THE newfound confidence within Scottish rugby will count for nothing unless the national team delivers in the Six Nations Championship, Nathan Hines, the assistant coach, said yesterday.
Morale is high within the game after Glasgow and Edinburgh both qualified for the quarter-finals of the two European competitions, while Scotland won two out of their three matches in November and only lost the other by a point. And several respected figures within the game, including former coach Jim Telfer and 1999 championship-winning back Alan Tait, have insisted this is the best Scots side since the turn of the century.
But Hines, who like head coach Vern Cotter is in his last season with the team before going to coach in France, warned that good results and a positive frame of mind are no guarantee of success either against Ireland at Murrayfield this afternoon or in the subsequent matches in the tournament. “It’s just opinion, isn’t it?,” he said when asked if this Scotland team was the best of recent times. “Until we do something it doesn't make a difference what anyone thinks.
“It’s all opinion. The fact is we haven't done anything yet. The games haven’t started, and until we can prove we can win on Saturday and win games back to back it’s still just opinion and it doesn't mean anything.
“We just look at what we've done; look at what we need to do. It's not about what people think about us outside the room.”
Having downplayed expectations with that sober assessment, Hines insisted that the team’s target for the championship could not be higher. “Win every game. Isn't that the point of professional sport and being a competitor?
“That's the goal during the week - to put ourselves in the best position to win games, make sure we’re astute tactically, we can eliminate errors and that everyone knows their job and what we need to be doing every minute of the game. If we can take that confidence into the game, that will help us.”
Both Scotland and Ireland reported a clean bill of health after their last, light training sessions yesterday. Today’s match kicks off at 2.25pm.
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