Pountney confident Scots can bounce back
February 13, 2001

Scotland's Budge Pountney believes that his side will have the edge on Wales when both sides go into their 'must-win' clash on Saturday.

"There was great disappointment a couple of weeks ago after Paris," said Pountney. "We are fairly determined that if we need to, we will make a few changes and tidy things up. There is a quiet air of determination around the camp at the moment."

"The two teams will be under different kinds of pressure," added the all-action forward. "Wales will want to pull something out of the bag, while we are putting ourselves under a lot of pressure to do things a little better to tidy up on a few things this week."

Home advantage, Pountney feels, could make a crucial difference on Saturday.

"I would hope so," he declared. "There wouldn't be much point in playing in Edinburgh if it didn't. Murrayfield is a little more on top of you and the audience is more youthful and louder.

"It's very important at your home ground to have lots of noise, to put the opposition under a lot more pressure."

Pountney admitted that the team talk this week had focused on cool heads under pressure.

"We don't have to try too hard it's almost a case of chilling out and not worrying about what happens when we have made a break," he said. "We just need to work harder and concentrate and it will come."

Scotland will name their starting XV on Thursday morning at a country hotel in Edinburgh.

Probable team: Paterson, C Murray, McLaren, J Leslie, Logan; Hodge, Nicol
(capt); Smith, Bulloch, Stewart, S Murray, Grimes; M Leslie, Pountney, Petrie

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