David Denton: Victory is least we should be aiming for in Wales

David Denton says Scotland want to not only achieve victory but do it in style

The Scots face Wales in their second RBS Six Nations match hot on the heels of last weekend’s 15-9 defeat by England at BT Murrayfield. They have beaten the Welsh in Cardiff just once in the last 21 years and their last visit in 2014 ended in a mortifying 51-3 drubbing – a record defeat for this weekend’s visitors.

But former Edinburgh Rugby forward Denton, who is now at Bath, said with a bullish look: “We’re going into this match thinking that victory is the  minimum we want to get out of it.

“We don’t want to be the team that is courageous losers and all those things that have been said about us in the past.

“It’s a win no matter what for us and we’re going to do whatever it takes to get that.

“We’ve got to be prove to ourselves that we’re the team that we think we are.

“We’re a confident bunch of guys and we’ve set our targets high for this Six Nations. We’re by no means out of the competition. We’ve lost one game, which was at home and you never want that.

“But now we’re looking to hopefully beat one of the top sides in Europe on their own patch.”

Denton also confessed that he and his colleagues are fed-up with their rotten run of results in the Six Nations and the grind of trying to explain where the team is going.

“It can be tiring having to come out and say the same things again and again after another defeat,” explained the Bath No.8.

“But none of us are here to pay lip service. We play rugby to win games.

“Yeah, we’ve been a bit tired of being where we have been in the last few years, especially after taking some huge steps forward in the last 12 months.

“We want to continue doing that and I’m confident in this team and this coaching staff.

“We’re tired of losing but now it’s time to change that. It’s not just about playing well. We’ve done that in a lot of matches and lost. That’s not good enough. We want to play well and win.”

The inquest in the press since last weekend’s loss to the Auld Enemy has at times verged on scathing.

Denton, though, has wisely ignored much of what has been written while trying to maintain his air of positivity.

He said: “To be honest I’ve not seen a hell of a lot of what was reported on the England match. We just need to focus on ourselves and what we can do to get back to where we were at the end of the World Cup.

“England will be a bit disappointed too because neither side played particularly well. Unfortunately they found a way to win. That’s what we need to learn to do. We need to be a team that even if we’re not playing well grinds out wins.”