Kiss: Both Scotland and Ireland under pressure going into final match
Ireland assistant coach Les Kiss believes both Ireland and Scotland are dealing with major pressure going into their match in the final round of the Six Nations Championship, albeit for different reasons.
While Ireland are vying with England and Wales for the title, Scotland will be desperate for a win to avoid the wooden spoon after four defeats in the tournament so far.
Kiss was speaking at the pre-match conference in Edinburgh and warned of the danger posed by a Scots team looking to salvage some pride in front of their own fans in Murrayfield.
“When you play test rugby, pressure exists as a reality,” answered Kiss, when asked about pressure on the two teams.
“Their story is different to ours and they’ll have their reasons to avoid that situation (the wooden spoon).”
He said Ireland worked to maintain equilibrium in the training camp, to ensure the team felt the same urgency going into each game, regardless of the result in the preceding fixture.
“We’ve been as hard on ourselves as we have when we’ve won 10 in a row,” he said.
“We just want to make sure we keep to the script in terms of approaching our preparation in a way that makes sure we can build on each performance.
“With that comes our own pressure from ourselves - to be as good as we possible can in any given moment, at training, in our downtime and when the ball is kicked off tomorrow.”
He agreed with captain Paul O’Connell, who
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“We know that this a test match and a difficult proposition against Scotland,” Kiss emphasized.
“We’ve been here enough times to know they they are tight affairs, especially over here.”
