Scotland have outsider’s chance of Six Nations title but focus is solely on beating Italy in Rome

Favour from England only required if Scots do the job in Italian capital

Scotland coaches John Dalziel, Steve Tandy and Gregor Townsend oversee a training session at Oriam, in Edinburgh, ahead of the Six Nations match with Italy. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

Scotland have an outsider’s chance of the Six Nations title but insist they won’t let their focus stray from the job in hand when they take on Italy in Rome on Saturday.

Gregor Townsend’s side are second in the standings going into the penultimate round of fixtures. They trail leaders Ireland by six points and would need England to do them a massive favour this weekend to set up a final day showdown against the Irish in Dublin on March 16.

Ireland can wrap up the championship with a game to spare on Saturday if they win with a bonus point at Twickenham. That would move them on to 20 points, an insurmountable total regardless of what Scotland do in their final two games.

In reality, any sort of Irish win over England would make them all but uncatchable given their points difference advantage. But an English victory would blow the title race wide open going into the final weekend, with potentially four teams in with a shout.

Scotland have to beat Italy first of all, ideally with a bonus point, and then sit back and watch events unfold at Twickenham in a match which will kick off around 40 minutes after the game in Rome finishes.

Italy’s impressive draw with France in Lille in round three showed how tough an opponent they will be and memories of their performance at Murrayfield in last season’s Six Nations when they pushed Scotland all the way before losing 26-14 are still fresh for Huw Jones, the Scotland centre, who is not looking beyond Saturday’s match at Stadio Olimpico.

“I think we’ve got to focus on what we’re doing,” said Jones. “If Ireland take it out of our hands, so be it. We’ve got to focus on what we can control and this weekend we’ve got a massive game, Italy away. They’ll be up for it, they’ve improved.

“Last season was a close game and we were at home. We probably didn’t have our best game and we know we’ve really got to pitch up this time. They’re a threat to what we want to achieve so we’ve got to go there with the mindset of putting together our best performance of the championship so far, I think.

“Against Wales, we just had a first half and probably the last five minutes. France, again, we probably could have managed it better. England was a positive step forward but I think we should be looking to have our best performance now because we’re going to need it. They’re a good team.”

Scotland have collected nine points from their opening three matches. They secured four points from each of the wins over Wales and England and a losing bonus point from the controversial 16-20 defeat by France.

Ireland, meanwhile, have the maximum 15 points after bonus-point wins over France, Italy and Wales which have put them in the position of being able to clinch the title with a game to spare. Another bonus-point win at Twickenham and Ireland would be crowned Six Nations champions but any kind of victory would effectively seal the deal given their +81 points differential compared to Scotland’s +6.

Ireland host the Scots at the Aviva in the final round on Saturday week, while France play England and Wales face Italy.