A lot of sport is played in the head, and players or teams that have become accustomed to winning, continue to win because they expect to do so. This isn't arrogance, or is only occasionally that. There was a good example in Dublin last week. Ireland were poor in the first half - by their standards shockingly poor. England in contrast were rather good. But I would guess there was no great anxiety in the Ireland dressing-room at half-time, some irritation perhaps, but still confidence that they would put things right - as of course they did.. This is the problem Scotland faces - even at Murrayfield. We all know that this is a good Scotland side, the best we have had this century. But they don't know how to beat Ireland. They may understand what it takes to do so. They will certainly be aware of whatever the weak spots in Ireland's game are, but putting that knowledge into practice is another matter... Take the state of each sides mind out of account, and there are good reasons to believe Scotland can win on Sunday. Go through the teams man for man from 1 to 15 and you might judge that Scotland have the better of it. A composite XV might have eight Scots to seven Irishman. The scrums are well matched, each back-row very good indeed, but Scotland have more flair, imagination and speed behind the scrum. They can score tries from anywhere, partly because they have the better off-loading game. This last point is important. Off-loading, made possible by having a man either side of the ball-carrier, is an essential feature of the game today. Watching Toulouse destroy a respectable Leicester side a few weeks ago, I guess that the ball was transferred more often by an off-load than my a conventional two-handed pass. But this Scotland back-division can also score tries by means of long passes, from either hand or foot. Finn Russell didn't have his best game against Italy. He didn't seem his usual happy self. Before the kick-off my brother-in-law with whom I watched the match said "Finn's not smiling. I don't like it when he's not smiling". So one hopes the smile is back on his face on Sunday. Meanwhile, his co-captain young Rory Darge had his best game yet for Scotland; he will have to be just as good on Sunday. Some thought Italy poor last week. I thought they were as good as they were allowed to be - a judgement one can too often have had to make about Scotland over the years. Meanwhile, I look forward with almost equal interest to the match at Twickenham. France, with the Napoleonic genius of Antoine Dupont, a powerful scrum, and dazzling wings, are capable of playing the most sublime rugby. But they can be careless, and England, despite their falling-away against Ireland look like a team that is on the verge of being rather good, certainly better than their recent record. You feel that if they win a match - and especially against an opponent as brilliant as France - they might very soon be a really good team. They will be stronger, I think, for having Fin Smith as fly-half rather than the occasionally brilliant Marcus Smith. Fin Smith, who resisted Gregor Townsend's attempt to woo him to Scotland is the sort of general that the best England sides have always had, players such as Rob Andrew, Johnny Wilkinson and George Ford. They should be better with him at 10. On the other hand the England pack today is a shadow of the dominating packs England used to have. Moreover it's not just that they don't seem sure of how they should play, it's also, to revert to my first paragraph, that the game in their head isn't good enough to win the match on the field. How many matches did the great All Blacks' sides of their greatest years win when they weren't at their best simply because winning was what they did. That's how it has been with Ireland in recent years. Let's hope the mood at Murrayfield is different.