Michael Aylwin's match report
And that’s all from me. A fine game, with plenty of positives to be taken for both sides – but one of them standing on the verge of glory and one more win from something even more glorious than that. It’s been a blast. Bye!
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This one’s just finished, the next one’s about to begin – join Scott Murray for France v England:
John Barclay talks:
We created a lot of opportunities. In my head there were about three where we should have scored tries, and it could have been a different game. They had four or five opportunities – four tries. We created some great opportunities, where one more pass and it would have been a walk-in under the sticks. It’s pleasing on one hand, but also it’s frustrating.
This is a disappointing medal. I mean, you’d be happy to get it, but it’s not much to look at.
Congratulations to Man of the Match Rob Kearney! #NatWest6Nations #IREvSCO pic.twitter.com/3eLX2R8wIR
— Ulster Bank (@UlsterBank) March 10, 2018
Conor Murray talks:
I think that talk has been there, from outside our group, for the last six, seven weeks. It’s been in the back of our minds and you always dream of it. Against a good side, it took us a while to break them down. Everyone has a smile on their face after today. We can look forward to next week.
We probably a bit of nerves at the start. We started really, really well and didn’t convert a few chances, and then maybe a bit of doubt started creeping in. But Jacob has been scoring a few and he scored a couple more today. Great day.
Another fantastic display from Ireland. Had Scotland just taken their chances, though, we could have had something special. Stuart Hogg’s performance was 99% great, but it will be remembered for his role in Scotland’s multiple try-fluffs.
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Final score: Ireland 28-8 Scotland
84 mins: It’s all over, Ireland will surely be this year’s Six Nations champions – perhaps before the day is out – and the Grand Slam is very much still on the menu!
82 mins: It ends with a knock-on from Andrew Porter, and Scotland have the ball.
81 mins: The clock turns to red, and Ireland are attacking once again. Time for a fifth?
79 mins: Rob Kearney is named man of the match after an excellent individual display.
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77 mins: The breakneck pace of the first half has not been sustained, and in the last few minutes there has been little fluid rugby. This is not a criticism: the players are tiring and the match is decided. The fans entertain themselves with some singing.
74 mins: Scotland push towards the line, but can’t quite make it – when an arm is flung towards the line, carrying the ball, it only succeeds in delivering it to Dan Leavy.
Converted! Ireland 28-8 Scotland
71 mins: The Irish celebrate that try with a little extra gusto – the bonus point is in the bag, and England need to score four tries at the Stade de France if they’re to take this into the final weekend. And by way of a bonus, Johnny Sexton slots the conversion between the posts.
TRY! Ireland 26-8 Scotland!
70 mins: With everyone preoccupied with the ruck Sean Cronin emerges from the back of it with the ball and flings himself over the line!
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69 mins: Another penalty for Ireland, and this time they kick for touch.
68 mins: Ringrose skips beyond Huw Jones, who clings onto his arm, digs his studs into the turf and refuses to let go, and Ringrose has to turn back.
67 mins: No Irish player has made more tackles than Peter O’Mahony’s 10. Meanwhile for Scotland Jonny Gray is on 21, John Barclay on 20, Stuart McInally on 18, Peter Horne on 16 and Grant Gilchrist and Hamish Watson on 13.
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66 mins: Sexton misses it, by a distance.
64 mins: Denton is punished for repeatedly not rolling away, and Ireland are gifted a penalty. Do they go for that fourth try? Nope, Sexton fancies a kick.
61 mins: But then the ball isn’t released, Scotland have a penalty, and they boot it away from danger.
61 mins: Ireland have the scrum, five yards out. It spins, it flops, but Ireland still have the ball.
60 mins: Scotland hold back Ireland’s big push, after fully 18 phases, the ball getting within a foot of the line, but not over it.
59 mins: Meanwhile, some magical encouragement:
.@Blair_Kinghorn 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 #SCOvIRE
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) March 10, 2018
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59 mins: Ireland are pushing again now. Scotland try to hold them back, and all of England wills them on …
55 mins: Not again! Hogg bursts forward again, sprints between two green shirts, and when he finally has no choice but to pass he for some reason decides to skip Huw Jones to his right and pick out Kinghorn beyond him – and throws into touch!
53 mins: The conversion slides just wide. Still, a try was precisely what Scotland and the game needed.
@Simon_Burnton massive test of both sides mettle. Will Ireland let Scotland back into this or finish them off quickly? Can Scotland channel their inner William Wallace? As a great scotsman once said "squeaky bum time" for both sets of fans!
— Toniwater (@Toniwater) March 10, 2018
TRY! Ireland 21-8 Scotland!
52 mins: They start with a scrum in front of the posts, and skim the ball back out to the right, where Kinghorn touches down an instant before he’s bundled into touch.
