Ross: Pack and back three are Scotland's threats

By Tadhg Peavoy at Carton House

The prep work is being done already as Ireland look to go to Edinburgh, down Scotland, and win by enough points to retain the Six Nations Championship.

Mike Ross will in all likelihood start at tighthead again on Saturday after a very solid and industrious performance against Wales. And the Leinster man feels the Scottish strengths are divided between both their pack and their offence-minded back three.

"We've been looking at them this week. They're a very tough team to get away from," said Ross.

"They're very tough at the breakdown. They've got a big powerful back three. Stuart Hogg especially and they've got a combative pack.

"We need to focus on getting our game plan right and executing it well."

The Ireland scrum was questioned and pinged by referee Wayne Barnes for a penalty on two occasions, and a free-kick on another. But he was happy enough with where that set-piece stands heading into round five.

Ross said: "We're happy enough, but not going to get ahead of ourselves, considering they lost Samson Lee very early on, and Gethin Jenkins tweaked something in the warm-up. I don't think he was fully fit either. Scotland have a very good pack."

The Scotland pack, and the team in general, have a bite and doggedness about them and Ross knows this well – traits he feels are core strengths of Vern Cotter teams.

"His teams have a lot of dog in it. They're aggressive at the breakdown. Have a good lineout and bring a lot of nous around the park," said Ross.

"So, I don't expect Scotland to be any different. Joe [Schmidt] gets a glint in his eye when he comes up against his old boss [at Clermont].

"It would be a great achievement for the squad to win back-to-back championships. But we want to focus on winning the game - anything else is a bonus."

Anger is a natural emotion after defeat in any walk of life. And this week Ireland must channel that anger into positivity on the training pitch and in preparing for future battles ahead.

"You'd like to have a bit of an edge about training," said Ross.

"It means you're in a good place, but at the same time you have to take what you can from it.

"If the fact that we learnt the lesson in the Millennium Stadium saves us from learning the same lesson in the World Cup then it probably will have been worthwhile. At the same time it's not something you want to happen."

In terms of where the pack under-fired on Saturday, Ross was very clear on what must be better against Scotland: lineouts, the breakdown and attack play.

Paul O'Connell reacts to the defeat in Wales

"Our lineout. We lost a few balls there. The callers will be looking at that and our breakdown work as well," said Ross.

"The Welsh defence is very good and their line speed was excellent. When you are getting hit behind the gain line it becomes more difficult to rock then if you're going forward."

And while Ireland will want more width and unpredictability about their forward play at Murrayfield, the prop highlighted that patience and playing percentages is still the key mantra in this team.

"We're not going to go out and play Sevens, I can't do that anyway. We're not going to go out and throw it around from the start," said Ross.

"If you do that, and you make a knock-on mistake, before you know it one of their back three will be scooting up the pitch.

"We learnt an awful lot from the New Zealand game [in 2013]. And we need to apply these lessons because there's no point in learning the same lessons twice. The main lesson is don't get a bad start [like we did in Cardiff].

"We worked incredibly hard to get back in the game, but ultimately the head start was the winning and losing of the game."

Whether Ireland can immediately right that wrong, start well at Murrayfield and lead heading into quarter No 2 in the Scottish capital, could well decide whether Ireland will retain their title or not.

@TPeavoy

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