Scots’ sobering lesson as Irish make them pay for not taking chances
SCOTLAND 13 IRELAND 22
Scotland were not outclassed by the side ranked second in the world.
But they were given a sobering lesson in just how Ireland have reached that exalted position – you have to take your chances when they come.
Skipper Greig Laidlaw admitted as much, saying: “We’re frustrated. We made a few errors in the second half, we couldn’t build any pressure because we kept turning possession over.
“We were really confident at half-time, we were really on top of them and causing them problems with our attack, we just couldn’t carry that on into the second half and that’s cost us the game.
“Credit to Ireland, they got opportunities and they scored tries. The soft tries cost us badly.”
Scotland will be rueing not breaching that hard Irish border more than the once in a first half that they dominated in terms of territory.
And they will probably regret bringing both Johnny Gray and Sean Maitland straight back into the starting XV after injury.
Ireland might have had more of the ball in the first 40 but it was in their own half, often as not in their own 22, as the Dark Blues dictated where the game was played through deft use of Finn Russell’s boot.
But as they pounded the Irish whitewash for phase after phase, looking for the score that would give them a deserved half-time lead, Gray guddled the ball.
In contrast, Ireland had scored the opening try and neither Tommy Seymour nor Maitland will relish the video debrief.
Jacob Stockdale chipped ahead, Seymour caught it and while his pass to Maitland wasn’t the best he should have caught it – instead, Conor Murray pocketed the bouncing ball to score.
Stuart Hogg was forced off and as the Scots were still re-organising, Stockdale burst on to Johnny Sexton’s cute inside pass to cut open the defence to streak over for a second score.
Sexton looked a bit the worse for wear after repeated close attention from Ryan Wilson and Co., and his replacement Joey Carberry gave Scotland a try on a plate.
Russell intercepted his pass and, though he couldn’t quite make the whitewash, as he was tackled, he popped the ball up to Sam Johnson who looped in for his first Test try.
Ireland were fired up for the second 40 and as we approached the hour mark Rob Kearney broke upfield and when Carberry was closed down, he flung the scoring pass to Earls.
Laidlaw added a second penalty. He’d opened the scoring with his first, and Carberry kicked a three-pointer but Ireland’s possession game took its toll as Scotland tackled themselves to a standstill.
No fewer than five of the pack racked up 20-plus tackles in a bruising encounter, Josh Strauss topping the table with 26.
Townsend said: “Both teams’ energy levels dropped in the second half because of the effort, the tackles and the carries and the contact work.”
The homesters had their chances but they were bedevilled by simple mistakes. Time and again a knock on, forward pass or penalty ended a promising attack and Maitland and Gray were often culpable.
Dropping hat-trick hero Blair Kinghorn for Maitland didn’t pay off but dropping Ben Toolis for Gray was the bigger blunder.
The big Aussie is in fine form for Edinburgh and played well against Italy last week. Gray was in indifferent form for Glasgow even before missing the last three weeks hurt and yesterday the only times he wasn’t anonymous was when he was dropping the ball or giving away penalties.
At the final whistle Toolis stood on the touchline, possibly wondering as we were why he hadn’t been introduced for his hapless team-mate.
SCOTLAND – Hogg (Kinghorn 17); Seymour, Jones, Johnson (Horne 64), Maitland; Russell, Laidlaw (Capt.)(price 69); Dell (Bhatti 69), Mcinally (Brown 64), Berghan (Rae 69), Gilchrist, Gray, Wilson (Harley 41), Ritchie (Harley 35-40), Strauss. Unused replacement – Toolis.
IRELAND – Kearney; Earls, Farrell, Aki, Stockdale (Larmour 72); Sexton (Carberry 24), Murray (Cooney 77; Healy (Kilcoyne 59), Best (Capt.) (Cronin 72), Furlong (Porter 68), Ryan, Roux (Dillane 68), O’mahony, O’brien (Van der Flier 64), Conan.