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51 mins: It was Hogg, who has played excellently until now, whose pass towards Kinghorn was too high, and also forwards. Still, advantage was being played, so Scotland have a second chance.
51 mins: They’ve done it again! Scotland stretch the Ireland defence, and there’s space on the right. They get one decent pass from a try – and fluff it!
50 mins: Now it’s all about the bonus point. Ireland need another try to get one, and really put the pressure on England.
Converted! Ireland 21-3 Scotland
Sexton nails this one too, and between the 40th minute and the 50th Ireland have taken ownership of this match.
TRY! Ireland 19-3 Scotland
46 mins: They get that try! The line-out is safely collected, and when the ball pops out of the ruck Conor Murray peels away, heads for the line and gets there!
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45 mins: Ireland get another penalty, and put it into touch. A third try would surely kill this.
43 mins: As with the first half, Ireland start this one on the front foot. They kick, and Rob Kearney somehow catches a ball that he had absolutely no right to grab to keep the Irish driving forwards.
41 mins: More action is taking place!
The players are back out, and more action is about to take place.
The scoreline is extremely harsh on Scotland, who have played some beautiful rugby, totally fluffed their one golden try-scoring chance and made a couple of mistakes that were swiftly and efficiently punished. Jacob Stockdale, author now of 10 tries in eight games, is the man of the moment, and also quite a lot of other moments of late.
Converted! Ireland 14-3 Scotland – and that's half time!
43 mins: The final action of the half sees Sexton nail a difficult conversion from the left flank, and Ireland are in a commanding position at the interval!
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42 mins: After the scrum the ball is moved wide, Stockdale gets it, way out on the left, cuts inside Blair Kinghorn and dips over the line!
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TRY! Ireland 12-3 Scotland!
Jacob Stockdale gets another, on the verge of half-time!
40 mins: Line-outs still going awry, with Ireland now intercepting one, and spinning the ball from right to left. Forward they push, Kearney sprinting towards the tryline – but he’s finally stopped not more than a yard from it, and the move ends there. There’ll be a scrum at the five-yard line.
36 mins: Off camera, Cian Healy is apparently struggling with injury. But then up he pops, collecting the ball and crashing into the nearest blue shirt, so perhaps it’s not so bad after all …
31 mins: This game is lots of fun. Scotland are pushing the pace, taking line-outs as quickly as possible, as often as possible, and they will feel that they should be in the lead. If only …
That Huw Jones chip and break was as good as anything by an All Black, and that Huw Jones pass along the floor to butcher the certain try was something no All Black, or southern hemisphere player, would ever, ever do. #IREvSCO #SixNations #Skillsgap https://t.co/jB1UESUb1F
— Martin Pengelly (@MartinPengelly) March 10, 2018
30 mins: Blair Kinghorn has now gone off for a head injury assessment. Lee Jones has come on.
29 mins: Oh no! Huw Jones chips up, runs through, collects the ball, sprints into space, with only one green shirt to get past and Stuart Hogg to his right. All it needed was a decent pass – and it didn’t get one! He misses Hogg completely, the ball bounces around a bit, and the chance is lost!
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27 mins: Wilson has failed his head injury test, by the way, so will not be seen again today.
26 mins: A lovely sidestep from Garry Ringrose takes him into acres of suddenly-open space, and Ireland are on the front foot again!
Converted: Ireland 7-3 Scotland
That was an act of downright thievery, really.
TRY! Ireland 5-3 Scotland!
An excellent 10 minutes for Scotland ends with Jacob Stockdale intercepting Horne’s pass and sprinting away to the tryline!
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22 mins: Stuart Hogg dips a shoulder, befuddles a defender and bursts forward for 10 yards or so before offloading to Kinghorn.
19 mins: Sexton chips the ball over an onrushing wall of Scots, zips through them and collects it on the other side before shovelling the ball on to Leavy. Lovely work there.
18 mins: It’s Ryan Wilson, who’s off to have a head injury test. David Denton comes on to fill his spot.
18 mins: It ends with Blair Kinghorn being penalised for holding onto the ball, and Ireland will have a breather. Meanwhile there’s a player down injured, wide on Scotland’s right.
17 mins: Some lovely passing from Scotland, with Ryan Wilson at its heart, threatens to slice Ireland open, but they can’t quite make the final incision!
15 mins: That’s a fine kick from Stuart Hogg, high and long and crossfield, and play moves upfield – a long way upfield.
Penalty! Ireland 0-3 Scotland
Greig Laidlaw makes no mistake with a kick from the left side of the pitch, and Scotland take a three-point lead.
11 mins: This time James Ryan intercepts the line-out, so it’s 1-1 with those now. But Scotland take it back, push forward briefly and win a penalty – and at the end of this one-sided start the Scots could take the lead!
