Scotland captain Sione Tuipulotu admits it is win or bust heading into this afternoon’s clash with Australia in the Nations Championship.
The Scots have fallen to fifth place in the northern hemisphere table, with Wales leapfrogging them courtesy of their stunning victory over the All Blacks in Cardiff yesterday.
Now playing catch-up, Gregor Townsend’s men need to take two bonus-point wins from their two remaining fixtures against Australia and Japan to be in contention at the sharp end of the table.
By finishing in the top two or three, that would ensure Scotland would then face a meaningful fixture against tier-one opposition heading into the finals weekend at Twickenham.
However, if they were to remain in the bottom two, they would be among the also-rans and face the prospect of a dead-rubber against either Fiji or another game against Japan on the final weekend in London.
Tuipulotu has stressed that a huge improvement will be required on the back of last weekend’s poor performance in the 43-21 defeat against the All Blacks.
Scotland skipper Sione Tuipulotu expects a tough contest from two teams needing a victory
‘For us, this is a got-to-have-it game,’ said the Scotland skipper. ‘That’s the mood in the camp. It’s such a different feeling around the place when you’ve either won or lost.
‘We know we need to win this game. We want to get that positive feeling back around the camp again.
‘We want to get our Nations Championship back on track again and give ourselves a big game going into that finals weekend.
‘Our minds are firmly set on bouncing back after last week. That performance wasn’t good enough. We know that and we want to put that right.’
The Wallabies suffered a similarly disappointing result last time out as they were thrashed 45-22 against England at Twickenham.
Having grown up in Melbourne, Tuipulotu has warned Scotland to expect a fired-up response from the Aussies.
The British and Irish Lions star also pointed to the tour Down Under last year, where the Wallabies fought back strongly after losing the first Test.
Tuipulotu and his Scotland team-mates are determined to improve on their All Blacks defeat
‘Yeah, massively, there will be a response from them,’ he continued. ‘I even think about the Lions after the first Test. Australia bounced back into the second and third Tests with real vigour.
‘I can only imagine what’s been going on in their meetings this week. It’s similar to ourselves in terms of wanting to get back out there and give a better account of yourself.
‘I am certainly not expecting them to come here and just lay down. I am expecting their performance to be much-improved, but I’d like to say the same for us as well.
‘Having watched some footage of them in more depth this week, I don’t think I would necessarily say we are similar teams. Maybe around the inconsistencies, I suppose. They have had big wins against South Africa and obviously they play the All Blacks as well, but are maybe just searching for more consistency.’
The weather forecast looks to be atrocious, with Murrayfield braced for extremely heavy rainfall over the course of the afternoon. Tuipulotu insists it will be inevitable that the conditions will have an impact on the game but is confident in Scotland’s ability to adapt.
‘The weather is going to have an effect, no doubt about it,’ added the Scotland captain. ‘We have to make the adjustments too.
‘I think both teams will have a good chance to defensively have a good imprint on the game and maybe bounce back from what wasn’t a good defensive performance for both of our teams last week.
‘So that’s one aspect of the game. I think we’d be delusional to think that the rain won’t have its effect, especially if it comes as hard as the forecast says. So we’ll just have to make the adjustments.’
