Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Scots ready for tackle law changes and possible yellow cards

Scotland's Six Nations squad preparing for Six Nations Game against Ireland
Scotland's Six Nations squad preparing for Six Nations Game against Ireland

Scotland are preparing for the new rugby tackle laws and potentially playing parts of games short-handed in the forthcoming Six Nations, says defence coach Matt Taylor.

A zero-tolerance approach to high tackles – even those adjudged accidental – from World Rugby will be seen in the high-intensity international game for the first time in the old championship.

One of the first actions of Scotland’s pre-championship training camp at the Oriam complex at Heriot-Watt University was to get the squad further appraised of the new regulations, but as Taylor pointed out, the Scots might be well-placed there anyway.

“We had a referee come in and make a presentation today on the new law, what is acceptable,” he said.

“We generally are a low tackling team, so the regulations should help us. But we’ve got to be really accurate with our tackling, because sometimes the way the game is, people fall, you come in at the wrong angle, you hit them and you could be in trouble.”

So far since the new rules came in on January 1 there’s only been isolated games where yellow and red cards have proliferated, but the Six Nations might be different, he agreed.

“We have prepared for playing with 14 men, today was our first session together but we have a plan in place for how we’ll defend when we’re a man down.

“As a coaching group, it’s something we’ve had to put together we will put it on the training park.”

Taylor is also defence coach with Glasgow and not much changes between his jobs, and he was thrilled with his team holding Leicester to no points in Saturday’s European Rugby Champions Cup game.

“I certainly think, over the past season or two, we’ve upped our ante defensively – and we’ve needed to,” he said.

“It will be needed against Ireland, who are a very strong attacking team. I think the Glasgow boys have defended really well lately. If you defend well, you’ve got a really good opportunity of winning your games.

“I was only nervous on Saturday in the last five minutes when they had a scrum on our line. It was great to see our guys holding them out because we’d talked about that at half-time.”

Scotland haven’t met Ireland first-up in the championship for a few years and Taylor thinks that could benefit his side.

“We’ve played them at the end of the championship when we’ve had a few injuries the last couple of years, it’ll be good to get them at home and have two weeks to prepare for them,” he said.

“It’ll be tough. They’ve executed better than us this last two years and we’ve been disappointed with our performances against them. I think you’ll find us highly motivated for the game this year.”

Taylor believes that recent comments from Ireland scrum-half Conor Murray about how Glasgow have defended the Munster kicking game is aimed at this first Six Nations match.

“At Glasgow, we’re a team who want to put a lot of pressure on the opposition.

Munster and Ireland have a good kicking game, so we go out there to put as much pressure on the opposition as possible.

“In that game last week we did that, and we did it within the laws. It’s really important to get that across. We didn’t do anything outside the law.

“Listen, I think people use various methods to try to get referees on their side. I think that’s maybe what they’re trying to do.”