ALL NINETEEN OF Ireland’s points came from Jonathan Sexton at the Aviva Stadium this evening and new head coach Andy Farrell was left to laud the mettle of his captain.

Sexton’s last match before today’s 19-12 Six Nations win over Scotland was the Champions Cup clash away to Northampton in early December, when he suffered an MCL injury.

It was an injury that heavily curtailed his ability to train until the second half of last week. And Farrell moved to highlight that fact  in his post-match press conference.

“He hadn’t done any team training whatsoever, any rugby training whatsoever until we touched down in Portugal,” interjected Farrell after Sexton had lamented some of his own errors in the tetchy win.

“For him not to touch a ball, and not to fight in anger until Thursday of this week, that says it all about the man.

To have the pressure of doing something (captaining Ireland) that he has passionately wanted to do and all the new bits that come around that. And then deal with coming back from such an injury an leading the side like that. Hat’s off to Johnny that’s a magnificent effort.”

Sexton scored the only try of the game through a clinical move off a Conor Murray pass beyond a dummy runner and added four penalties from five attempts to ensure Ireland continually kept their nose ahead of a rejuvenated Scottish side.

“I felt good,” said the new Ireland captain.

“Obviously rusty. It’s tough when you’re in a brace for three weeks, you can’t do anything. Then for three weeks I worked my socks off trying to get fit for Portugal.

“I didn’t train that well at the end of last week, start of his week.”

The playmaker added: “Just delighted to get the win. First game of this tournament is all about winning.

Last year, the England game here was Triple Crown gone, Grand Slam gone and you’re in a battle to chase the Championship. We’re alive in everything and that’s where you want to be.

“We knew it was going to be tough. it’s always difficult to come together and ahve a perfect game.

“I thought we saw glimpses of what we could do and some of the ideas that we had. But we couldn’t get two scores clear. We had chances to do it. If you can go two scores clear it allows you to open up and really try to get that next score. When it’s four points, seven points it’s an arm wrestle and you have to keep playing in the right areas.”