Andy Robinson relishing pressure on Scotland as favourites in Ireland clash

IRELAND will stride out onto the verdant Murrayfield turf this afternoon with little to lose and all to gain from an EMC World Cup warm-up Test that few expect their largely second-string side to win

However, this assumption merely adds to the pressure Scotland coach Andy Robinson is happy to see whipped around the home players.

Robinson has been to the pinnacle of World Cup rugby with England and knows what it took to get that particular squad of talents to that peak. He might not know exactly how far his Scotland side can go, but he knows they will face the same testing obstacles over the next two months.

Without disrespecting that achieved by previous squads, the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand could prove to be the most difficult for a Scotland side. It certainly could have been worse than having the sides in eighth spot (Argentina) and fifth (England), and from the baskets below we could have had stronger rather than Georgia and Romania, though that Georgia game in particular is fraught with danger.

But when asked yesterday whether he worried about his players struggling to cope with the pressure of having just one chance to book a World Cup pass, in their first game of the season in a half-empty Murrayfield (just over 25,000 tickets have been sold], Robinson just smiled.

He said: "I said to the players earlier in the week I want to do everything possible for Scotland to win and that is all I am focusing on with the management team.

"What I am saying to them is 'focus on the game; enjoy the game and playing the game'. We want the pressure. That's why we do the training, to be part of the pressure of every game. Rugby is a pressure game, a tough game to play and we need players who can cope with and enjoy playing in that environment."

• Video: John Barclay and Chris Cusiter in training

With four more warm-up games to come, the Irish have named a side this weekend missing as many as 11 or 12 first choices, and are weaker notably up front. Most of the heroes from the Leinster and Munster successes at the end of last season have been left out, including inspirational figures Brian O'Driscoll, Paul O'Connell and Jamie Heaslip, but Ireland have depth and remain dangerous with first-choice half-backs Tomas O'Leary and Jonny Sexton and others in their ranks with a point to prove ahead of the World Cup.

Robinson is keen to keep the focus off the weakness or otherwise of the opposition, and maintain the pressure on his side. He said: "The motivation this weekend is playing a Test match against Ireland and our players should enjoy the occasion of representing Scotland," he said."Each Test match is a special occasion and this is a special occasion for the 22 players that have been selected.

"I think the element that will be slightly odd for the players will be that they have not had any game-time going into it. When you play in the autumn internationals you've had a number of games and you go into the Six Nations probably on the back of some form, but they are going into this without matches and that is something they have to be able to deal with.

"But we need to look at ourselves and what we're about to deliver a performance. We're always looking and judging players, but ultimately the time to really judge them is in how they deliver on the pitch.

"Rory Lawson has been speaking really well to the team and Ross Ford today spoke well to the forwards about what it means not just to pull on the shirt but also go out and perform."

Robinson is asked at every turn whether he has fixed the 30 in his own mind, and he said yesterday he "was close". He has injury concerns still over Chris Cusiter, who is nursing a calf strain, and prop Euan Murray, who has an Achilles. Murray will not be available to face Argentina in New Zealand and potentially all knockout matches, as these games fall on Sundays, which will be another factor in the selection of the World Cup squad.

The Scots medics remain hopeful that they both will be fit to play against Italy in a fortnight, but Robinson admitted that he might keep the door open if they missed that target but medical opinion was that they would recover full fitness in New Zealand.

If Cusiter and Murray do make it, and we imagine Robinson opting for a 17/13 forwards to backs split, one senses that there are four spots the coaches are still to settle on - whether to take Simon Danielli or Nikki Walker in the wing complement, Mike Blair or Greig Laidlaw as third scrum-half and which two from Johnnie Beattie, Alasdair Strokosch, Richie Vernon and David Denton to add to Kelly Brown, John Barclay and Ross Rennie in the back row.

Tough choices. Is Laidlaw's ability to cover stand-off and scrum-half worth more, for example, than the qualities of a Blair who has recovered from his ankle injury and is back training? Robinson is already planning to try Paterson or Laidlaw out at ten at some point to see if either offer better cover there for Ruaridh Jackson than Dan Parks.

It remains a subject of guesswork while Robinson keeps his cards close to his chest, and poor displays from or injuries to seemingly certain squad members can always force unexpected changes. There is also a motivation among those assured of touring to push their name into the starting XV frame, which has only intensified in training where the coaches have pitted players in the same position against each other.

How quickly the planning, skills and new game-plan comes together is the great unknown.Pre-season games invariably lack rhythm and produce a plethora of errors, and when starting at international pace that has to be expected. But for all it may lack in finesse at this stage a match with World Cup dreams on offer will want for nothing in the battle for dominance and ultimate victory, by whatever means and however many points. Robinson would like to see the emergence of a skilled, fast-paced off-loading game from his side, but experience has taught him that a win of any sort is worth more than an entertaining defeat.

"We want to go out and win the game and put the performance in that does that," he added. "It (winning] would make me sleep easier. I love winning; that is why we are here. At international level you are here to win and that is where my focus is."