Scottish centre Sean Lamont knows all about the running threat posed by opposite number Jonathan Davies and George North because he works with them day in, day out at the Scarlets.
And the 61-times capped Lamont isn’t dwelling on the prospect of having to confront his strong-running clubmates when Scotland take on Wales tomorrow.
“People have asked me ‘can you stop George?’ But it’s not ‘can we?’ We must,” Lamont told The Scotsman newspaper.
“We know they have big runners and a few in the backline. We have to stop them and we can do it – it’s just about fronting up on the day and doing it.
“They started well last week but hopefully they’ll be over-confident. It could work out quite well for us. If they don’t respect what we can do then we have the ability to do it. I’m hoping they are a bit complacent and we can steal a win.
“We’ve got to move on and redeem ourselves from England. It’s not so much revenge after what happened against Wales two years ago – we just want to get a win because there’s only so much losing you can take.
“You look at the stats for that game in Wales in 2010 and the Calcutta Cup match last weekend, and we should never have lost those games. We let Wales in two years ago, and England never looked like scoring against us.
“They got one charge-down and a lucky bounce that fell at (Charlie) Hodgson’s feet, scored and won. Unbelievable.
“We know the problem and, believe me, the players more than anybody want to score tries. I should have got it right two years ago, and we should have finished chances on Saturday, but we can’t sort those games now. It’s about getting it right on Sunday.”
Lamont reckons the Scottish dressing room after the game in Cardiff two years ago was the worst he has ever been in.
With 76 minutes on the clock the scoreboard showed Wales 14, Scotland 24. The game seemed up for Wales until two yellow cards transformed matters and Leigh Halfpenny and Shane Williams crossed for last gasp tries to make it 31-24 to Wales.
“That was one of the weirdest games I’ve been involved in. Our whole back three [Chris Paterson, Rory Lamont and Thom Evans] were taken out by injuries and then we went down to 13 men,” lamented Lamont.
“It was the worst post-match changing room I’ve ever been in. There were the injuries, obviously, especially when we found out how serious it was for Thom, then Chris and Rory, but there was the way we had lost it. It was the lowest I’ve ever been post-game.”
