McWilliams: Ireland must be 'clinical' against Scotland

Greg McWilliams has stressed the importance of Ireland being "clinical" against Scotland in their final TikTok Women's Six Nations fixture if they are to win and avoid a wooden spoon finish.

Defeat in Edinburgh on Saturday evening (7.30pm) would condemn Ireland to the third tier of the new WXV tournament, while, in reality, they need a handsome win with a bonus point to get off the bottom of the table.

So the tone in the Ireland press conference today was different with more emphasis being placed on result rather than performance as the head coach named an unchanged team to the one beaten 48-0 last weekend, a record home loss to England.

"It's important this week that we can marry the resilience and the bravery that we showed in that game but be more clinical when we have the ball, be more clinical when we have the opportunity to mount some points," McWilliams, whose team contain eight of the starters who beat Scotland 15-14 last season, told RTÉ Sport.

"In the past, maybe the last game of the Six Nations didn't mean anything but this is a huge game for both countries. There is no doubt we are going out there to do our best to get the win.

"It about being more clinical and showing that our performance is well able to play at a good pace and hopefully we get some tries and build up some scores."

Acknowledging that improvement is needed in a malfunctioning lineout, McWilliams said the coaching staff hadn't considered handing throwing duties over to number 8 Deirbhile Nic a Bháird, who has experience at hooker, from the outset.

A back row throwing the ball in to the lineout happened as recently as March when Josh van der Flier was called up for the entire second half of Ireland's Six Nations win over Scotland.

At the same time that