Ireland have mental strength to break Murrayfield hoodoo

Six Nations' Championship O'Sullivan's men seek to end 18 years of pain in Edinburgh as Scotland base game plan around strategic kicking

Tomorrow Afternoon's Six Nations encounter at Murrayfield is to be preceded by a 20-minutes-a-half "Classics" match. Ireland's last win in Edinburgh was so long ago only one member of their team that day, the Ulster wing Keith Crossan, has been deemed fit enough to make their veterans' squad. Ciaran Fitzgerald, who led the Irish to a dramatic 18-15 victory, and Trevor Ringland, who scored the clinching try in the final minute, have presumably been exhausted just talking about the distant afternoon of 2 February, 1985.

If Ireland are to give France and England a run for their money this year, the dark horses of the 2003 championship race must first negotiate what has become a Becher's Brook for them. Eighteen years of falling at the Murrayfield fence has left its scar on the national rugby psyche, but if Eddie O'Sullivan's 8-1 shots manage to overcome the mental and physical barrier the portents for them staying the course are good. The Murrayfield winners of '85 went on to complete a Triple Crown and win the championship, Ireland's last to date. A draw against France in Dublin denied them a Grand Slam.

The only Irish Slam dates back to 1948, the year London had an Olympics and 12-year-old Lester Piggott rode his first winner. There would have been another one two years ago, had the emerald islanders not tumbled 32-10 in Edinburgh, just a month before their 20-14 mugging of England at Lansdowne Road. They have since hammered Scotland 43-22 on home turf, but O'Sullivan is treading warily on Caledonian soil.

"We have gone into a lot of games in Scotland as hot favourites and have come out of them with our tail between our legs," O'Sullivan, the Ireland coach, said. "There's little point in pretending anything other than that our record at Murrayfield has been pretty horrendous. But it is in the physicality stakes and in the mental toughness stakes that we need to 'front up', because that is where Scotland will undoubtedly take us on."

Fitzgerald believes the Irish class of '03 has the wherewithal to break the hoodoo. "I think they're tougher, harder now mentally," the former Lions captain said. "They'll want to get rid of this monkey. They've done it before. They beat France in Paris and, more recently, there was the win against Australia."

The win in the Stade de France three years ago, Ireland's first in Paris for 28 years, was inspired by the brilliance of Brian O'Driscoll. The centre scored a hat-trick of tries that day, as he did against Scotland in Dublin last March, when, to quote Bill McLaren, the Scottish midfield "opened up like the Gobi Desert". The Scots have since reconstructed the ramparts and built up a measure of confidence drawn not from the history books but from a run of four victories, including a first-ever autumn series clean sweep and a first win against South Africa for 33 years. The manner of that 21-6 beating of the Boks will undoubtedly be the template for Ian McGeechan and his players tomorrow.

The Scotland coach made as much clear when explaining why Gordon Ross will be his outside-half pivot, leaving Gregor Townsend to bench duty. "His kicking game," McGeechan said of the young Leeds Tyke. "He's kicked well strategically."

Ross certainly did against South Africa, keeping them on the back foot in the face of a relentless, driving Scottish pack. Not much got past Ross, nor Bryan Redpath, that day, and what little that did was dealt with by the right boot of Brendan Laney. The Scotland game plan tomorrow will be to starve O'Driscoll of possession and to make the Gobi Desert a mirage.

McGeechan himself is not lifting his sights beyond the immediate horizon. Asked about his hopes for his team in his final championship as coach, he replied: "We'd like to beat Ireland." With Stade de France and Twickenham to visit, the qualified success of Scotland's season is likely to hinge on the outcome of their opener.

Last year Ireland leaked 45 points in England and 40 in France, but this time round they have the big two at home. They also have a winning roll of six matches, their best run since 1969, and the psychological booster of their 16-7 win against the Wallabies in November.

"Starting in Scotland will help focus our minds," O'Sullivan said. "If we begin with a win then that hopefully will set the foundation for a good championship. If we lose then we have precious little time to circle the wagons before we go to Italy."

The omens would be good, however, if O'Sullivan's men were to emulate the boys of '85. Back then, the attention on opening weekend was also focused on an Anglo-French summit at Twickenham. There were no winners there, though. It finished in a 9-9 draw.