MY ACCOUNT
Ireland secured the Triple Crown and kept the pressure on France with a comfortable 26-5 bonus-point win over Scotland in their Six Nations finale.
Andy Farrell’s men went into their final game in Dublin needing a win to maintain their hopes of edging Grand Slam hopefuls France to the title.
They did their job with an assured display against a Scotland side that will be disappointed to end the Championship with only wins over England and Italy to show for their efforts.
Ireland now need a favour from England in Paris to deny France a first title and Grand Slam since 2010.
Scotland looked dangerous during the frenetic opening exchanges but it was Ireland who established a grip on the contest.
Hooker Dan Sheehan peeled off the maul to open the scoring and the hooker twice attempted to barge over the line for his second try before prop Cian Healy eventually broke through the Scotland resistance.
A response from Scotland came courtesy of another front-row, the visitors getting a reward for finally putting over 10 phases together when Pierre Schoeman dotted down.
Outstanding covering defence from Hugo Keenan denied Stuart Hogg what looked a certain try early in the second half.
Hogg’s failure to take that chance was eventually punished after Ireland’s dominance of territory paid dividends, Josh van der Flier powering over to give Ireland complete command of the contest.
Ben White was sin-binned late on for a deliberate knock-on, and Ireland took advantage to secure a bonus point through Conor Murray as they sealed a first Triple Crown since 2018.
They will now hope England will provide them with more to celebrate later on Saturday.
Scotland’s Dublin wait goes on
Scotland have still not tasted victory at Lansdowne Road since it was redeveloped and transformed into the Aviva Stadium.
It is now 11 wins in the last 12 home Six Nations matches with Scotland for Ireland. Scotland’s only win in that run came at Croke Park in 2010.
Ireland defence stays strong
Scotland went into the game averaging the most points (2.9) per entry into the opposition 22 in the competition.
But Ireland’s defence frustrated them throughout on this occasion, holding them to just one score from seven entries into the 22.
Key Opta Facts
– Ireland’s 21-point victory was their biggest in a Six Nations fixture between the two sides since winning 40-10 at Murrayfield in 2015 and their biggest at home since winning 28-6 in 2014.
– Ireland have lost just two of their last 24 home games in the Six Nations (W20 D2), those defeats coming against England in 2019 and France in 2021.
– Ireland scored four tries against Scotland, taking their tally to 24 for the 2022 Six Nations, their most ever in an edition of the Championship.
– Three starting front-rowers scored in this game (Sheehan, Healy, Schoeman), the first time that had happened in a Test between two top tier nations since July 2011 when Stephen Moore, Ben Alexander and John Smit scored in a game between Australia and South Africa.
– Hamish Watson made 22 tackles for Scotland – the most by any player in this match – not missing a single hit; his last missed tackle in the Six Nations came back in 2019 (Round 5 v England).
