Chris Harris, Scotland’s centre, will draw inspiration from recent away success when Gregor Townsends men try to complete their Guinness Six Nations on a high. The Scots are targeting third place against title-chasing Ireland in Dublin. Scotland has lost ten of their eleven previous meetings with Ireland, and has not won in Dublin since 2010.
Townsends men have overcome the odds to win rare victories against all odds in France, England and Wales in their previous campaigns. Harris, a Scotland midfielder, said: [Ireland]They have been a high-quality side for a long time, so it is hard to play them away.
It’s St Paddys weekend, so the crowd will be there. It will be a hostile environment, as I imagine. Although I have only been there once, it was intense. You must enjoy it and take pleasure in it. We are only looking at ourselves, and how we can improve it. Then we can impose that on others.
I don’t care what people outside think. We just need to look within ourselves and see the achievements of the past. I have not been to Ireland and won, but it has been a while so that’s something you keep in your mind.
It’s not going to easy. We don’t have to win every game, just because we won a few away games does not mean we have to show up. It is essential that we are on the field for at least 80 minutes. We need to be mentally alert and focused on the goal.
Although Scotland won the bonus point against Italy on Saturday, the defeat of two late tries in a win of 33-22 took some shine off the victory. After their win against England, Scotland lost against France and Wales. Saturday’s game will be a big indicator of how they view their campaign. Harris stated that you shouldn’t dwell too much on the past.
We scored five points on Saturday. We conceded a few attempts, but we were happy with the win. To bounce back from a poor performance against France was huge. We are just looking ahead now.
It would be a huge achievement to win, and could make the difference between finishing fifth or third. It would be a sign of quality that we as a group finish on a high after a difficult tournament.
Harris is ecstatic to enter the Dublin game, having scored two Scotland tries in Rome. It is fun scoring, isn’t it? The 31-year old said that he was thrilled to score two. It was five metres with the ball in hand, but it was enough to score. It was Ali (Price’s) quality set-up to move from one end to the other and a beautiful chip from Kyle Steyns.
The other was a set-piece that we had practiced a lot and never used. I finally got the ball and scored so it was quality from my personal perspective.
