Six Nations can still be 'huge success' for Scotland as 77-cap lock who cites Twickenham 'evidence'

That wasn’t the case at Murrayfield on Sunday as Ireland won 32-18 in a match that was more comfortable for the visitors than the final scoreline suggests.

Gilchrist was candid about Scotland’s shortcoming against the Irish and identified the breakdown as a particularly problematic area but believes they can fix it in time for the match with England at Twickenham a week on Saturday and the final two fixtures against Wales and France.

Scotland are going for a fifth successive win against the English but the experienced Edinburgh forward is under no illusions about the scale of the task facing Gregor Townsend’s squad against a team buoyed by their impressive win over France at the weekend.

“I'm looking forward to the next three games,” said Gilchrist. “Nothing will change for us. If we get our contact area right, we're going to be a tough team to beat. If we don't, it's going to be hard.”

Gilchrist, who won his 77th cap at Murrayfield on Sunday, is bidding to help Scotland taste victory at Twickenham for the third time in a row, which would be unprecedented. It’s not something that should be taken lightly and, at 34, the lock has been around long enough to remember dark days when the Scots couldn’t buy a win at English rugby’s HQ. The triumph of 2021 was Scotland’s first at Twickenham in 38 years and their record against the Auld Enemy under Gregor Townsend is now five wins, one draw and one defeat from seven. Prior to Townsend's arrival as head coach, Scotland had gone 10 games in a row without beating England.

”Disappointed as we are right now, we've got three huge games left,” said Gilchrist. “We've got Twickenham, an exciting game. They got a huge result against France but we'll go down there knowing that if we get our game right, we can win. We've got evidence behind that. We know the effort and how good we're going to have to be, but we've got the bodies in the room to make it happen.

“We've just got to dust ourselves off, take the learnings and go again. This Championship can still be a huge success for us. We know that Sunday [against Ireland] was massive - everyone talked it up, rightly so. It was a huge game. We've not got the win, so now it's about can we win the last three games?

“We've got to make sure we stay in it. And staying in it is obviously going to Twickenham and getting the result.

“Ten, 15 years ago it would never have been thought that that was even possible [to win back-to-back games at Twickenham]. In all those games we had to play our best rugby. We had to play right at our best. That is what we will need in two weeks' time as well. We're under no illusions at all. You don’t just get to go to Twickenham and win - the history of Scottish rugby tells you that that's not the case. We have, as a team, performed right up there, as well as we've played, in that stadium against that team. We need to find that. Obviously, for our championship it's huge.”

England’s bonus-point win over France means they are third in the table on six points, one point and one place above the Scots. Townsend’s team beat Italy in their opener while England lost to Ireland, the only unbeaten team remaining in the championship. France are second, also on six points, Italy are fifth, a point behind the Scots, and Wales are bottom with a solitary bonus point after back-to-back defeats.

If Ireland are overwhelming favourites to win the championship for the third year in a row, the places below them are up for grabs. France, so impressive in their first-night win over Wales, turned in an error-strewn performance in tricky conditions at Twickenham on Saturday as England won 26-25 with a brilliantly-worked late try from Elliot Daly, converted by Fin Smith.

“I thought they were dogged defensively,” Gilchrist said of England. “They stayed in the fight. The game could have slipped away from them but they stayed in it, they forced France to make that extra pass, make the error, then they had the balls to go and win it in the last play. We know their players inside out and for the last few years they've been underperforming. When you look at their team sheet, there’s quality right through it. We have to be at our very best.”

Gilchrist didn’t hide his frustration at aspects of Scotland’s performance against Ireland. He was particularly annoyed by the way they botched the restart when they had fought back to within six points of the visitors early in the second half. The momentum they had built up quickly ebbed away and Ireland went on to score two more tries to pull away.

He identified the breakdown as the other big work-on. Gilchrist felt the way it was refereed at Murrayfield by James Doleman suited Ireland better, while stressing that the New Zealand official was fair on both sides.

“The breakdown was a mess for both teams, which suited them a lot more than it suited us,” said the second-row. “There's some things we can do better there. It was the same for both teams but the style of refereeing allowed it to be a mess at the breakdown. That was difficult for us.

“It was allowed to be a real mess for a lot of the game. I don't think that's what anybody wants. It’s certainly not suited to the way we want to play. We want quick ruck ball. Our game depends on the ruck being good. When it's good, we generally win.”