Most eyes will be on Ireland when they face Scotland at the Aviva Stadium on the final day of the 2022 Guinness Six Nations, but Chris Harris is keen for the visitors to grab the attention.
The Irish kept their hopes of winning this year’s Championship with a dramatic 32-15 victory over England at Twickenham at Round 4, which put them two points behind leaders France.
An Ireland victory in Dublin will ensure that the Grand Slam-chasers would then need to beat England in the final fixture of Super Saturday to secure their first Championship, and clean sweep, since 2010.
Scotland boosted their confidence ahead of their trip to Dublin by defeating Italy 33-22 in Rome to pick up their second victory of 2022, with Harris scoring two of their tries and the centre has set his sights ending the campaign on a high.
Harris said: “They have been a quality side for a long time and to play them away from home is especially hard.
“It’s St Paddy’s weekend as well so the crowd will be up for it. It will be a pretty hostile environment, I would imagine.
“I have only played there once with a crowd, but I remember it being pretty intense.
“But you have got to relish that and enjoy it. We are just looking at ourselves and how we improve that and go and impose that on them.
“I’m not too bothered what the outside think, with all due respect. We have just got to look within this group and believe what we have achieved in the past.
“I have never been to Ireland and won and it’s been a while so that’s in the back of your mind. It’s not going to be an easy game. Just because we have won a few away games doesn’t mean we just have to turn up.
“We have got to be on it for 80 minutes, we have got to be mentally switched on and really go after them and stick to the game-plan.”
A Scottish challenge for Rugby’s Greatest Championship did not materialise this year, with the highlight for Gregor Townsend’s team so far being their 20-17 victory against England in Round 1.
Their bonus-point win in Rome last week has opened up the possibility of a third-place finish, which would be one place higher than their final placing from 12 months ago.
“We got five points on Saturday,” Harris said. “There was a bit of disappointment to concede a few tries but we were happy with the win and to bounce back from a pretty poor performance against France was huge.
“To win would be massive, potentially the difference between finish fifth or third. It would be quality for us on a group to finish on a high from what’s been a bit of an up-and-down tournament.”
