Bundee Aki has warned that Ireland can't afford to switch off against Scotland like they did in the final stages of Saturday's 27-22 win against England.
Simon Easterby’s side had been cruising towards a win when they gave up two soft tries in the final five minutes last weekend, as Tom Curry and Tommy Freeman ran in for late scores.
With the second of those tries coming while the clock was in the red, the scores had no material effect on the result, but it did take some shine off what had been an impressive Irish win, while it also allowed England pick up a losing bonus-point.
The Ireland interim head coach showed his frustration at that late lapse in concentration after the game, and Aki has doubled-down on that message ahead of Sunday's meeting with the Scots (live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player).
"I think the boys rectified it and spoke about it. We said that obviously if we switch off like that, in any part of the game, against Scotland, they will rip you apart," the Ireland centre (below) said.
While Scotland made heavy work of their 31-19 win against Italy, their backline did pull the Italians apart, with centre Huw Jones scoring a hattrick.
And with Finn Russell's ability to get quick width on the ball to his wingers Darcy Graham and Duhan van der Merwe, Aki says Ireland must be switched on defensively.
"If Finn Russell sees those things he will absolutely take you into the gutters, and same as Duhan van der Merwe, Huw Jones, Darcy Graham. If anyone sort of switches off, they will absolutely cut you apart.
"We've just got to make sure that we're mentally prepared, mentally sharp and make sure we're on top of it from the first whistle to the last.
"Their threats around the park are unbelievable so if you try to take your foot off the pedal with these guys they will absolutely tear you to shreds so it's making sure that we're across our plan, making sure that we're doing the right thing as a group and making sure our cohesiveness as a group is a lot better than we did against England. We've just got to keep improving as a group and a team," he added.
Aki scored the second of Ireland’s four tries in last week’s win, drawing his side level on 51 minutes when he barreled through England out-half Marcus Smith, before holding off Alex Mitchell and Tommy Freeman to touch down in the corner.
It was a ruthless finish from the Connacht centre after Ireland’s high error count had seen them fluff multiple chances in the English 22 earlier in the game.
The 34-year-old took advantage of some tame English tackling for his score (below), while Ireland’s other three tries were also aided by poor defence, a luxury they won't have at Murrayfield this Sunday, according to Aki.
"I think I was quite lucky. I think Sam [Prendergast] obviously did all the hard work there, drawing in those two players, with Hugo Keenan.
"I think once I saw the tryline I had to make sure I tried to get there. I didn't really think, it was just making sure I got to the tryline. It felt really good.
"Obviously we'd been under the pump the whole time and then coming out in the second half, to start like that....England started well in the second half but to be able to get back with that try was unbelievable and then the boys just kicked on.
"The game at the weekend, there were obviously a few things in the first half which didn't go our way or we didn't stick the passes that we wanted to. But we sort of found our way into it in the second half.
"Against Scotland, we probably won't have those kind of chances throughout the game and we've got to make sure that we're much more clinical and that's the good thing about the squad, we get to improve on what we didn't do well in the game.
"We're obviously very proud of being able to adapt in the second half but we're trying to be more clinical and accurate."
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