Johnnie Beattie has insisted that Scotland can win the Six Nations tournament this year following their impressive victory over Italy at the weekend.

The win moved Scotland into second place in the table behind England, with the Montpellier forward claiming that "there is absolutely no reason" why they cannot pick up the title.

"Everyone is in it, it's a very open championship. So there is absolutely no reason why not. The next challenge is very different with Ireland around the corner, but we are looking forward to taking it on and seeing how far we can go," he told reporters.

"The Irish team's attack is very different, there is maybe a bit more subtlety. There will be different types of test but if we can get our line speed, get off the line and chop people the way we did against Italy, there is absolutely no reason why we can't replicate what we did on Saturday.

"The Italian forward pack is an absolute juggernaut so to defend in the manner we did and to hold them out was fantastic."

Next up for Scotland is a home clash against Ireland on February 24.