Ireland winger Tommy Bowe says his injury lay-off has freshened him up and he will be at full speed to take on Scotland on Sunday.
Bowe ready to blaze back into action againsty Scotland after injury break
Ireland winger Tommy Bowe says his injury lay-off has freshened him up and he will be at full speed to take on Scotland on Sunday.
Bowe has missed the first two of Ireland's RBS Six Nations matches with a knee injury, which has kept him on the sidelines since mid-January.
However, that enforced break has revitalised the Ospreys man, who now feels he is raring to go and get at Scotland at Murrayfield.
The 27-year-old played a full 80 minutes for Ospreys last weekend and is now ready to come out all guns blazing against the Scots.
"I've only been only out since mid-January and it's given me a bit of freshness back," Bowe said. "I've played a lot of rugby over the last couple of years so it was nice to freshen the legs and mind.
Big games
"This is a difficult time of year because you play a lot of big matches over November and Christmas with the internationals and Heineken Cup.
"While it was frustrating not to be playing, I believe that in the long run it will be good for me."
Ireland have beaten Italy and lost narrowly to France, but errors have littered both games and although Bowe says there is no panic in the squad, he admits they must cut out the silly mistakes.
"I wouldn't accept making mistakes. We want to be winning, that's what will give us the biggest lift," he said. "We want to be coming off a good campaign going into the World Cup, so first and foremost we want to win.
"But at the same time we want to know that we are able to take on the best teams in the world and play the type of rugby that will put them under pressure.
"When the small errors creep in, I suppose it does get into your head a little bit, but it's not something we're worried about. We play enough rugby and have dropped enough balls in training over the years that it shouldn't really transfer into a game.
Positives
"But there are a lot of positives we can take out of the campaign so far. We are spreading the ball a bit and teams are looking a bit ragged. To be able to score three tries against France is very positive.
"There were also times in the Italy match where if we could have held on to the ball and not coughed it up in key areas of the pitch, we definitely would have scored more tries."
Scotland have had bigger problems and are still looking for a first win, but Bowe is wary of being on the wrong end of a backlash come Sunday.
"Scotland have big, strong runners in the back line. Max Evans is good with the ball in hand," he said.
"They're playing at home and will be hurting from the first 20 minutes a fortnight ago when Wales really took it to them. They will be looking to start fast out of the blocks. It will be hugely physical.
"They have a great back row and you need to be careful of their offloading game when their tails are up."
