Lions factor can help Scotland end Ireland hoodoo as Gregor Townsend answers England question

Scotland face Ireland in Dublin this Saturday on the final day of the championship in what is now a three-way tussle for the title.

France are top of the standings, tied with the Scots on 16 points after Townsend’s side beat them 50-40 in an astonishing match at Murrayfield. The French have a far better points differential than Scotland, +79 compared to +21. Ireland are third on 14 points with a points difference of +16.

The outcome of the competition will be decided on Super Saturday, the now traditional denouement which sees the final round of fixtures played one after the other.

Ireland v Scotland is first up at 2.10pm, followed by Wales v Italy at 4.40pm. The finale is France v England in Paris at 8.10pm (UK time) which means the destination of the title will not be known until after 10pm.

Townsend knows they have to beat Ireland and also probably need a favour from England whose own championship hopes have collapsed in spectacular fashion following consecutive losses to Scotland, Ireland and, for the first time ever, Italy.

The Scotland coach was asked after the France game if he had ever found himself in the position of cheering on England.

“That’s a good question,” he smiled. “Probably not. We’ll see. We’ve still got to do all we can to win and we’ve not done that against Ireland for the last few years so that is the big challenge.

“We know the game we can deliver and we have done in the last three games. But Ireland also know that and they'll have a plan to stop that and also impose their game so that's going to be a big challenge for us.”

Scotland have not beaten Ireland since 2017 and have not won in Dublin since 2010. Under Townsend, they have lost 11 consecutive games to the Irish who remain the one Six Nations side he has failed to overcome as head coach.

However, he feels his senior players’ experience of playing for the Lions under Farrell could give them an advantage this weekend. In addition, Scotland forwards coach John Dalziel was part of Farrell’s coaching team on the successful tour of Australia last summer.

“We had a number of players on the tour that trained and played alongside Irish players and were coached by Irish coaches,” said Townsend. “We have a coach in our team who worked with those Irish coaches so there's a little bit more in the mix this year.”

Twelve of Townsend’s squad played for the Lions in the summer, with Scotland captain Sione Tuipulotu joined by Finn Russell, Huw Jones, Blair Kinghorn, Duhan van der Merwe, Scott Cummings, Pierre Schoeman, Ben White, Darcy Graham, Ewan Ashman, Rory Sutherland and Gregor Brown.

Farrell was in charge of the Lions and had three of his Ireland assistants alongside him in defence coach Simon Easterby, scrum coach John Fogarty and backs coach Andrew Goodman. Townsend believes his players will have gained valuable insights from working with the Irish contingent.

“Their defence coach, the attack coach, the scrum coach were involved and they had a number of players,” said Townsend. “Now our players have experienced all that so it should add to our week but it can't be a big part of the conversation.

“The big part of the conversation next week is how we get our game out because that's the key to success. There’s knowing what the opposition will do but it's more important to know what you can do and what you have to do to win the game.”