Ireland 43; Scotland 21
Scorers: Ireland Tries: J Osborne, D Sheehan, R Baloucoune, D Murray, T O’Brien (2) Cons: Jack Crowley (5) Pens: Jack Crowley (1) Scotland Tries: D Graham, F Russell, R Darge Cons: F Russell (3).
Ireland came within seconds from championship victory and in the end had to settle for Triple Crown glory at the end of a season that started in the basement of Paris and ended on the high of an emphatic win over high-riding Scotland in the Aviva Stadium on Saturday.
If England’s Henry Pollock play was calculated instead of idiotic in those last seconds in Paris when his side led in red-zone time by 46-45, then we would be double champions this week.
Instead, we are left to bemoan his poor play selection and the fact that we came so near before Thomas Ramos kicked the penalty two minutes after the 80 to claim a famous home win in front of a packed Stade de France on Saturday night.
After being decimated ourselves in that same city at the start of last month, it is testament to Head Coach Andy Farrell on how he has learned lessons from that reverse and how he has managed to blood so many new faces in the intervening four games - all of which resulted in Ireland victories.
We must also factor in that we were missing four Lions players, Hugo Keenan, Mack Hansen, Ryan Baird and his three first-choice loose-head props in Andrew Porter, Paddy McCarthy and Jack Boyle for the entire Six Nations competition. Compounding that was the fact that James Lowe missed most of the games through injury while other stalwarts like Dave Henshaw weren’t even considered because of long term injury.
Coaches always point to squad injuries as a way of providing opportunity to younger members. And so it proved this season as the likes of Tommy O’Brien took advantage to stake a claim in upcoming internationals to be considered alongside Lions like Hansesn and Lowe.
After grabbing a brace of touchdowns on Saturday, the flying winger was on cloud nine, saying the day had provided him with the “highlight’ of his career to date.
The Leinster winger, 27, won his ninth cap on Saturday and now wants many more.
“I think it has to be the highlight. That was my Six Nations debut at home. I made my Six Nations debut against France, which obviously didn't go the way we wanted, but to have the rest of the tournament to build and finish on a high is pretty special. Obviously, any chance you get to wear the Irish jersey, you want it. I was disappointed to miss out last week, but the nature of this squad is its strength in depth.”
Tommy was one of 11 fresh faces Farrell gave debuts in the Six Nations during the championship. “I think it's something we've done really well this Six Nations, a lot of guys have put their hand up that maybe wouldn't have been seen as front-line players, like Tom O'Toole switching sides, has been unbelievable for us, Jeremy Loughman as well, there's loads of guys,” he said. “So, we just talked about how important that is to get exposure to these important games for the whole squad.
“I think everyone was pretty much out on their feet, but it's kind of a testament to the group that that's how we wanted to finish on a high. We kind of had the result sorted, but no one wanted to finish by conceding a try and I think that's a pretty big statement to the group," he pointed out.
There is no doubt that without injury, O’Brien would have been an international much earlier.
“There were definitely times where I doubted it was going to happen, I always had belief in my ability. It was just a case of my body would play ball. So thankfully for the last year and a half, I've managed to keep it in good nick and get a run. It's such an important thing in rugby, is getting a run of games.
“You get a bit of confidence, you get a bit of exposure and thankfully I've got a good result out of it today. I think it's something I try to say to myself when I'm running out every time in the tunnel. Just saying, 'this is what you dreamed of, this is what all those hard days of rehabbing on your own, this is what it's all for and this is what makes it all worth it',” he added.
Ireland’s mesmeric 43-21 win against Scotland was an important one and will give the squad a positive feel as they look forward to big tests ahead in the summer and autumn of this year before next year’s World Cup rolls around.
Ireland played their cards well in this game by coming out strong and even when Scotland responded, the home squad had the wit and composure to keep plugging away to penetrate the visiting rearguard.
Scotland scored three tries through Darcy Graham, Finn Russell and Rory Darge but each time just as their tails were starting to go upwards, we swotted them down with scores that put doubt back into their minds again.
Following a beautiful rehearsed line-out and subsequent rucks, Jamie Osborne crashed over under the post and then when Graham replied, scoring hooker extraordinaire Dan Sheehan burst out of a maul to dot down in the first 10 minutes to give them a 14-7 lead.
The next score was vital and again good three-quarter work allowed a huge Stuart McCluskey pass out to release the elusive Rob Baloucoune to scorch in at the corner for an unconverted try to put us 12 up at the interval.
Scotland came out determined to be next on the scoresheet and severe pressure by them had Ireland defending heroically but well before outhalf Russell dummied and got in for a try he converted himself to cut the deficit to five points.
It was now very much game on and when Tadhg Beirne had to go off for running repairs to his head, Roscommon lad Darragh Murray took his place and within three minutes of arriving, he used his power to touchdown for our fourth try which the excellent Jack Crowley converted to make the scoreline 26-14 and secure the bonus-point.
Crowley then added a penalty to make it hard on the Scots who by now were showing metal fatigue as Ireland hit them with tackles in defense and an admirable variety of moves by our runners going forward.
O’Brien had played his part up to this but was able to exploit his pace to run in his two tries, pushing the victory margin out to 22 points and securing our fourth Triple Crown in five years. Not a bad end to what was truly an awful beginning to this season.
Ireland: J Osborne; R Baloucoune, G Ringrose, S McCloskey, T O’Brien; J Crowley, J Gibson-Park; T O'Toole, D Sheehan, T Furlong; J McCarthy, T Beirne; J Conan, J van der Flier, C Doris (capt) Replacements: R Kelleher (for Sheehan, 65), M Milne (for O’Toole, 65), F Bealham (for Furlong, 65), D Murray (for Beirne, 50-60 Blood and for McCarthy, 65)), N Timoney (for Van der Flier, 52), C Casey (for Gibson-Park, 77), C Frawley (for Baloucoune, 65), B Aki (for Ringrose, 65).
