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Will Romania go for the jugular when they meet Scotland?

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Betting experts Chicken Dinner preview Scotland's clash with Romania

Scotland vs Romania, Rugby World Cup, Tuesday September 18, Pool C, Edinburgh
Romania + 36.5 points

Current IRB World rankings, as of September 17: Scotland 10, Romania 15

There seems to be something in the nature of good news that the further north you go, the less of it there is. Just ask the polar bear how he feels about the plan to turn his personal wilderness into drinking water. Or the seal hunters of Canada on hearing that Paul McCartney wishes to visit again. But not so this week in Scotland, where a year's worth of cheerful headlines has arrived in a matter of days. First the nation's footballers returned from abroad with some unexpected points, and now the attention switches to Scotland's rugby team, who find themselves in the unfamiliar position of favourites. On Tuesday night Scotland take on Romania, conceding a breathtaking 36.5 handicap in the betting. Do the Scots have it in them to administer that sort of thrashing? (You can get Romania +36.5 points on betfair at 1.53, Scotland -36.5 on betfair at 2.74).

Having made a bright start under the coaching of Frank Haddon, Scotland have since rolled back down the hill, culminating in their wooden spoon finish in the Six Nations with one win. The World Cup offers a chance for some redemption and they made some sort of a start with their opening 56-10 stroll, even if it was against Portugal, this year's official World Cup suppliers of easy victories. Still, the Scots managed a healthy-looking eight tries and were consistent in their kicking through Dan Parks and his replacement Chris Paterson.

But while Scotland are eyeing yet more jubilant headlines, Romania are one of those teams who will be looking to improve on previous World Cups by beating a side higher ranked than themselves. They didn't miss by far against Italy (24-18). Scottish optimism comes from nine wins out of eleven previous encounters with Romania. Romania have never beaten Scotland away from home. But despite this previous dominance, Scotland have only twice won by more than 36.5 points in those games, though encouragingly (here's that good news again) the second of these routings came in the last match between the two sides, a 48-6 win last year.

In the World Cup, Scotland have only won by a greater margin six times, against such minnows as Ivory Coast, Japan, Portugal and Zimbabwe (twice). Romania may be pretty weak, but they don't quite fall into the same category of uselessness as the aforementioned. In fact, the only teams who have beaten Romania by more than 36.5 points in World Cup history are Australia (three times), France and Argentina.

A glance at results so far in this World Cup also shows that besides Scotland's duffing up of Portugal, the really big wins have been at the hands of teams far more powerful than the Scots. Six out of 19 games have been won by margins of more than 36 points, five of them by New Zealand (twice), France, South Africa and Australia. Since the last World Cup, and not counting Barbarians games, Scotland have only managed to even score more than 36.5 points on three occasions, two of which they won by more than the handicap here (Romania 48-6 and Japan 100-8).

Besides Scotland, only France and Wales have beaten Romania by more than 36.5 points since the 2003 tournament. So perhaps the consumers of the Scottish press shouldn't get too carried away with dreams of another "Gigantic Victory" headline. But then again this time last week James McFadden didn't realise he was on the verge of free drinks for life, either.