Scotland vs. Ireland at Murrayfield

Richie Gray for Scotland

With a big weekend of sport ahead, Scotland's 6 Nations fixture against Ireland at Murrayfield is set to be one of the highlights.

Following an impressive 34-10 victory against Italy on Saturday 9^th February, Scotland is looking ahead to their next challenge this Sunday 24^th February: a home game against old foes Ireland. Murrayfield will undoubtedly come alive as Scotland seek to overhaul their old adversaries. After their lacklustre efforts last year, Scotland are hoping to pull the cat out of the bag in 2013.

Saturday 9^th February saw a relatively straightforward clash for Scotland against an Italian side flying high from their victory over France in their first game of the 2013 RBS 6 Nations. A superb breakaway try from Stuart Hogg helped seal the victory, with Sean Lamont, Matthew Scott and Tim Visser all going over as well.

With a wounded beast in town – Ireland lost narrowly 12-6 to England two weeks ago – this weekend may not be as plain sailing. Looking at the head-to-head stats, Ireland are narrowly edging out in front. Out of their last 21 games Ireland have snatched 11, whilst Scotland have only won 9 with 1 draw. In more recent history, Ireland have won 7 out of their last 10 matches, including a 32-14 hammering in the same fixture last year.

Johnson has described his side as unpredictable and is calling for more effort and energy. Speaking to The Scotsman, he said:

‘How we played against Italy won’t be good enough to beat Ireland. Ireland is a quality defensive unit for a start – a world-class defensive unit. So we’ve got to take it up another peg or two.’

It seems the Scotland team have their work cut out for them. The atmosphere in Edinburgh is bound to be electric for this one. Tickets are still available from the Scottish Rugby website. However, should you not be lucky enough to join the 67,000 fans in Murrayfield then any bar in Edinburgh city centre will make a great alternative to watch the match. Here at Rugby Plus we will be watching the game with fingers and toes crossed.