You can’t beat winning under any circumstances, even when the contest is perhaps as low in importance as you can go in international rugby, as Saturday’s test between Scotland and Ireland was.
This Rugby World Cup warm-up was at worst a cobweb-clearing exercise, at best a step above a full-contact training session.
Neither Scotland nor Ireland were at full strength and there were a few on either side who will see September in Belfast or Maryhill rather than in Auckland and Invercargill.
If the Scots hadn’t won the game by scoring the only try with four minutes left it would have been no great disaster.
However, a victory makes a significant difference in a number of ways, in terms of the way the camp is right now and looking towards the next month.
“I like winning,” said a smiling head coach Andy Robinson
“Doesn’t matter how it comes.”
For Scotland the significance of Saturday was that bit more acute, with only a second warm-up against Italy on August 20 ahead.
But for a 10-minute spell before half-time, the home side completely dominated proceedings and Ireland’s only attacking threat came from broken play mostly deep in their own half.Pressure on first-choice forwardsThere was also the incentive promoted by Robinson that this game would be the only chance some players would get to impress before the trip to New Zealand.
If that’s true, some hitherto prominent players, both on the pitch and in the stands on Saturday, will be concerned.
Johnnie Beattie was billed as one, and the number eight had a mixed 57 minutes on the pitch.
Al Strokosch’s hard yards and Ross Rennie’s mobility and tenacity impressed more than Beattie, who was first-choice and unassailable the last time Scotland beat Ireland, at Croke Park 18 months ago.
Geoff Cross won the man-of-the-match award for an effective performance and his wholeheartedness came as standard, which puts pressure on Euan Murray and Moray Low as one of the three will surely not be going to New Zealand.
The scrummage, a weak link in the spring, utterly dominated Ireland’s second-string front row.
Scotland’s best player was Sean Lamont, who got the crowd out of their seats whenever he got the ball not easy with not much at stake.
Nikki Walker looked promising too before an early head knock as both the big wings came inside for work effectively.Optimism reinforcedGraeme Morrison made a strong return, marshalling the defence in midfield, an area he was badly missed during the Six Nations.
Ireland were missing their biggest names and never really looked like scoring a try.
The Scottish half-backs were tidy at times, unconvincing at others.
Chris Cusiter and Dan Parks look likely to be the starters against Italy in two weeks, unless Robinson, as some suspect, is pinning his colours to Ruaridh Jackson as his undisputed number 10.
The bottom line, by virtue of a rare try off first-phase possession, is Scotland won their first home match against Ireland for nearly a decade. Immediately, it reinforces all the optimism from the buoyant training camp.
Looking forward, Scotland will now surely look to win all their games before the meeting with England in the crunch Pool B game in Auckland on October 1.
With Italy, Georgia, Romania and Argentina to follow, that would make six wins in a row, which would be a record for the country.
That would also represent a massive dose of the winning mentality that Robinson is looking to instill in his team.