Alasdair Dickinson says Scotland have nothing to lose against Australia in World Cup quarter-final

Alasdair Dickinson says Scotland can go into their World Cup quarter-final against Australia with little to fear.

The Wallabies are strong favourites for Sunday's clash at Twickenham, with few expecting the Scots to trouble the tournament's in-form defence.

But Edinburgh prop Dickinson feels they have nothing to lose despite only edging into the last-eight by beating Samoa 36-33 in a pulsating clash on Saturday.

Australia came through a tough Pool A with flying colours, beating England and then producing some incredible defensive rugby, with only 13 men at one point, to beat Wales 15-6 on Saturday.

Dickinson said: "They are the form team so far this World Cup. Definitely. They were outstanding against England and showed how clinical they can be in that Wales match. It's going to be a huge test for us.

"How do we score against a team who've only conceded one try so far? We just have to be confident we can score but we know how difficult it's going to be.

"It seems like they have built a brick wall across their line but we just need to look at what we've done in previous games and see if we can improve.

"There is no doubt we are going to be massive underdogs but we can take confidence from the fact we've got out a pretty tough group to reach the quarter-finals.

"We have nothing to lose. I don't think anybody expects Scotland to win this match. But there's no reason why we can't go out there and do something special.

"I'm pretty sure most of the Australian media will be talking about the semi-final already but for us this is our final. We got through the group which was our first objective.

"Now it's knock-out rugby. Anything can happen. If we go out and put in a performance that we know we have done at times we'll have a real chance."