Grant Gilchrist believes it will take a “monumental” effort to overtake France in Paris on Friday, but the Scotland forward is encouraged by recent away form.
Gregor Townsend’s side have beaten Wales and England on the road over the past five months and entered the French game after a record-breaking win over Italy at BT Murrayfield.
The Six Nations final at the Stade de France offered the Scots a second-place chance, which would have been their best result since the competition was extended to Italy in 2000.
France, meanwhile, are aiming for the title but need a bonus point and a winning margin of more than 20 points if they want to overtake Wales at the top.
He has all the makings for a great game and Gilchrist knows how important a win would be for Scotland, who have not won in Paris since 1999.
“I think it will be huge,” he said. “It will take a significant effort from the entire team to prepare for this week, but if we can get results there it will be a huge and big boost and a great way to end the tournament.
“We have done well away from home recently. The boys’ victory in Wales at the end of the Six Nations last year and then a win at Twickenham shows we can work on the road.
“He has two faces, we understand the scale of the challenge, but we see it as an opportunity, but there’s no reason we can’t put our best game in France and there’s no reason why we can’t.” Why can’t we win. We believe it, but we have to prove it on Friday.”
The lack of supporters has tended to eliminate any advantage the home side may have in this season’s competition, but Gilchrist is eager for fans to return as soon as possible.
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“It’s a bit more alike at home and away, but we will take advantage of the opportunity even if there are fans and at the end of the day it shouldn’t matter if there’s a crowd or not,” Lockdown said. Edinburgh.
“I know people like to replay in crowded stadiums because it’s the peak, but we understand that we are in a prime position to play the game.”
Gilchrist was making his debut in Scotland in more than a year on Saturday and delivered an especially impressive performance in the roster, which had seen a slump against Ireland a week earlier.
“We went through the parts that we needed to do. The roster stats will show you that before last week we had one of the best rosters in the tournament over the past few seasons,” Gilchrist said. “We had a really bad day at the office [against Ireland]. There were things we could have done better at the time and it was important to review them, but we parked it very quickly.
“We went ahead and fine-tuned our roster choices earlier this week and it was just about portraying it well and to be fair this weekend everyone involved was getting their roles from the inside out. Knew. , which was excellent.”
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