An added layer of drama in this weekend’s Six Nations finalé.
The man that brought Joe Schmidt to Europe, nine seasons ago, now manages a team that could well deny his fellow New Zealander a second successive Six Nations title.
Vern Cotter was finally lured away from Clermont Auvergne, and their forlorn quest to capture European Cup glory, to take over as Scottish coach, last year. He brought his new team through summer 2014 unbeaten and almost [we have heard this one before] turned over the All Blacks before fading in the final minutes.
The Scots were tipped to ruffle feathers in the 2015 Six Nations but have lost all four of their outings. On Saturday, they face an Ireland team that will, most likely, need to beat them by about 10 points and hope England fall short against France.
Ireland prop Mike Ross believes the former Clermont head coach and assistant, Schmidt, will be relishing the tactical battle this weekend.
He says, ‘Any Vern Cotter team will have a lot of dog in it. They will be aggressive at the breakdown, they will have a good well-coached lineout, and they will bring a lot of nous around the park, so I don’t expect Scotland to be any different.
‘I’m sure Joe does [want to win]. He always gets a little glint in his eye whenever he comes up against his old boss. I think he quite enjoys getting one up on him. But I think Vern got one up on him the last time we played Clermont away with Leinster.’
Chasing tries
Although the Six Nations standings do not equate for bonus points, running in a few tries against the Scots would be the rapid way to tot up the points difference [assuming Ireland can secure a win].
Ross says, ‘We are not going to go out and play Sevens rugby, thats for sure. I can’t do that anyway, because we dont want to try and throw it around from the start.
‘If you do that and make a knock on mistake and before you know it one of their fast ball carriers will be scooting up the pitch. Each one of their back three has gotten an intercept so far this 6 Nations, so it is something we will be concious of. We will put width on it where it is appropriate but we are not going to just play wide for the sake of it.’
