Are you France in disguise? Ireland’s profligacy in the first half an hour had echoes of what their Gallic cousins suffered at Twickenham, when tries perished within touching distance of the whitewash, or on a couple of occasions over it. The visitors needed a better grounding in how to finish off wonderful approach work.
Ireland’s supporters might have been on tenterhooks, perhaps fearing the worst, but despite passing up on 14-21 points during that period, Simon Easterby’s side had Scotland’s number. Again. Eleven wins and counting. A relief for Gregor Townsend’s team was that the final margin on the scoreboard could have been significantly worse.
Irish hooker Rónan Kelleher was held up over the line, and captain Caelan Doris suffered a similar fate. There were other moments where the Scottish line had a charmed existence, but that final attacking wrinkle eluded Ireland on those occasions, where a sharper appreciation of the space on offer and a tad more patience would have yielded the desired and thoroughly merited reward.
Victory offers a salve, the review less painful. The coaches and players will be able to discuss the pictures big and small and see what they could have done better.
There were two contentious moments from an officiating perspective. The first involved Ireland’s opening try-scorer Calvin Nash. As he outran Tom Jordan in a footrace and hacked on a loose ball, towards and over the Scottish line, Duhan van der Merwe pushed him in the back.
The television match official Richard Kelly invited referee James Doleman to have a look, and the New Zealander concluded that Nash wouldn’t have been in position to ground the ball as it skidded over the dead-ball line. Doleman brandished a yellow card and awarded a penalty.
Nash was in front of the two Scottish defenders and certainly wasn’t going to win a race after he had been pushed to the ground. It was a moot point when weighed against the result of the match that went in Ireland’s favour. Had it not, the grounds for a penalty try might have weighed a little more heavily in the thinking of the Irish team and supporters.
The second involved Robbie Henshaw, who first went for an intercept but failed to nab the ball and then seconds later in the Irish 22, struck the ball with his hand in making a tackle. The TMO once again invited Doleman to have a closer look, and the referee determined that the Irish centre was making a genuine attempt to wrap in a tackling motion: ball to hand rather than hand to ball.
It was a sweaty moment as the officials teased out a prognosis, their decision met with howls of derision from the home supporters. There was a desperation in that guttural roar, an acknowledgment that the remnants of any lingering hope was about to be extinguished.
Ireland did so ruthlessly with the ferocity of a junkyard dog, defending their territory, and oversubscribed when it came to players producing big moments in defence. It was a long list. A cold, dreich Edinburgh night seemed an appropriate backdrop for an increasingly forlorn home side.
Watching them trudge towards lineouts like men heading to the gallows offered a window into their mental torment. There was no urgency. Ireland had broken them from the get-go. And while the Scots were understandably less of an attacking threat in the absence of Finn Russell and Darcy Graham it doesn’t fully explain how much they unravelled, and were picked apart and bullied.
There was so much to admire in this Irish performance as much for their grit and perspicacity in finding a way to win with an unrelenting desire and focus that was every bit as impressive as the physical virtues.
