Six Nations: Scrum warning for Scotland as Ireland deliver mixed news on prop pair

Tadhg Furlong, their hugely experienced tighthead prop, has been ruled out of the match in Edinburgh along with lock Joe McCarthy. Tom O’Toole is banned but fellow tighthead Finlay Bealham is on course to be fit and likely to start against the Scots.

Furlong, a two-time Lions tourist, has been the cornerstone of the Irish scrum for the past decade and has been capped 77 times by his country. A calf issue forced him to miss Ireland’s opener against England on Saturday and will also rule him out of this weekend’s game. That is also the case for McCarthy who missed the curtain-raiser in Dublin following a head knock in training.

“The game will come too soon [for Furlong and McCarthy],” Ireland scrum coach John Fogarty confirmed.

Nevertheless, Scotland’s scrum coach Pieter de Villiers expects the visitors to be formidable at the set-piece as they look to extend their winning streak in the fixture to 11 matches.

“They are a team with depth and I think Bealham has done really well for them,” said de Villiers. “He's a strong low scrummager and as a unit, they fire well. I thought their hookers were stronger as well on the weekend against England. So we'll probably have even longer scrums this weekend coming with less scrums going to the deck potentially. So there certainly isn't any weakness because their depth is up there.”

Bealham started in the champions’ 27-22 win over England in Dublin but had to come off after 58 minutes with a leg injury and was replaced by the inexperienced Leinster prop Tom Clarkson who was making his Six Nations debut. Ireland are optimistic that both Bealham and winger Mack Hansen will both be fit to face the Scots after the pair came through training unscathed on Wednesday. Hansen also had to come off against England with a leg injury.

“They trained just now and it looks positive for both,” Fogarty said of Connacht pair Bealham and Hansen.

“They took part in the full session. They should be [ready], they looked good today, they both trained. They’ll be looked at again and there’ll be a medical [on Thursday] as well.”

Scotland’s scrum didn’t fire on all cylinders in the 31-19 win over Italy but de Villiers felt it improved as the game wore on.

“I think early on in the game we probably got surprised a bit in terms of the load that there was on the bind,” said de Villiers. “We were a little bit slow out of the blocks and then corrected that as the game went on, which is a positive for us in terms of being able to correct and adapt in the game.

“Rory [Sutherland, the Scotland prop] came on and played well from the bench. That was also a positive change from our bench front row there. So yes, there were a couple of learnings. Italy scrummed well on the day and I thought we adapted well to match them well in the end as well.

“It's important to get that first phase right, to set up a proper platform whether it be for attacking inside the platform or using it as a platform for something else. Yes, we want to fix one or two things from the weekend. We were slightly slow in terms of building that into scrum set and go forward. But I think we've had two really good weeks in terms of training. So that will take us into the game well prepared.”

Gregor Townsend called Sam Skinner into the squad this week and the de Villiers hinted that the Edinburgh lock was very much in contention to feature against Ireland.

“Sam is fit. He's come back well with his club and he brings balance to our skill set in terms of the locks,” said de Villiers. “That gives Gregor the best possibility to go and make his choices in terms of what he wants for Saturday.

“We've got physicality, we've got youth, we've got experience. Sam brings a lot of lineout experience in terms of calling and he also brings a lot of maul experience as well. So that leaves Gregor and John Dalziel [forwards coach] with the best possible mix in terms of making the right decisions for Sunday.”