This cannot be stressed enough; the more spicy rivalries we can have in rugby union, the better. Give us all the barbs, digs and overspilling scraps in matches you have in stock. The Six Nations is the perfect environment for it, with everybody taking great satisfaction from defeating England in particular.
When considering Saturday’s three matches and picking the one which seems most likely to boil over, you would normally lean towards Le Crunch between England and France given that fixture’s fierce history. Vincent Moscato getting to know Jeff Probyn in 1992 with a couple of butts, for example. Yet the spat between Ireland and Scotland which has been carrying on now for a few years is great fun, a series of verbal digs trying to wind up the other Celtic brother.
Supporters of each side seem somewhat oblivious to it, welcomingly getting on well before, during and after matches (which is no bad thing). But on the field and through comments in the media about each other – and, importantly, the subsequent interpretations and reactions to those comments – the net result has been more public niggle between Ireland and Scotland than Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior cutting their promos ahead of WrestleMania VI.
Pinpointing exactly when this feud started isn’t straightforward but it absolutely peaked at last year’s Rugby World Cup with the pool game between both sides. Given the presence of defending (and eventual) champions South Africa in the same group, the pressure on both Ireland and Scotland to win and ensure a place in the quarter-finals was enormous. Ireland at the time resembled a steamroller, winning 16 Test matches on the bounce and were fresh from beating the Springboks. When asked about Ireland’s impressive win streak it was Blair Kinghorn, the Scotland full-back, who responded: “They have been on a good run of form recently, but we’ll end that on Saturday.”
There are certain players it seems wise not to anger. Peter James O’Mahony is one of them. Ireland turned up at the Stade de France and gave Scotland a beatdown, racing into a 36-0 lead. A half-time melee sparked by Ollie Smith’s trip of Johnny Sexton ended spectacularly with Pierre Schoeman shoving Dan Sheehan over an advertising hoarding.
O’Mahony, winning his 100th cap that day and now Ireland’s captain, had this to say afterwards. ‘They were in the press beforehand saying they were going to knock us off and end our streak, how they figured us out and worked us out.” Pause. Then the finisher: “I don’t think they did to be honest with you.”
In summary, Scotland are adamant that they can defeat Ireland and publicly say that, which is something Ireland then scoff at given Scotland have failed so often recently to get the upper hand. Ireland have won the last nine meetings and, over the past decade, 13 of the last 14 Tests.
In the first series of Full Contact on Netflix, the episode previewing the 2023 Six Nations game between Scotland and Ireland dives into the edge around the fixture. Here’s what Gregor Townsend, the Scotland head coach, says in that episode.
“The last few years, I’ve heard a lot of things come out of Ireland. The Irish players, the Irish media, believe we’re soft. Believe we’re the team that’s going to go for 60 minutes, and then fade. That is not happening. We win.”
When you revisit comments in the Irish media about Scotland over recent years, you can see where Townsend is coming from. There was Eddie O’Sullivan in 2020 – “They always talk themselves up. They have some deluded notion that they are better than they are” – followed by former Scotland coach and Irish TV pundit Matt Williams in 2022. “I think that talk about it being their year was coming from the Scotland camp, again. They have just got to shut up. Until they actually action out and live their talk, they have got to shut up because they are making fools of themselves. Each time they come out and say: ‘We’re going to win, we’re a great side’. They’re not doing themselves any favours in the rugby world.”
Finally, with the coup de grâce, there was former Irish fly-half Andy Dunne last year before that Six Nations meeting at Murrayfield. “I think we’re going to do a job on them. A solid back-in-your-box performance… against a particular Scottish group that have talked a lot.”
Scotland expressing confidence in their ability to win seems to rile people. Tadhg Beirne, the Ireland lock, was asked this week what he made of Townsend’s comments (from a year ago) shown in the Netflix series.
“The Scots are the Scots. We have our perception of them and I’m not going to verbalise it here because they’ve given us ammo in the past from what they’ve said in the media, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was any different this week,” he replied.
Honestly, a bit of pre-match chatter does not feel like a sufficient enough reason for Ireland in their dominant form of late to be this bothered by Scotland, who haven’t won in Dublin since Dan Parks’ late penalty clinched a win at Croke Park back in 2010.
Dig deep enough and maybe you can point to Scotland not backing Ireland’s 2023 Rugby World Cup bid as a cause for some gripes, voting instead for France. “Scotland went for the money,” said Philip Browne, the Irish Rugby Football Union chief executive at the time (Wales, for what it’s worth, voted for South Africa). “It was particularly disappointing that Scotland and Wales didn’t support their nearest neighbours,” Browne added. Frustrating, certainly, but surely not the motivating factor getting Ireland’s players out of bed in the morning in Scotland week.
Perhaps we should just accept that the two camps really do not get along, and at the same time request that they keep the soap opera going. It seems best to leave the last word to Beirne. “It’s a rivalry, isn’t it? That’s part of the sport. We both love beating each other. That would be the way I’d put it.”
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