11 mins: Some relief comes from the referee’s whistle, with Scotland getting a penalty and a chance to boot the ball downfield.
10 mins: The first 10 minutes have been a tale of Irish dominance, and stout Scottish defending. The pressure, though!
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8 mins: The Scots don’t keep the ball for long, and Ireland push again – but Sexton tries to flick the ball to his left and it goes forwards.
6 mins: But the line-out is collected by a blue shirt.
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5 mins: Ireland win a penalty; play goes on, and Sexton kicks to the corner, and it’s very nearly, but not quite, caught. Play goes back to the penalty, which is put into touch. Ireland are on top, and going for the try line.
4 mins: More kicking, this time from Sexton, and Rob Kearney sprints after it and forces an error – the ball’s knocked on, and Ireland have a scrum.
2 mins: Russell prepares to kick, and as he does so Keith Earls drops back, anticipating what’s coming, and the ball floats straight into his arms. Super mindreading there.
1 min: Wayne Barnes blows his whistle, and we’re off!
The Scots will get get us going, any second now …
And they’re done. Preambles ambled, action oncoming.
We’re mid-anthems now, and very rousing they are too.
“There was a lot of chaos in that Scottish warm-up,” according to the commentator. Crikey.
Here they are now, and out they come!
The Scotland team has emerged from the dressing rooms, and is ready to come out. The Irish, however, are nowhere to be seen.
John McEnerney is carefully treading the tightrope between confidence and concern:
@Simon_Burnton Ireland need 2 be at their most clinical & no lapses in concentration like in the first 3 games give GT’s boys a sniff & they’ll punish you. Sextons game management has been majestic so far today will be no different he’ll steer us to a 9 point win! Come on Ireland
— John McEnerney (@MackerOnTheMed) March 10, 2018
In literally no pictures of Gregor Townsend being sent to us from the world’s top photographic agencies is he smiling. Unless this counts?
In literally every picture of Joe Schmidt being sent to us from the world’s top photograph agencies he is grinning.
Here’s John Barclay and Rory Best doing the coin toss in a place called the Captain’s Meet.
The Captain's meet for the coin toss!
— Scottish Rugby (@Scotlandteam) March 10, 2018
🏴 #AsOne pic.twitter.com/4zRPWtiZjZ
These are today’s teams:
Ireland: R Kearney (Leinster); K Earls (Munster), G Ringrose (Leinster), B Aki (Connacht), J Stockdale (Ulster); J Sexton (Leinster), C Murray (Munster); C Healy (Leinster), R Best (Ulster, capt), T Furlong (Leinster), J Ryan (Leinster), D Toner (Leinster), P O’Mahony (Munster), D Leavy (Leinster), CJ Stander (Munster).
Replacements: S Cronin (Leinster), J McGrath (Leinster), A Porter (Leinster), I Henderson (Ulster), J Murphy (Leinster), K Marmion (Connacht), J Carbery (Leinster), J Larmour (Leinster).
Scotland: S Hogg (Glasgow); B Kinghorn (Edinburgh), H Jones (Glasgow), P Horne (Glasgow), S Maitland (Saracens); F Russell (Glasgow), G Laidlaw (Clermont Auvergne); G Reid (London Irish), S McInally (Edinburgh), S Berghan (Edinburgh), G Gilchrist (Edinburgh), J Gray (Glasgow), J Barclay (Scarlets, capt), H Watson (Edinburgh), R Wilson (Glasgow).
Replacements: F Brown (Glasgow), J Bhatti (Glasgow), W Nel (Edinburgh), T Swinson (Glasgow), D Denton (Worcester), A Price (Glasgow), N Grigg (Glasgow), L Jones (Glasgow).
Referee: Wayne Barnes (England).
Assistant referees: Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand) and Luke Pearce (England).
Hello world!
Three games, three wins and two bonus points leave Ireland head and shoulders clear of the chasing pack in this year’s Six Nations, their lead so comfortable that they could win the thing this weekend if England don’t make the most of their trip to France. Joe Schmidt’s men have won their last 10 matches in total and are pretty formidable: “Dublin’s got to be up there with the toughest venues you can visit,” says the Scotland coach, Gregor Townsend. “There are not many, if any, weaknesses in their team.” But Scotland come into the game on something of a roll too, in that they have won on their last two outings and tonked the English last time out, leading no less an authority than the Guardian to describe them as “ebullient”, though notably those matches were both at home, and the preceding thrashing by Wales was not – they haven’t won away in the Six Nations since 2010 when, as it happens, Ireland were on the verge of a Triple Crown until the Scots turned up in Dublin and snuck off with a 20-23 win.
Anyway, here’s Michael Aylwin’s preview, in which the word “ebullient” can be found. And helloooo!
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