Murray Kinsella reports from Murrayfield
IRELAND OPENED THEIR Six Nations campaign with a 27-22 defeat away to Scotland, meaning they will leave Edinburgh with only a losing bonus point.
Read our full match report here.
Starting on the wrong foot
Ireland did manage to overhaul the 21-5 lead Scotland held at one point in the opening half, but to give up such an advantage was deeply damaging for Joe Schmidt’s side.
Andy Farrell, the Ireland defence coach, certainly has plenty of work ahead if they are to fight back into contention for this championship.
Scotland were clearly intent on exposing a weakness in Ireland’s defence that many teams before them have gone after in recent years – narrowness in phase play. The Scots were able to lure Irish defenders into collapsing inwards towards midfield rucks, then struck wide with sharp passing and flat backline positioning.
Ireland’s lethargy in getting width into their defensive line was symbolic of the general lack of energy and aggression they brought in the opening half.
Scotland’s bite, pace, work rate and skill levels were in sharp contrast and the three excellent tries through Alex Dunbar and Stuart Hogg were richly deserved.
Taking chances
The second-half misses will understandably draw focus, but we shouldn’t forget that Ireland also missed close-range try-scoring chances in the first half.
First, they got their mauling wrong as Romain Poite pinged them for obstruction, then Richie Gray stole a lineout in front of Devin Toner. Ireland’s lineout was poor, even if a return of 12 from 14 throws doesn’t look too bad.
But the predictability of throwing to Toner is becoming a weakness, while Ireland’s movement on the ground pre-throw is not at the level it was for the 2014 and 2015 Six Nations successes. Forwards coach Simon Easterby and his men have plenty of improvements to make.
The theme of missed opportunities reared its ugly head again in the second half, even with Ireland bursting back into the lead.
Jamie Heaslip’s offload metres out straight into Sean Maitland’s hands, CJ Stander’s knock-on, Rob Kearney’s pass forward into touch, another failed lineout within striking range – take your pick, because there are several more examples.
Even with the dire start to the game, Ireland had more than enough possession in promising positions to win this game. Their return on those chances, and 12 clean linebreaks, simply was not of the sufficient standard.
Scotland’s big performers
Scotland captain Greig Laidlaw was superb in Murrayfield, marshalling his team around the pitch like a true playmaker and also providing excellent kicking and passing.
His place-kicking was 100% too, as he ensured Scotland jumped back into the lead with two penalties in the closing 10 minutes.
Indeed, many of the individual battles went in Scotland’s favour, with Stuart Hogg, Sean Maitland, the Gray brothers, Finn Russell, and replacement back row John Barclay all excellent. Zander Fagerson had a poor start at the scrum, but was strong thereafter.
Fullback Hogg is a joy to watch, even more so live, with his pace and balance on the ball so difficult to halt. He also encapsulates the Scottish spirit of looking to create, rather than simply hammer through phases.
Of course, Laidlaw directed plenty of narrower, more direct attacks, but Hogg, Russell and co. were always willing to strike wide too.
Having spoken about not respecting Ireland too much and making a strong start, the Scots certainly lived up to their word.
Ground to make up
An opening-day defeat means Ireland are already chasing in this Six Nations, even if they did take a losing bonus point from this Edinburgh failure.
Schmidt’s men will now have to take a try-scoring bonus point in victory in Rome next weekend, although Italy will have some hopes of causing another upset.
England are currently in action against France and are viewed as favourites in that tie, while Wales are expected to open their championship with a win in Italy tomorrow afternoon.
But it’s Scotland who sit top of the Six Nations immediately after this tie in Murrayfield, and deservedly so. They will watch France’s clash with the English with keen interest, ahead of the visit to Paris next weekend.
We’re only one game in, but already this championship looks like being a whole lot of fun.
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Fair play to Scotland well deserved.
Fair play to Scotland they took their chances Ireland didn’t. Can’t understand CM kicking near the end when they fought so hard to regain possession. Lick their wounds and move onto Italy
Fully agree. Kicked possession back with 4 minutes left. Easy for Scotland to just run the clock down. Terrible decision from Murray
Okay I’m just going to say this one last time and try and expand my point of view from today’s events. Can we please stop bashing about players just because the whole team had an off day. There’s no point in say “Earls was muck, Kearney was sh!t and Zebo was crap and none of them should ever play for Ireland again” We had an off day….get over yourselves. The whole team had a bad day, it’s not the end of the world. The only thing they can do now is learn from this and come back better and more focused. And the best thing we can do is to continue having faith in Joe and all of the squad. The amount of rubbish some “experts” on this site have said today is disgracefull.
Haha – give over will ya!
I agree Jonny. You don’t go from good to a shit team in 1 game.
