CANNY, cunning, cute. Call it what you want, there is no denying that Ireland’s style of play in recent years has been characterised by a streetwise approach that was once missing from their game. At the same time, Scotland have often been accused of lacking that crafty touch: of being too naive – or even too polite – to take advantage of borderline-legal situations which other teams, not just the Irish, happily exploit.

Fraser Brown, the Scotland hooker, has another word for this type of gamesmanship, especially as indulged in by front-row forwards: cheating. Or at least, when speaking earlier this week, he used that word, then swiftly added that it is was only cheating if an official penalised you for it, and that, while Ireland indulge in it, so too do other teams, Scotland included.

“What the Irish do probably is cheating, but you could say that about every prop, hooker or front row who plays the game,” said Brown, who has taken the No 2 jersey from Ross Ford for this afternoon’s Six Nations Championship match against Ireland at Murrayfield. “It’s not really cheating unless you get caught doing it – and then you just try changing it a little bit.

“We play against these guys week in, week out in the league, in Europe and internationally, so you know what you’re getting. But, in saying that, when it comes to international games, and particularly Six Nations games, everything does go up a level. It might not be anything technically, but it’s just the ferocity in the game and the close battles.

“It does go up a little bit, so you do have to learn how to take that on and not be a little bit-shellshocked. You need to know how to adapt and go with it.”

When it came to assessing his own team, Brown suggested that, rather than being squeaky clean in the past, Scotland had just been less adept in testing the referee’s interpretation of the laws.

“I don’t think we didn’t do it: we just weren’t as smart as other teams have been at trying to get away with it. It’s not cheating, it’s part of rugby.

“It’s gamesmanship and everyone does it to get the smallest advantage, because at this level it’s the smallest details which can win you games – it can buy you the penalty where you’re just holding someone in because you’re the ball-carrier, or when you clear someone out and you take them slightly around the side and it creates a gap.

“There are opportunities all over the pitch and it’s how you create those opportunities.

“Maybe in the past we were doing it but got caught cold a couple of times where we didn’t adapt and didn’t learn how other teams are doing it against us. It’s still something we do now and we’re getting better at it, but again every single game you play there’s going to be a new challenge you’re faced with and you have to try and learn ways to get around that or use it to your advantage.”

Glasgow’s greater nous has been one of the factors in their steady rise in the PRO12 and now in the Champions Cup as well, and, given the Warriors have contributed nine players to Scotland’s starting line-up today, Brown believes their fine form in European rugby this season can inspire the home team against Ireland.

“It’s not that difficult, to be honest,” he said when asked how hard it would be for Scotland to pick up where the Warriors have left off. “If guys are playing well at the club it’s easier to come into camp and just carry on that form.

“It certainly helps having that familiarity,” Brown said. “We’ve done so much training here that we’re ironing out those tiny details.”

It has not all been good news for the Warriors this season, of course – they have already lost three times to Munster. But rather than be downhearted by those results, Brown thinks they will spur him and his team-mates on.

“From a Glasgow point of view we’ve been on the wrong side of the results in those battles, so I’m not going to lie and say it doesn’t mean anything, because it does. There’s an added impetus.”