Five takeaways from Scotland v Ireland

Adam Kyriacou
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Following a 27-24 victory for Ireland over Scotland in their Six Nations game, here’s our five takeaways from Sunday’s match at Murrayfield.

Chaos v order

With Ireland finally holding out to win, this was another great advert for the game, a rumbustious and fun affair with the visitors fully deserving their win.

It was a case of Irish order versus Scottish chaos, as Andy Farrell’s men stuck well to plan, winning in the delivery of the basics of scrum, lineout and the aerial battle, where Hugo Keenan and the Irish back three produced a masterclass of dominance in the catching stakes.

Scotland were great value in parts; inventive, thriving in physical open play but perhaps lacked enough momentum over 80 minutes to win. At times, Finn Russell and Stuart Hogg waved their magic wands to great effect, but their counterparts, Keenan and Johnny Sexton, ably supported by Keith Earls and the impressive Robbie Henshaw, showed the hard rugby pragmatism needed to win Test matches.

The dark arts

No side wins many Tests with 14 turnovers, six lineout steals against them and a bad day on the collisions – it says a lot about the Scots’ creativity that they were still in the game at the end.

The Scottish set-piece that gave England so many issues at Twickenham – coupled with accuracy off the kicking tee – let them down on Sunday. Ireland are stacked with lineout options and have some tall yet light forwards that are easy to get off the floor and high and Tadhg Beirne and James Ryan reigned supreme in that area of the set-piece.

Despite a couple of delicious technical scrummaging efforts from WP Nel, Scotland also struggled to get any real dominance over Ireland, with the Irish pack able to keep very low to prevent the power of Rory Sutherland taking hold.

Those issues, coupled with a bizarre focus from Scotland on choke tackles, which did nothing other than give Ireland five extra metres in every contact, removed any go forward that they created.

Turning Tadhgs

Ireland’s two Tadhgs, Beirne and Furlong, were absolutely magnificent for their team. We’re pretty sure that the wider of the two, the venerable Lions tighthead, will wear out his TV rewind button replaying the moment he firstly sidestepped George Turner, before feigning and stepping off his right to leave the grinning Russell for dead, before offloading a deep pass that any scrum-half would be proud of. Jukebox Furlong is back with a bang and it’s great to see him enjoying his rugby after a year out.

However, his namesake, flanker Beirne, put in a monumental display at blindside; smashing rucks, dominating the aerial battle at lineout and restart, winning three turnovers and making 21 thundering tackles.

The murmurs in Ireland is he’s one of the best young talents in the game and a man that laps up learning and good coaching like a cat with milk. He’s a hugely impressive young player and his versatility will be a crucial factor when British and Irish Lions selections take place in April.

Midfield generals

The contrast in styles between Sexton and Russell could not be starker. One is a man that loves his process, plays to plan and has delivered time and time again for 10 or more years, the other an impish chancer, able to ignite an iceblock in an artic blizzard but at times, equally effective as his more conservative opponent. Both men had some lovely moments within the game, Russell created a lot of the memorable plays for his side, but the biggest difference was the impact of the players that Sexton had outside him, with Henshaw and Garry Ringrose both winning their individual battles against Sam Johnson and Chris Harris. Henshaw, in particular, was a rock both in carry and in defence and finally looks back to his sharpest post injury.

Of course, the big debate right now is the likely Lions fly-half, and based on Sunday’s evidence, we’ll take the classical artist Sexton all day long, but let’s be honest, everyone in the game wants the brilliant punk rocker Russell on the bench in support of Sexton, to give us those moments that only Finn can create.

Work-ons

Scotland will spend a lot of time musing their lineout failure. They failed to find a banker option and they also failed to react to pre-planned truncated lineouts from Ireland. It’s an easy fix but needs two components to work – firstly, using that banker option at the front for security when needed but secondly, using accuracy at the back of the extended line to change up their options.

The back-row, save for the brilliant mighty mouse, Hamish Watson, took a big beating with a lack of accuracy in clear-out and far too many attempts from Jamie Ritchie and the midfield to hold up Ireland high in the tackle without momentum, a tactic that allowed the Irish to drive the held-up man forward and down to the ground.

There’s also a need to get some counterpoint of power and directness in midfield. Everyone knows that Hogg and Russell are brilliant in the wide channels but they were well marshalled, particularly by Keith Earls. However, defending wide means there’s holes in midfield and Scotland currently lack the big centre needed to crash into those gaps. The key is to use their giant wings coming infield but today, this eluded them and they were poorer in attack as a result.

by James While

 

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