Fryday: We'll come out fighting against Scotland

While the Irish players refueled and recovered on Saturday evening after their defeat to England, the task ahead of them next week grew that little bit greater.

Scotland's 29-21 win against Italy came as a surprise, and also at a cost to Ireland.

With their victory, Scotland have climbed up to fourth in the table ahead of Ireland and Italy, and it now means that in order for Greg McWilliams' side to avoid the wooden-spoon, they'll not only have to beat the Scots, but do so with a bonus-point.

A four-try victory might not even be enough. If Italy are able to muster a win, or even a losing bonus at home to Wales earlier on Saturday afternoon, then Ireland will have to win by at least 16 points on top of it.

Scoring four tries and winning by at least 16 points on the road is a tough ask at the best of times, but it looks mountainous for an Irish side who have managed just two tries and 15 points across four games so far.

"We'll treat it the same as any other week," said captain Nichola Fryday following Ireland's 48-0 defeat to England at Musgrave Park.

It was a fourth defeat from four and a scoreless outing, but in reality it was the most rounded performance of the championship so far.

The captain led by example in a forward pack that got through a ferocious amount of work. Neve Jones stood out front with a relentless 28 tackles in just 65 minutes, while Fryday was third on the tackle chart with 15, while bringing some variety to the attack with six carries and five passes.

"We’ve had a point to prove in every game that we’ve played, and we haven’t had the results that we wanted, so we want to make sure that we approach [Scotland] similar to this week and we come out fighting, and that we give absolutely everything to the game,"