Ireland 32; Scotland 18
Who said Scotland have the best backs and will dominate the Lions selections?
Well, Scotland, for a start, couldn't wait to lower Ireland’s colors, but at the end of another humbling 80 minutes and the 11th defeat in a row, maybe they should stop talking the talk and take a leaf out of Ireland's book by walking the walk.
After beating up England at the Aviva Stadium the previous week, the men in green had a 14-point margin in Murrayfield when a true reflection of the outcome might have doubled the size of victory.
Ireland’s indifferent Autumn form is something that is clearly now a thing of the past as they steamrolled the home side into submission by leading 17-0 just coming up to half-time.
Arguably the only mistake skipper and talisman Caelan Doris made was in picking up the ball out of the scrum and trying to clear his line on the cusp of the short whistle only to be penalized - and within seconds we had conceded a try to Duhan Van Der Merwe to give them hope with that unconverted score.
The Ireland team expected a Scotland purple patch on the resumption and got it as the blue team camped in our 22 seeking to reduce the size of our 12-point interval margin. They seemed happy to do it the patient way when they failed to impregnate our defense by kicking two penalties from Blair Kinghorn to reduce the game to 17-11 – a converted try would have given Scotland the lead.
Just as the huge home following were increasing their vocal support, Ireland pulled the rug clinically from under such notions with a quick one-two of tries which, despite the lapse again this weekend to concede a late try, had killed the game off as a true contest around the hour mark.
And so as the squad look forward to their rest weekend coming up, the three in a row of titles and the second Grand Slam in three seasons is very much there for the taking.
Next up is an away assignment at Wales with a Triple Crown on offer - something that was wildly cherished in the past but would now signal failure as the modern Ireland seek loftier ambitions with the aim of achieving them.
As players conceded afterwards, Ireland still have plenty of room for improvement and the concession of scores either side of half-time will annoy them. However on the flip side, they will be very happy with how they responded to the opposition when only leading 17-11 as the powerful James Lowe once again proved a game changer by diving in for Ireland’s third try. Then super-sub himself Jack Conan used his power and panache to burst over the line leaving Ireland in a position of total authority with just over 20 minutes left on the clock.
You could see the Scots heads go down - just like they could only scratch those same heads at the way constant green waves put them on the back foot for most of the first half with man of the match Sam Prendergast pulling the strings like a veteran puppet master.
His long, spinning arched pass opened the hard-pressed home defense which Calvin Nash gratefully accepted to run in and which the No 10 converted from an acute angle to make it 7-0.
Eight minutes gone and Scotland manager Gregor Townsend must have felt an eighth loss on his watch to Ireland was inevitable. If he didn’t, then he couldn’t avoid such thoughts once skipper Doris burst over on the half-hour mark to leave it 14-0. That and a Sam penalty gave us a 17-0 advantage which should have been maybe more reflective around the 30-points mark when we got over their line but were adjudged not to ground the ball on two occasions.
Such was the bad luck being felt by the hosts that two of their best players, Finn Russell and Darcy Graham, injured each other trying to stop a Jamison Gibson-Park burst from yielding a try when the visitors were 7-0 to the good.
Neither returned to the action and while they had been overrun in their short time before that, without them Scotland looked rudderless and without the penetration that had seen center Hugh Jones grab a hat-trick of tries in the previous game against Italy in the same stadium.
Ireland’s major concern at that time was when Tadhg Beirne departed for an early head injury assessment, and then weirdly his temporary replacement Ryan Baird also had to leave the field for a HIA.
Nash was unlucky not to have had a penalty try awarded when Van der Merwe tackled him without the ball on 13 minutes - instead the officials interpreted that the ball had gone left to such an extent that the Ireland wing would not have scored but agreed that the Scot should serve a 10-minute period in the sin bin for his gamesmanship.
Ireland increased their domination after that but both Rónan Kelleher and Doris were held up when over the line. All we had to show for the sin-binning was the three-pointer from Prendergast to put us 10-0 to the good. Doris’s try put a more realistic look on the scoreboard at 17-0 but then the Scots had their few moments of glory before Ireland took the reins in hand again and dominated to the end except for the hiccup which allowed Ben White in for a consolation score.
Overall Interim Head Coach Simon Easterby expressed satisfaction with how his charges had handled a tricky assignment.
“I think you are always going to come up against a purple patch. But we always knew that they were going to come out of blocks and try to stress us defensively. And at times we dealt with it really well and at times they stretched us, and that’s part of the game.
“I thought we scrambled well. We managed to turn around a few situations where they got a little bit of ascendancy and we kept them at arm’s length. Then we had the opportunity to go up the other end and be clinical with the ball,” he stressed.
Overall then, a case of job done? Easterby continued: “Although we conceded late in the first half, I thought the scoreline was a reflection of our dominance in the game and maybe we could have been one or two scores up. Pleased with the application of the players. I think we always knew that we’d have to shut them down and stop them getting time and space and momentum.
“I thought we did really that without the ball but also on attack I felt like we delivered a lot of what we had worked on in the week around trying to attack Scotland in the right way.”
So how did your pack perform? “I thought the forward pack was excellent. I think the attack was good. Our set-piece 'D’ was excellent and it’s so difficult for a team to get into their rhythm when they're getting scrappy ball when their delivery of lineouts and scrums isn't what they'd like. I think that the unit, on both sides of the ball, in attack and defence, laid a great platform for us.”
And so what about Wales the weekend after next in Cardiff? “There is an opportunity which has been well documented and we've got to make sure that we prepare in the right way for Wales and go to the Millennium Stadium with the same sort of mindset that we came here with,” Easterby assessed.
Ireland: H Keenan; C Nash, R Henshaw, B Aki, J Lowe; S Prendergast, J Gibson-Park; A Porter, R Kelleher, F Bealham; J Ryan, T Beirne; P O'Mahony, J van der Flier, C Doris (capt) Replacements: D Sheehan (for Kelleher, 40), Ci Healy (for Porter, 70), T Clarkson (for Bealham, 60), RBaird (for Beirne, 8-14 HIA and Ryan, 65), J Conan, (for O’Mahony, 51), C Murray (for Gibson-Park, 69), J Crowley (for Nash, 65), G Ringrose (for Aki, 57).
SCORERS
Ireland – Tries: C Nash, C Doris, J Lowe, J Conan Cons: S Prendergast (3) Pens: S Prendergast (2)
Scotland - Tries: D van der Merwe, B White Cons: B Kinghorn (1) Pen: B Kinghorn (2)
