‘Complete team’ Ireland in driving seat for hat-trick

With a win two years ago, Ireland were on the verge of winning the Grand Slam. They had come out of a chaotic, injury-filled game at Murrayfield.

Although there are still three rounds of fixtures left this year, only one team can still secure the clean sweep thanks to Sunday’s 32-18 victory in Edinburgh and France’s disappointing defeat by England on Saturday.

The evidence suggests that it will take an incredible effort from Wales, France, or Italy to derail Ireland’s hopes of a third successive Six Nations title given the way in which they battered Scotland, having defeated England in the second half last week.

All that is to come. For Ireland and interim boss Simon Easterby, though, Murrayfield was about laying down a marker. From the first two weekends, they made it clear that they would return the most points possible.

How they ended last week’s win over England clearly irked Ireland. After taking a big lead in the second half, which gave England two late tries and a losing bonus point, they were slow out of the blocks, trailing at half-time, and switched off in the dying moments.

In the run-up to Sunday’s game, the Irish coaches and players were quick to sabotage Murrayfield and break their hosts’ hopes for a first green scalp since 2017.

Ireland still won the match despite suffering injuries to hookers Dan Sheehan, Ronan Kelleher, Caelan Doris, and Iain Henderson in 2023.

The Irish coaches must have experienced nightmarish deja vu on Sunday when Tadhg Beirne and his replacement Ryan Baird both went off for head injuries in five minutes.

After colliding with each other in the 21st minute, Finn Russell and Darcy Graham, who were both wing injuries, were forced into a frantic reshuffle, it turned out to be Scotland.

Much of Ireland’s superiority stemmed from their dominant pack, which included returning flanker Peter O’Mahony.

O’Mahony’s recall after being dropped from the matchday squad against England raised some questions, but the 35-year-old defended his inclusion in a typically pugnacious display highlighted by a superb turnover on Zander Fagerson that gave Sam Prendergast the opportunity to smash the ball downfield.

O’Mahony set the tone for a cohesive team display. In his first Test away from Ireland’s Aviva Stadium fortress, fly-half Prendergast sparkled and left Murrayfield with the player-of-the-match trophy and Ronan O’Gara’s resounding endorsement ringing in his ears.

Andrew Porter, Ireland’s chest-beating scrummaging warrior, was immense, underlining his status as a leading contender for the British and Irish Lions loose-head jersey, while Josh van der Flier topped the tackle count with 19.

The Irish team’s ability to halt Scotland’s resurgence and elude a stirring conclusion was perhaps their most impressive performance.

Van der Merwe’s try and a couple of Blair Kinghorn penalties gave the visitors a 17-0 lead before the home side was restored to within six points. Ireland opted to try again with tries from James Lowe and Conan instead of wilting.

In the end, as it did against England, Ireland’s experience in managing the ebbs and flows of the Test arena shone through.

When questioned about what Ireland did to keep Scotland at a distance, captain Doris responded, “Backing what we do.”

The atmosphere of the game two years ago was one of calm and chaos, and we had faith in our ability to figure things out as we played on the pitch.

The Irish team that won the most caps the most recent ones did so, in my opinion, showed that by coming in together, taking a breath, acknowledging our situation, and returning relatively quickly to the plan.

Wales will be the overwhelming favorites to defeat Ireland in Cardiff on February 22. And on March 15, they will have a chance to win another Slam in Rome if they can defeat France in Dublin.

“We talked about England and the spine of the team not quite being ready but Ireland’s spine, the leaders they have, the bench that they bring on… they’re just a real complete team”, ex-England winger Chris Ashton said on Six Nations Rugby Special.

There aren’t many places where you can say, “We’re going to go after this,” according to the statement. It’s hard to find that.

Having referenced England’s strong first half against Ireland last week, he added:” Ireland seemed to go ‘ we’re not having that, we can’t start slow, we have to start fast and get into Scotland’.