Six Nations: Scotland will not deviate from high-risk strategy - Sean Maitland
- Published
Scotland will not alter their high-risk strategy despite shipping two costly interception tries in the Six Nations Championship, says wing Sean Maitland.
Ali Price's loose pass was seized by Gareth Davies who raced home as Wales romped to a 34-7 opening-day win.
Peter Horne was punished in similar fashion by Jacob Stockdale as the Scots lost 28-8 to Ireland on Saturday, but Maitland says his team's style will always carry an element of risk.
"This is how we want to play," he said.
"Horney will be gutted. We did talk about the winger loving to come up looking for those intercepts.
"But we want to chuck the ball about among ourselves and have fun."
Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt revealed they had identified a vulnerability in Scotland's wide passing game which leaves them susceptible to interceptions.
"It was something that we had looked at and did feel it was an opportunity," Schmidt told BBC Scotland.
"It wasn't suddenly something that sprang out. Jacob knew if he tucked and waited they might throw that long ball as they did last week [against England].
"Huw Jones picked that up but [England centre] Jonathan Joseph could potentially have done the same thing. I thought he read it very well.
"I was surprised he [Horne] threw it after our last game against Wales, when Jacob picked up a very similar sort of try."
In Scotland's previous two away matches in the championship, they were hammered at Twickenham last season and in Cardiff to kick-off this campaign.
But despite the 20-point margin of defeat this time around, Maitland says the team are becoming a more difficult proposition to face on the road.
"Obviously it sucks to lose but if we're judging ourselves on the Wales game, the effort wasn't there, we didn't work hard, we didn't play for each other," the Saracens wing, 29, said.
"This time we might have lost by 20 but the effort was there, the energy too. It's just a few little tweaks we need to fix.
"The Six Nations is obviously a really tough competition and it never gets any easier - especially playing three away games against quality teams.
"But we're not far away. We're working hard every week and it's just the small things we need to fix. Hopefully we can sort that out come Italy."
Blair Kinghorn marked his first international start with a well-taken try in the second-half, and Maitland was impressed with how the 21-year-old wing acquitted himself.
"I thought he was quality," the New Zealand-born player said. "He could have had a hat-trick if things had gone our way.
"But he's definitely a really exciting one for the future. He's a big boy and he's rapid - a big horse.
"If Tommy [Seymour] is back next week there's going to be some selection headaches but that's good to have."
- Published10 March 2018
- Published9 March 2018