Irish bid to seal Rugby World Cup last-eight spot, Scots to gatecrash party

PARIS – Ireland’s 13-8 victory over defending champions South Africa a fortnight ago has been hailed as one of their great Rugby World Cup performances and they will not wish to spoil that by losing to Scotland on Saturday.

Driven on by talismanic captain Johnny Sexton, who will retire after the tournament, they will be hungry to put the Pool B game to bed early on.

The No. 1 team in the world will qualify for the knockout stage with a win or a draw, while defeat by eight points or more without getting a try bonus point would see them crash out.

Sexton may downplay it but whoever wins the fly-half battle between him and his opposite number, Scotland’s Finn Russell, will decide the match at the Stade de France.

The Irish star may be 38 but he has certainly not looked it in his performances so far, having scored three tries and 45 points in three matches, while Russell is capable of the most outlandish passes and kicks that expose defences.

Former Ireland fullback Hugo MacNeill described Sexton as no frills, or “high church”, calling him “disciplined, controlled and with a structured game”, whereas Russell is “Welsh chapel – more populist and crowd pleasing”.

However, the 31-year-old Russell’s tricks can also fail to come off and can provide rich pickings for his rivals.

Both normally would be targeted early on but Scotland have remained coy on how they intend to handle Sexton. “I wouldn’t see the need to go over the top and put him off his stride or take him out,” Russell insisted.

Aside from the two stars, Scotland could be forgiven for not bothering to turn up if they studied the statistics too closely.

The top-ranked team in the world, Ireland are seeking a record-extending 17th successive Test win and have beaten the Scots in their last eight meetings and 12 of the last 13.

However, Ireland’s attack coach Mike Catt said that meant nothing.

“History is history. It doesn’t come into it at all, from our point of view,” he said, referring to the winning run.

“We have prepared well for this game. We have 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.”

If anything has been learnt during the run, he added, it was more how to cope with big-match pressure, dating back to the historic come-from-behind 2-1 Series win in New Zealand in 2022.

In the other camp, if the Scots need to draw inspiration from anywhere, then they can turn to the late American tennis player Vitas Gerulaitis, who beat Jimmy Connors in January 1980 after losing to him 16 consecutive times.

The message would be that Ireland can be defeated.

Meanwhile, Peter O’Mahony, 34, will become the latest Irish player to reach a landmark 100 caps for his country.

The flanker was named on Thursday in a side featuring just two changes to the starting XV that impressed in the victory over the Springboks. AFP, REUTERS