Sure you know it all. This team isn’t allowed to be criticized is it? They were beaten out the gate from start to finish and we are entitled to our opinion. Go back to bed Johnny
It’s fine to critisise them Liam but these idiots around calling for heads on spears is ridiculous. You should know the difference.
Jonny one word cost us today ” lineout ” ,the question is ,is D Ryan injured or was he dropped ?
I seem to be the only one who hasn’t lost their marbles after today. Relax lads will ye.
Correct Dermot, the line out was very poor but it wasnt the only aspect. But I still have faith that they can turn everything around. This is still an incredible bunch of players.
I think some people are going overboard in both their criticism and their defence of kearney. He was in no way the worst on the pitch today but he did make some mistakes. By the looks of it some people don’t want to acknowledge either of those points because their minds are already made up. I do however think he is lucky to be in the team ahead of TOH or Zebo if Trimble plays. He was one of the best in the world at one stage but in all honesty he hasn’t been for a while and the others mentioned have been in better form for some time now.
@Jonny Cantwell: Suggesting someone had a bad game and perhaps shouldn’t start the next time ahead of someone else does not equate to wanting “heads on spears”.
For someone so keen on mannered discussion it was nice of you to name me an “idiot” on another article despite now saying “it’s fine to criticise”. I must have forgotten the comment where I called for the beheadings!
But I do regard you as one of those idiots Rochelle, and an embarrassment to all Munster supporters. Your amongst the biggest trolls on the journal. I’m sure a lot of people will agree with me. And if you can’t see the clear exaggeration from the phrase “heads on spears” then I think you shouldn’t being trying to justify the things you’ve said in the past regarding Kearney and Heaslip and even Keatley in the past. Please learn the difference between critisism and slating a player.
I agree completely Paul, thought the breakdown was a bit scratty and messy for us. I dont know if it was just me or if other people picked up on it, but it seemed like players like Zebo and Earls were involved in the breakdown a bit more than usual today because of it. Seemed very unorganised.
Well said Jonny
Why can professional athletes not be singled out and held accountable after sub standard displays??? Do they really need keyboard warriors to protect them???
God Ireland were very poor today especially in the first half maybe wer just not as good as we think we are???
Well done Scotland.
Scotland were the better team but is it just me or were scotland constantly bordering on being offside at ruck time. Before murray would get the ball away it seemed the scots were already moving off their line to close down our attackers. Don’t want to make excuses but i just felt they were doing this through out the march and the ref never pinged them for it.
Unbelieveable performance.
Yet again the hype machine around our sacred rugby team was found out.
Brave performance by our rugby warriors.
@clumley: Makes a change an Irish team loses and nobody blaming the ref?.
Too much like Ulster and not enough like Munster,
Stop with the provincial BS.
Really don’t care about Ireland this season it’s about Munster
It’s c**** like you that poison the well for everyone – it’s also a minority view in Munster where thankfully there are so many great rugby people that love the green regardless of where they come from – north, south, east or west
Youve no idea where I am from – I live in Wexford you idiot
Makes all the sh*t talk they said about us all the more harder to take. Suddenly. How can u have faith in this team. Accomplish great things and follow it up with shocking performances like this. Andy Farrel isn’t doing his job as we’ve had this defensive issue now for 2 years. Something so glaringly obvious he can’t fix.
Good man Greg, sure send in your CV and sort it.
That’s grand david, I won’t give my opinion on our defense issue’s, which is one of the big reasons we lost this game.
Farrell has been in with ireland about 9 months
You didn’t give your opinion though… you took a swipe at Farrell and said offered no basis for your argument.
What Sh1 te were Scotland talking pre-match?
Murray was moaning for weeks about the imaginary injustice around pressure being legally applied on him at the breakdown. There is no clause in the rule book saying he can’t be touched!! If a 10 or 15 is tackled mid-kick it’s a genius tackle but not if someone has MURRAY on his back????
The Irish team and he himself created this story – scots said we’ll pressure him !! Nothing wrong there.
On the All Blacks comment from Scotland – all they said was one difference between the Irish win and loss was the way the all blacks tightened up the error count!! That was the crux of it!! What in gods name was disrespectful about that? They gave their players a focus and they worked to it!! Earls, Murray and the team in general seemed more concerned that The Scots hadn’t just bowed down to them in the build up!!! Never mind the three tries in the first half, the scots had scored a try in the build up entirely of Ireland’s making!!
Fair play to Scotland. Wasn’t so much a case of Scots being good as Ireland being poor. Looking at England v France game we’ve gone From grand slam hopefuls to wooden spoon evaders in 80mins .
Ireland hyped up & crashed. We do better as underdogs with less weight of expectation
Too many errors in good positions, like the NZ in the Aviva.
Disappointing but the championship is still to play for and and there could well be plenty of twists and turns with the bonus points format.
True for ya man but you have today , it’s some kick in the sack isn’t it. Ragin’…..