Ireland's elder statesman praised the new kid on the block for playing a crucial part in a late, late victory at Murrayfield.
Fresh from passing the 900 points mark at Test level and, later, for Ireland alone, Johnny Sexton kept his nerve to fire over the winning penalty in the 77th minute of this afternoon's exciting Murrayfield encounter.
Earlier, a Sexton penalty on the hour had pushed the visitors into a 14-point lead but Scotland reeled it in with tries from Huw Jones and Hamish Watson to make it 24-24 with six minutes left.
But 21-year-old Baird, who replaced James Ryan due to a HIA for the pack leader, stepped up for his team by blocking down an Ali Price kick, then tackling the Scot and that allowed Iain Henderson to come up with the crucial penalty turnover.
"It was brilliant by Ryan Baird to get the charge down," said Sexton.
"He’s so explosive for the first couple of steps and then to make the tackle that he does. Iain Henderson was outstanding as well.
"Obviously then you have to kick it. I kicked pretty well all game - it wasn’t my best of the day, my best of the day probably hit the post, but it was enough.
"I was trying to keep it a little bit lower. It was quite blustery in the stadium and it was a good enough strike to get over and thankfully we get the four points, which is very important.
"And we’re up to second now and a big end to the tournament next week."
A relieved Sexton conceded he didn't envisage having to pull the result of the bag in the closing stages.
"With 10 minutes to go I didn’t see the game unfolding like that," he said. "International rugby throws things at you that you don’t expect at times.
"I thought we dominated large parts of the game but I suppose when they had their small purple patches they scored, I think.
"When we’re 14 points up and we concede that try it just changes the game again and we need to be better there.
"We had a kick-off receive that we didn’t deal well with, we had a line-out that we didn’t deal well with and then we missed a tackle that we should have done better so, as good a team as Scotland are we have to look at ourselves, first and foremost and need to improve.
"If you have a 14-point lead in international rugby, the next moment is the most important one and you can put a statement down.
"Top teams, I think, take the kick-off and clear their lines and then they put pressure on again. We're just short of that at the moment."
Ireland's defence, particularly from the backs, was below what is expected and James Lowe's place is vulnerable after another difficult day, especially after he fell off a tackle on Jones before he scored his try.
Asked if the issue was a mental one, Sexton replied: "You’d have to ask everyone in the team.
"We obviously rely on each other but it’s asking each other at that moment, 'what was your thoughts, what was your process, why did you make the mistake?'.
"We need to figure out all these things together.
"Sometimes is can just be an error. We've talked about keeping each other in the moment more by communicating better and by talking...realising that moment in front of you is the most important, not getting lost in the past.
"I thought when we got that second try to go 11 up, we just lost concentration for a few moments.
"We conceded points to Wales in a similar fashion. Two tries after half-time, which changed the game totally. Similarly, we weren’t exiting well enough, missing tackles.
"In international rugby you need teams to work incredibly hard. I think Scotland did that for their second try. The first one was a sucker-punch, but anyway we’re delighted with the win.
"It’s a very tough place to come and they are a top team, Scotland. They have shown that with some of their performances and results over the last while and we’ll take a win here any day of the week.”
Asked if Ireland are ready to go toe to toe with England, Sexton responded: “We’ll find out next Saturday, won’t we?
"We feel that we have been building, that we were a bit unlucky in the first couple of games, but even though they have had a couple of bad results they are a team that was in the World Cup final and won the Grand Slam last year.
“They won the Autumn Nations Cup so they are a top, top team and we have to prove that we can match them and put in a performance that can beat one of the top teams because we haven’t done that as of yet.
"There's always things that you want to get better at and sometimes the frustrating thing is that you are making the same mistakes you highlighted over the first few weeks.
"We will look at the good things and the bad things and what we can do better when we were 14 points up.
"It won’t be one tone to the review. It will be showing the good and the bad, like we always do."
