Scotland’s first back-to-back wins in the RBS 6 Nations since 2001 will count for nothing if they don’t win a third successive match in the championship against Wales on Saturday, believes skipper Kelly Brown.
Brown said the squad had already put their wins over Italy and Ireland to bed and refocused on further improvement they feel they require to beat the Grand Slam champions for the first time since 2007.
“I think we feel as if we’ve made a bit of progress over the last three games and it’s just making sure we keep on improving,” he said. “If we don’t go out and win on Saturday those two wins essentially count for nothing.
“We needed to take quite a bit from those two wins because it’s been such a long time since we won back to back games, but we can’t afford to play the way we did against Ireland and hope to win every time.”
Brown accepted that a great many Scottish wins over the last five years had been secured in a similar vein to the Irish win if not quite as extreme but that it was not a consistent way to win games.
“I obviously will be pleased with and take any win for Scotland, and yes we’ve won games before like that,” he said. “But for us it’s about being more consistent.
“They key is we’ve not won back-to-back like that and that’s the challenge now, making sure every time we go out we’re at least at 90 to 95% of our maximum.
“We’ve looked closely at the Ireland game, learned our lessons and it’s all about proving that at the weekend.”
Brown believes that while wins in isolation are achievable without the majority of the ball as Scotland did against both Italy and Ireland, it’s asking for trouble to keep playing that way.
“Week after week it makes winning incredibly hard,” he said. “I think to win at the top level you need a strong defence and that’s the first thing that you really need to set in stone, if you’ve got that you can build your game.
“We worked very, very hard on that and, while it’s still not perfect, it’s improved since the autumn, and we’re looking to keep on improving while working on our attacking game.
“I’m not insulted by the notion that we’re better off without the ball because that’s just an opinion. We know where we want to go and what we need to get there.”
Brown will be up against Sam Warburton, the first specialist open-side that Scotland have met, but in a position of strength leading the tackle and turnover counts in the championship stats.
“Those are just stats, and Scott Johnson spoke quite eloquently about what stats are like,” he said, referring to his head coach’s description of stats being like “a bikini they show a lot but not everything”.
“Sam’s a world class player and they’ve got another guy on the bench who is a specialist as well. It’s a really big challenge and he’s the first out-and-out seven we’ve played against.
“Wales had a bad run after the Grand Slam last year but they were unlucky to lose a few games narrowly, and I think now they’ve won their last five away games in the championship.
“They’re packed with Lions and experienced players and the challenge doesn’t come much bigger.”
Increased expectation among the fans is welcome, but among the team it’s different.
“I think it’s really great that the fans are feeling upbeat now, and they’ve been starved of success for some time so that’s good,” he said.
“However, we just focus on the mood in the squad and while it’s pretty upbeat as well, we realise that the last two matches have been far from perfect. We’re an honest bunch and know we want to improve if we want to keep on winning.”
stscott@thecourier.co.uk