SCOTLAND 27
IRELAND 22
A WINNING start to a Six Nations campaign for the first time in eleven years and surely not
even the most one-eyed Irishman could argue that the home team’s success was anything
other than richly deserved. The Scots fired out the blocks with three well taken tries and
then weathered a ferocious second half rally before eventually edging it through the
awesome power of unbreakable self-belief.
The Scottish scrum really struggled, as widely anticipated, and when the home-pack gave up
three set-piece penalties in the first 20 minutes you feared that this could sink their
challenge before it had really begun – but the whole team’s pace and purpose in every
other facet meant that their scrummaging woes became little more than a side story in the
overall narrative of a famous Murrayfield victory.
The boys in blue took the lead in the eighth minute when they worked their
way to a few feet from the Irish line, and when keeping it tight didn’t
work Russell was ready to sling a long pass towards an overlap on the
right. The ball didn't go to hand but bounced out of the reach of Garry
Ringrose, and Stuart Hogg only needed to check his run momentarily to
gather before scampering home from ten yards out.
Hogg doubled his account on the 20 minute mark when Josh Strauss hit
up in the middle after a great line-out take from Richie Gray, quick
possession was manufactured and the ball went left again to the flying
Scottish full-back, who sold opposite number Rob Kearney an effortless
dummy before motoring home.
Ireland bounced back immediately with a powerful demonstration of
forward power bringing a penalty against Hamish Watson for sneaking up
the side of a ruck near the home team’s posts in a desperate attempt to
stop momentum. Advantage was played with the ball being fired out,
past a despairing interception attempt from Tommy Seymour, for Keith
Earls to slide over in the left hand corner.
But Scotland didn’t let that knock them off their stride, and they grabbed
try number three with less than half an hour played through a wonderful
piece of line-out ingenuity. Russell’s cute grubber kick into the corner
forced the visitors to surrender a throw-in five yards from their own line.
Laidlaw, Seymour and Alex Dunbar all wandered in nonchalantly to line
up at the front and the Irish didn’t think to mark them, allowing Ross Ford
– on the park as a blood replacement for Fraser Brown – to fire the ball in
at six inches above head height for Dunbar to collect and stroll over
entirely unchallenged.
Scotland went in hunt of the first bonus point in Six Nations history during the final few
minutes of the half, but in that enthusiasm to force home their advantage they almost shot
themselves in the foot when Dunbar attempted an offload which wasn’t on and Simon Zebo
intercepted. Fortunately for the hosts, the winger was outpaced by Seymour as he tried to
chase down his own kick ahead.
Ireland started the second half like a tornado, and when they got a penalty under the
shadow of the posts [not rolling away] they were always going to opt for the scrum, having
not had a chance to really make that huge area of advantage count since the opening
quarter. To their credit, the Scots managed to hold strong this time, but the pressure was
unrelenting, and Iain Henderson eventually got the ball down a number of phases later.
Ireland really should have taken the lead when Connor Murray picked out a loose grubber
from Russell, but the scrum-half opted not to release Zebo on his left, and then when he did
feed the ball inside to Heaslip the number eight was hunted down by Ryan Wilson and
gifted his offload from the deck straight into the grateful hands of the covering Sean
Maitland.
It was Maitland to the rescue again just a few seconds later when his superb last-gasp tackle
forced Kearney into touch before he was able to get the ball away to Earls for a certain try.
But the pressure was building and building, and finally the dam burst when Jackson took a
flat ball at a devilish angle to slip between Ford and Dunbar, before stretching out of
Strauss’s tackle to dot down over the line. The stand-off converted his own try to give his
team a narrow one point lead.
Scotland just couldn’t get a grip of the match. Their first phase possession was being badly
disrupted and when they did manage to get their hands on the ball they were trying too
hard to conjure that moment of magic which was swing this game back in their favour.
But they were only one point behind. They only needed one little chink of light, and that
came when Ireland gave away a penalty deep inside the Scottish half. Russell sent the ball
down field for a line-out on the Irish 22, and a few phases later they secured another
penalty against some lazy Irish bodies rolling about at the bottom of a ruck, allowing Greig
Laidlaw to step forward to recapture the lead.
It was like a shot of adrenalin to the heart for the Scots and they were soon back knocking
on the Irish door. They kicked another penalty to the corner, then held the ball tight during
phase after phase as the clock ticked slowly towards the 80th minute, and eventually they
picked up another penalty. By the time Laidlaw had pointed to the posts there was less than
a minute left, and by the time the ball sailed through the posts from just a few feet in from
the left touchline we were into extra time.
