Six Nations 2016 Ireland vs Scotland: Scots seek revenge for 2015 drubbing

Ford wants to complete the turnaround with revenge for last year’s thumping

‘We will use last season’s Ireland game a little bit for motivation,’ said Scotland hooker Ross Ford (Getty)

Ross Ford insists Scotland will set out to address the humiliation of last year’s last-day Six Nations defeat by Ireland when they run out at the Aviva Stadium.

Joe Schmidt’s title chasers dished out a 40-10 drubbing to the Dark Blues 12 months ago as they edged past England to claim their second successive crown. But it was a doubly painful result for Vern Cotter’s men as the defeat also confirmed a mortifying whitewash.

This time, though, the fortunes of both teams are heading in the opposite directions. The Irish seem to have lost their way since inspirational captain Paul O’Connell’s retirement, letting their title slip on the back of a campaign that has so far produced just one win and a draw. The Scots, on the other hand, have rediscovered their confidence after back-to-back triumphs over Italy and the French, and are now looking for their first hat-trick of victories in 20 years.

Ford wants to complete the turnaround with revenge for last year’s thumping. “We will use last season’s game a little bit for motivation,” the hooker said yesterday. “It has been mentioned. It would be silly if you didn’t look back at it. It was a poor performance from us. But this time we are a far better team than we were then.

“We just want to do ourselves justice by putting in a good performance. I think they’re going through a bit of a transition. They have lost a few key members of the squad. But they are still a dangerous team who don’t make too many mistakes.

“We’ve got a fairly settled squad but we tend to focus on what we can do, rather than getting too carried away with the opposition.”

Matt Taylor, Cotter’s specialist defence coach, believes the Scotland XV which runs out in Dublin is in much better shape to cope with Schmidt’s line-up. “Last year was a combination of things, unfortunately,” he explained. “It was the last game of the tournament. We performed reasonably in the first couple of games but, through dwindling confidence and injuries, we probably played our worst game of the season against the best team.

“They needed a certain amount of points to win the title and we weren’t up to it. We were disappointed in that performance but we are certainly right up for this game.”

What is certain, though, is the Scots will need to maintain their impressive levels of self-control if they are to record their first win in Dublin since 2010. Last year, Scotland’s downfall regularly stemmed from their inability to keep the penalty count down. But those faults seem to have been ironed out, with the Dark Blues the cleanest of the six nations so far, having won eight more penalties than they have conceded. “Discipline has been a real focus for us over the last year and it’s starting to bear fruits,” Taylor added. “We’re probably the best team in the Championship for discipline this year.”