Scotland
Scotland ready to stand up and shock Wales - David Denton
PA Sport
February 12, 2016

Scotland are tired of being the RBS 6 Nations' perennial losers, according to David Denton, but he still reckons the Dark Blues can stun Wales in Cardiff. 

The Scots have lost eight straight games in the championship, their worst run in the 17 years since it was expanded to six teams.

Last year's humiliating five-game whitewash was supposed to be rock bottom for a side who were gradually being transformed by Vern Cotter.

But their misery has endured after last week's 15-9 defeat to England wiped away almost all of the pre-tournament optimism that had been built up since last year's encouraging performance at the Rugby World Cup.

In the week since, the Scotland squad and their coaching staff have been forced to answer some probing questions as the media led a post-mortem to that loss while debating if any real progress was actually being made.

It was not always comfortable, with a clearly irritated skipper Greig Laidlaw even claiming in one interview session that the press are "writing us off".

However, Denton did confess that he and his colleagues are fed-up with their rotten run of results and the grind of trying to explain where the team is going.

"It can be tiring having to come out and say the same things again and again after another defeat," explained the Bath No.8.

"But none of us are here to pay lip service. We play rugby to win games.

"Yeah, we've been a bit tired of being where we have been in the last few years, especially after taking some huge steps forward in the last 12 months.

"We want to continue doing that and I'm confident in this team and this coaching staff.

© David Rogers/Getty Images

"We're tired of losing but now it's time to change that. It's not just about playing well. We've done that in a lot of matches and lost. That's not good enough. We want to play well and win."

The inquest in the press since last weekend's defeat to the Auld Enemy has at times verged on scathing. 

Denton, though, has wisely ignored much of what has been written while trying to maintain his air of positivity.

The former Edinburgh forward said: "To be honest I've not seen a hell of a lot of what was reported on the England match. We just need to focus on ourselves and what we can do to get back to where we were at the end of the World Cup.

"England will be a bit disappointed too because neither side played particularly well. Unfortunately they found a way to win.

"That's what we need to learn to do. We need to be a team that even if we're not playing well grinds out wins."

The task facing Denton and his colleagues this weekend at the newly-renamed Principality Stadium is of the giant variety, however.

They have beaten the Welsh in Cardiff just one in the last 21 years and their last visit in 2014 ended in a mortifying 51-3 drubbing -- a record defeat for this weekend's visitors.

But Denton said with a bullish look: "We're going into this match thinking that victory is the minimum we want to get out of it.

"We don't want to be the team that is courageous losers and all those things that have been said about us in the past.

"It's a win no matter what for us and we're going to do whatever it takes to get that."

© PA Sport

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