The gig was up for an Irish side which had landed in Edinburgh fully expecting this to be
their first pit-stop on the journey to a Grand Slam showdown against England in six weeks’
time. Such lofty aspirations should still be beyond Scotland, but with this result they have
issued notice that they are indeed genuine contenders in this championship.
STUART HOGG says he didn’t ever doubt that Scotland were going to come out on top in
yesterday’s match against Ireland. The full-back scored two of his team’s three tries as they
raced to a 22-5 lead with less than half an hour played, but the hosts then had to mount a
desperate rearguard action against a resurgent opposition during the third quarter. The
boys in blue even fell 21-22 behind with 20 minutes to go, but managed to rally at the end
to get their Six Nations campaign off to a flyer through two late Greig Laidlaw penalties.
“I don’t know about the rest of the boys, but I never felt we were in a position where we
were going to lose that game. We were under the pump a little bit but I had the confidence
in every single player out there in a Scotland jersey,” said Hogg.
“it has been over ten years since we won the first game in a Six Nations so we are delighted
with that, bit it is now about analysing that game and seeing where we can improve as we
start getting ready for France next Sunday,” he added.
“I think is is definitely up there [as one of the most satisfying wins in a Scotland jersey].
We’ve been training well over the last couple of weeks, and been fully focused on the task
in hand. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy – a massive physical challenge – and everything
started upfront even though we lost a few scrum penalties early on.”
“We knew that they weren’t going to give us anything easy but we got ourselves in a good
position in the first half and maybe relaxed a bit at the beginning of the second half, but we
adapted well and I’m obviously chuffed to come away with the win.”
Captain Laidlaw paid tribute to the work head coach Vern Cotter has done in building the
belief in the squad necessary to close out tight games.
“There definitely is {a change of mentality within the squad]. We know what plays to go to
and in tight games we know what we need to do to keep ball. It is the way we are coached
during the week by Vern and the rest of the coaching team. We know how to build pressure
and gather field position and that’s why we won the game today,” he said.
“It would have been easy [to be overwhelmed during that third quarter] but that isn’t this
group anymore. We are a changed group and we want to drive this whole thing forward –
especially when we pull those jerseys on at home. We don’t want to be getting beat
anymore.”
“There was frustration when we fell behind in terms of how we were playing at that time
and how we were letting them dictate the game, but the level headedness we are starting
to get in the side means we understand that playing against somebody like Ireland there are
always going to ebbs and flows – and you’ve got to accept that, understand why it is
happening and fix it. And that was the most important and the most pleasing thing – we
understood why it was happening and got ourselves back in front.”
Ireland hammered Scotland by 30 points the last time they visited Ireland, and the contrast
in the mood inside the home camp between that occasion and this was not lost on Laidlaw.
‘It feels like a different sport today. We were on the end of a bit of a dusting the last time,”
he said. “Ireland are a quality team, they scored 40 points against New Zealand three
months ago and we stopped them playing today – defensively we were strong throughout
the field. We stuck to the plan.”
Meanwhile, Ireland coach Joe Schmidt insisted that he wasn’t making excuses but did have a
grumble about
WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT THE TRIES?
TRY 1 – 8 MINUTES – STUART HOGG
“As he says himself: Finn Russell’s bounce pass is undefendable, and thankfully it bounced
up into my hands If I’d had another five guards I might have passed it on to Tommy, but the
try-line was coming so I thought take it myself. The forwards worked us into a good position
and Finn noticed the space out wide. Its something we’ve worked really hard on – looking
up and seeing what is front – and we really took the opportunity there.”
TRY 2 – 20 MINUTES – STUART HOGG
“A couple of times early on I gave the ball to Sean Maitland and Kearney read it really well
and bounced off and tackled him, so I thought I would try something a little bit different and
thankfully it paid off. But it comes down to the forwards putting us in good positions and
our execution of catch-pass to get the ball put wide as quick …” – Stuart Hogg
TRY 3 – 28 MINUTES – ALEX DUNBAR
“It’s something Jonathon Humphries had up his sleeve. He was dying to bring it out. I wasn’t
sure we should use it. I think we tried it a few years ago and didn’t get it right so that’s why I
was a little bit hesitant today, but the team have now got the confidence to try these things
- they’re taking that responsibility to develop things on the playing field and taking it into
the game and getting results. This is where I am really happy to hand over – when these
guys are taking control of everything that’s my job done …” – Vern Cotter
“It shows what can happen when you bring backs into the forwards – put a bit of brains in
there …” – Greig Laidlaw