Rugby Union: Celtic packs on collision course

Five Nations: Focused Scotland and Ireland aim to maintain the tempo of a quality championship at Murrayfield

A QUARRYMAN would be able to crush rocks between the two sets of forwards who pack down to do battle at Murrayfield today. The dust cloud moving around the park will not have time to settle, as Scotland and Ireland shunt each other to all parts of the ground. This is a match that will undoubtedly have to be sorted out up front.

The Irish, all fire and passion against France and Wales, then let themselves down badly with a limp display against England; with the spectre of a wooden spoon looming if they don't win today, Ireland will be a veritable landslide of rocks and hard cases when they descend on the Scots.

But, for their part, Scotland left neutrals and ardent fans alike (not to mention England themselves) wondering how they left Twickenham without a victory a month ago. The four weeks of inaction since then will have helped focus their minds marvellously on what they need to do today to rectify matters. And however hard the Irish are they are going to come up against some granite-like resistance.

The beauty of it all is that both teams have contributed to one of the finer Five Nations tournaments to date. Jim Telfer, who makes his final Five Nations appearance at Murrayfield as a coach because he reverts to his former job of the Scottish Rugby Union's technical director after the World Cup later this year, said yesterday: "The quality of this year's Five Nations has been really high.

"It has elevated rugby in the northern hemisphere. You only had to see the quality of the club game between Northampton and Leicester last week, then compare it to the pace and skill of the internationals so far this season to see the difference. There was no comparison."

It has to be said that there has been a fair injection of southern hemisphere attitude and application, certainly to the Celtic nations' rugby -- Ireland and Wales are coached by New Zealanders Warren Gatland and Graham Henry respectively, and Scotland include the Leslie brothers, Martin and John, as well as the full-back Glenn Metcalf and Shaun Longstaff on the replacements' bench. Ireland's import is flanker Andy Ward.

But for all that, there is plenty of home-grown talent on both sides.

Telfer, who is usually inclined to growl out cautionary words, has become something of a warbler ready to sing the praises of his charges. He said: "The thing that excites me about Scotland is we have not even seen the best of some of our players such as Scott Murray, Stuart Grimes and Gregor Townsend. And the best players are the younger players who bring no baggage with them."

However, when it came down to predicting the outcome Telfer reverted to type and forecast that it would not be an easy ride for his team. History may dictate that the odds favour a Scotland victory this afternoon because the Irish have not won at Murrayfield since 1985, and indeed have not beaten the Scots since 1988 home or away, but Telfer said: "It is not a foregone conclusion and it would be a mistake to see it like that. We do not need to win to show we are a decent side. Sometimes a game can change on an injury, a refereeing decision or a simple mistake."

Scotland's captain, Gary Armstrong, restored at scrum-half after missing the match against Italy because of an arm injury, is also keeping his head out of the clouds. "Some people have possibly been getting carried away," he said, "but there is a long way to go. We are still only half- way through the Five Nations and we have only won one game. There is still a lot of hard work left to do."

But Gatland wants to make sure that his Ireland side prove to be too much hard work for Scotland. He agrees with Telfer about the standard of play in this year's tournament and he said: "It has turned into an exciting championship this time around."

There was something that sounded remarkably like a warning when he added: "You only get one shot at every international and there is increased pressure on the players to really perform. We were disappointed with our forward display against England and we are expecting Scotland to really come at us. They ruck well and will want to take us on up front."

Gatland has made two changes from the side which lost to England in Dublin, Jonathan Bell replaces Rob Henderson in the centre and Eric Miller comes in for Victor Costello at No 8. Scotland field an unchanged team for the second successive Five Nations match, Arm- strong having missed only the Italy game.

What the Scots players cannot afford to do is to give away penalties, not when there is the accurate David Humphreys to punish them. The Dungannon stand-off needs just 10 points to break Ollie Campbell's Irish Five Nations record of 52 in one season.

It all points to a super-charged confrontation. Even now seismographers should be finding somewhere more stable on which to balance their Richter Scales or whatever they use. For those who love their rugby raw, rugged and Celtic, the earth should move around three o'clock this afternoon.

FIVE NATIONS' CHAMPIONSHIP

P W D L F A Pts

England 2 2 0 0 51 36 4

Scotland 2 1 0 1 54 44 2

France 2 1 0 1 43 43 2

Ireland 3 1 0 2 53 60 2

Wales 3 1 0 2 77 95 2

RESULTS: 6 Feb: Ireland 9 France 10; Scotland 33 Wales 20. 20 Feb England 24 Scotland 21; Wales 23 Ireland 29. 6 March France 33 Wales 34; Ireland 15 England 27.

FIXTURES: Today: England v France (at Twickenham); Scotland v Ireland (at Murrayfield). 10 April: France v Scotland (at Stade de France). 11 April: Wales v England (at Wembley).

SCOTLAND V IRELAND

at Murrayfield

G Metcalfe (Glasgow Cal) 15 C O'Shea (London Irish)

C Murray (Edinburgh Reivers) 14 J Bishop (London Irish)

A Tait (Edinburgh Reivers) 13 K Maggs (Bath)

J Leslie (Sanix of Japan) 12 J Bell (Dungannon)

K Logan (Wasps) 11 G Dempsey (Terenure College)

G Townsend (Brive) 10 D Humphreys (Dungannon)

G Armstrong (Newcastle, capt) 9 C McGuinness (St Mary's College)

T Smith (Glasgow Cal) 1 P Clohessy (Young Munster)

G Bulloch (Glasgow Cal) 2 K Wood (Harlequins)

P Burnell (London Scottish) 3 P Wallace (Saracens)

S Murray (Bedford) 4 P Johns (Saracens, capt)

S Grimes (Glasgow Cal) 5 J Davidson (Castres)

P Walton (Newcastle) 6 D O'Cunneagain (Sale)

M Leslie (Edinburgh Reivers) 7 A Ward (Ballynahinch)

E Peters (Bath) 8 E Miller (Terenure College)

Referee: D Bevan (Wales) Kick-off: 3.0 (BBC1)

Replacements: S Longstaff (Glasgow Caledonian); C Chalmers, I Fairley (both Edinburgh Reivers); B Pountney (Northampton); A Reed (Wasps), D Hilton (Bath); S Brotherstone (Edinburgh Reivers).

Replacements: R Henderson (Wasps); E Elwood (Galwegians); C Scally (UCD), V Costello (St Mary's College); M Galwey (Shannon); J Fitzpatrick (Dungannon); R Nesdale (Newcastle).