Cam Redpath's Six Nations message to Scotland teammates
Cam Redpath has challenged Scotland to win their last two Guinness Six Nations matches and give themselves a chance of championship glory for the first time in 25 years.
The Scots made it two victories out of three on Saturday as they defeated England 30-21 to claim the Calcutta Cup for a fourth year in succession – a feat they had not previously achieved since the 1890s.
Gregor Townsend’s side conclude their campaign with away matches against Italy and on-song tournament favourites Ireland next month and victories in both matches might be enough to secure them a first championship triumph since 1999, depending what happens in the next round of fixtures.
Even if the Six Nations title proves beyond them, though, Scotland can still land a first Triple Crown since 1990 and achieve four victories in a championship for the first time in the Six Nations era.
“We’ve just got to keep pushing on, we want to win the next two games,” said centre Redpath.
“We’ve got to push again to get a good performance in Rome and then go to Dublin in the last weekend.
“We’ve definitely still got plenty to play for. If we win the next two games, we’ve got a great shot at winning this tournament, there’s no doubt about that.”
Redpath entered the fray seconds into the second half as a replacement for Sione Tuipulotu, who limped off with a knee injury that could place his involvement in the closing two matches in jeopardy.
If the Glasgow centre is unable to recover in time for Rome and Dublin, Redpath would be the likeliest candidate to step into the starting XV after delivering what head coach Gregor Townsend described as an “outstanding” second-half performance.
A little over four minutes after coming on, the on-form Bath centre produced a magnificent pirouette on the half-way line to eliminate most of the England defence and create an opening that led to Duhan Van Der Merwe completing his historic, match-definining hat-trick.
“I didn’t really think about it, I could feel someone getting close to me and I just kind of spun and found myself in a little bit of space,” said Redpath. “It happens in rugby, there’s always a bit of space, and luckily I found it.”
Redpath, 24, won his 12th cap on Saturday – three years after his debut in an 11-6 away win over England – but he has started only three matches for his country to date.
Injuries in addition to the form of established starters Tuipulotu and Huw Jones have restricted his opportunities in the past few seasons but he has big ambitions at international level.
“I want to play in big games and show people I can do it on this stage,” he said. “I know a lot of the England boys, I play against a lot of them and I play with some of them, so it (the Calcutta Cup) is always a big game for me.
“It’s a goal of mine to be starting more for Scotland but we’ve got some brilliant centres at the minute, who are right up there, so it’s always going to be tough.
“They’ve proved it time and time again, and they did again for the first try when Sione put Huw through for the first try and Duhan finished it off. It’s good competition to have.”
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The manner of all these comments is that it doesn’t matter who plays No10 for the All Blacks, apparently they are all rubbish!
Seriously, people need to get a grip and stop obsessing over every tiny error made from an overscrutinised position. DMac was good this year for the most part, as was Beauden Barrett. Mo’unga was good last year and would be an asset in the group if he did come back. I don’t see it as an area of concern.
The main concern in 2025 is finding another world class lock and loose forward, followed by some scrutiny over the midfield combination in my view.
Go to commentsI was at this match. Jordie Barrett earned his money with a massive hit to slow a connaught attack to win the math when Leinster had 14 in the last few mins. Mack Hansen had a real go at the refereeing after citing a serious head hits on Iaone and Aki.
connaught were up for this. Snyman tried a trademark dirty after, and the onnaught 4 and the onnaught pack absolutely laid into him.
Leinster hose to kick to the corner when only winning by 5 with 10 left and qith only 2 tries scored. onnaught should have punisihed them for that utter stupidity after they broke out and Leinster yellowed to stop the attack.
13 changes from last week. It seems teams are scoring about 10 points less against Leinster this year. With Neinaber in his second year, the new attack coah established, surely they will be a bigger threat in champions up? Or will the attack recgress further.
They must adopt the SA philosophy of take your 3 pointers and the bonus points will come.
connaught back line inluding Iaone, Murphy, Aki, Forde, cordero is the seond best in Ireland surely. Leinster were lucky here
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