’s a blank page.”

Scrumhalf Morgan Parra will keep the memory of the seven tries to one defeat by Australia “in a corner of my mind” while prop Nicolas Mas will never forget a black day for French rugby. “Sure we feel ravaged even if time has passed. That match will remain engraved in our heads all the time,” he said.

However, there was one autumn defeat that was even bigger than that and Scotland were the ones who suffered it – 49-3 at home to New Zealand. So Scotland will not be believing the hype too much. Still, they have picked a pack that dwarves that of their hosts. According to the official statistics, which, in the case of France, should not be taken as gospel (Jerome Thion, the reserve lock, is 13st, apparently), the Scotland pack weighs in at 142st to France’s 133st 6lb. Richie Gray is Scotland’s biggest player at 6ft 10in and 19st 9lb. But he is only 21 and that France pack is full of mean hombres. “The dark arts are something the French are really good at,” he says. “I look forward to going up against them. I’m really excited, but quite nervous.”

There will be nerves because this is a big chance for Scotland. They have three home fixtures, so a win in Paris would put them among the favourites for the title. Not even Robinson would be able to stop them listening to talk then.