Dunbar: Scotland’s frustration has to be turned into wins

The last time Alex Dunbar faced Italy, he almost notched a hat-trick of tries.

Instead, he had to make do with a double as the Scots snatched a last-minute, one-point win in Stadio Olimpico a year ago.

Both efforts saw Dunbar belie his size he’s six foot two and nearly 16 stone to thunder home from long range with a stunning turn of pace.

“The GPS said I reached 33.8kmh, which is 21mph in old money,” grins Dunbar, whose thighs rival Chris Hoy’s in diameter.

“I’ve never been naturally gifted at running. I’ve worked hard at Glasgow where we have Huw Jones to do speed work with the boys so it is just something I’ve picked up.

“But once I get past 40 metres the parachute comes out and I get a bit slower. Thankfully, I’ve not had many more to score from farther out than that!”

Dunbar has a creditable four tries from 13 caps but it’s as a defensive-lynchpin that he’s made himself key to Scotland’s cause.

The best destructive tackler in Dark Blue, his hit on Alex Cuthbert created Stuart Hogg’s try against Wales last time

out.

“The way rugby’s going just now, it’s on the back of turnovers and mistakes that you get the real opportunities to score,” nods the Dumfries-born 24-year-old.”

“Defences are getting so much better you’ve almost got to create errors in their attack to create chances to score by putting them under pressure.”

After two games Scotland could many would argue should have won, next Saturday’s visit of the Azzurri could make or break their RBS 6 Nations campaign.

“We’ve just been hugely frustrated in the first couple of games,” Dunbar admits.

“Something we’ve quickly realised in international rugby is it’s small margins, one or two small mistakes, that are really costing us badly.

“We’d be more upset if we weren’t creating chances but we’ve created a lot of chances and been in the position to win. It’s just concentration and one or two events in the game that can change whole aspect and very quickly turn them into wins.

“We know how much of a challenge Italy are going to be. We know they’re going to come and put us under a lot of pressure so defensively we’re going to have to be switched on.

“We need to play the right kind of balls because we don’t want to get dragged down into a set-piece game. It is up to us as a whole team to try to create quick ball and have a go.

“We can’t relax and think it’s going to happen. We need to really fire into them, put them under a lot of pressure and hopefully build off the back of their mistakes and score some tries.”