With 14 from a possible 15 points, it's hard to believe that Ireland face the possibility of being unceremoniously dumped out of the World Cup this Saturday. Scotland are Ireland's final road block if they are to progress from the 'Pool of Death'. Scotland were ranked 5th in the world coming in to this tournament, a tag they have absolutely earned in recent times but it is a tall order on Saturday. Scotland have to win by 8+ points against the world's number 1 ranked side, who are undefeated in their last 16 test matches.
After Ireland's triumphant 13-8 win over the Boks, Scotland's World Cup hopes were largely written off by punters and the wider media. Gregor Townsend was keen to remind people of his side's very real opportunity during the week, "Well, why not? The players have performed in massive games before where we were underdogs." The Scottish players have been just as bullish in their predictions for Saturday. Fullback, Blair Kinghorn said "They have been on a good run of form recently, but we'll end that on Saturday."
It is an era-defining match for Scotland in Paris. Victory and progressing from the toughest pool in the competition to a quarter final, would be this Scottish team's greatest achievement.
Ferris on Scotland's poor record vs Ireland
We spoke to former Ulster and Ireland flanker, Stephen Ferris, who pointed out that despite Scotland's strong squad and good form leading in to the tournament, Ireland have been a major stumbling block for them in the last few years;
The last number of games between the two sides have been reasonably close. Ireland have won their last eight games against Scotland, Scotland's last victory coming way back in February 2017. Many people think there's no superstitions in sport but I think many Scotland fans would argue Ireland are definitely Scotland's bogey team. They just seem to have their number all the time.
Return of important players for Ireland
Ferris also pointed to the very strong squad that Ireland have been able to select for Saturday. In particular the return of Dan Sheehan and Jack Conan;
With the squad that he's picked, the lads that are in form, Dan Sheehan comes back in to the team and good that he was able to get a few minutes under his belt in the last fixture and he's ready to rock and roll. It's a very strong squad, Jack Conan is back on the bench and he's not featured yet at the Rugby World Cup. Stuart McCloskey as well, the only lone survivor to not feature yet is Jimmy O'Brien, there may be an opportunity further in the competition for him to get some minutes.
Criticism of Scottish selections
The Ulster man made mention of his reservations around the squad Scotland had selected, in particular, the omission of flanker Hamish Watson from the matchday 23;
I did expect the Scotland team to be a little different from what it is. Hamish Watson not even being in the squad, offload someone like him coming off the bench, he can really be destructive, with ball in hand and obviously in defence. White not to be on the bench as well, he started the first two games for Scotland in the pool.
Ferris went on to criticise the thinking behind the configuration of Scotland's bench and whether it truly played to their strengths;
They're going with a 6-2 split but you usually pick a 6-2 split to introduce power off the bench but they don't really have power. With Crosbie there, and their front rows- WP Nel is 37 years of age, it's not like they're bringing on the bomb squad, like South Africa did. That's a side of the team sheet we don't always look at is 16-23, for me that's probably the winning of the game for Ireland in the end.
On Peter O'Mahony's 100th cap
Ferris passed comment on what will be a special night for Peter O'Mahony as he will receive his 100th cap for Ireland.
The thing with Pete is, there has been so many question marks over Pete for last three or four seasons. With players like Jack Conan, young guys like Caelan Doris and Josh Van Der Flier winning world player of the year, then there was this pressure that came on to Pete. Because he doesn't make 20 carries a game and run through people, his work can go unnoticed in matches but he doesn't go unnoticed in the big matches. In the really big games when the pressure is on he's either winning man of the match or he's up there with the highest performers in the game. Any time there's been questions around him he's answered them with his performance on the pitch and I really admire that about him. It's something I tried to do as a player as well, answer your critics with your performance on the pitch. He's signed up to the end of this season so goodness knows what he'll do after that but what a player.
Ireland play Scotland in the Stade de France on Saturday night at 8pm (Irish Time).
