HOW MUCH ADVERSITY is too much adversity? It’s a word that has become all too familiar across this Six Nations campaign but one Andy Farrell tends to greet with a grin – the harder the challenge, the better – although today in Murrayfield even the Ireland head coach must have been thinking things were getting a bit out of hand.
Ireland arrived in Edinburgh looking to make it eight straight wins against Scotland but the general consensus was that they would need to be on it against a home team high on confidence and playing with style.
What unfolded in the Scottish capital was one of Ireland’s most chaotic Six Nations encounters in recent memory.
As the clock wound down this round four fixture had taken on the shape a worst-case scenario training session being played out in front 67,000 spectators. Ireland’s injury toll had by that point soared to five, Cian Healy was playing hooker and Josh van der Flier was throwing to the lineout.
Still, Ireland restricted Scotland to just seven points and kept their Grand Slam drive firmly on track.
Even if Van der Flier had been blindfolded and Healy handed kicking duties, Ireland would have be disappointed to leave Murrayfield without the win. How Farrell’s team have learned to respond to setbacks is highly impressive and is quickly becoming the defining characteristic of this group of players.
It’s not that long since a slightly delayed bus journey became a major point of consternation for a visiting Irish team at Murrayfield, but today’s performance should at last kick that story off the Six Nations news cycle for good.
With less than half an hour on the clock Ireland had lost three of their starting pack to injury – Caelan Doris, Dan Sheehan and Iain Henderson all making early exits, before Rónan Kelleher and Garry Ringrose followed in the second half.
Even the sequence of play that led to Doris’s departure was highly unusual, the backrow injured in the process of leaping like a salmon to steal an overthrown Scotland lineout which led to a disallowed Ireland try – the visitors punished for Scotland’s mistake of taking a quick lineout using a fresh ball.
A team that have become so accustomed to striking early instead found themselves walking away empty handed.
They soon had the lead as Johnny Sexton closed in on history with an early penalty. The Ireland captain went into the game eight points behind Ronan O’Gara on the Six Nations all-time points-scorer list and heading into Saturday’s round five meeting with England in Dublin – expected to be Sexton’s last Six Nations appearance – the pair are now level on 557 points each.
It would be fitting for Sexton to seal it with a fairytale Six Nations finale in front of a capacity home crowd in six days’ time.
Instead, a day that had the potential to be all about Sexton’s place in the history books was decided by the strength of the collective.
While it was far from Ireland’s most complete performance under Farrell, it was one that will long be referenced in-house given how successfully they managed every challenge thrown their way.
It would have been understandable if the injury-enforced changes saw the momentum swing Scotland’s way, but instead Ireland rode the punches and eventually saw out the contest with some ease.
Peter O’Mahony and James Ryan both had some huge moments while the superb Mack Hansen delivered his best game yet at Test level. Jack Conan and Ryan Baird were superb off the bench, James Lowe remained a constant threat and Hugo Keenan was responsible for two try-saving tackles.
A stand-in hooker sounds like a major issue but instead Healy helped Ireland pick off scrum penalties and should travel to the World Cup with the label ‘utility front-rower.’ As for Van der Flier, he looked so comfortable throwing to the lineout that rather than being a point of concern Scotland could target, it was nothing more than a novelty.
In the midst of all that madness, Sexton himself was typically instrumental. At 37 the out-half is still doggedly aggressive in defence and his ability to unlock gaps remains elite.
He kicked Ireland’s first three points after a period of prolonged Ireland pressure saw them repeatedly knocked back. The out-half had a chance to add another two just before the half hour mark after Hansen’s brilliant finish in the corner, but from a tough angle on the sideline he swung his conversion wide. He wouldn’t get another shot at the sticks until the 58th minute.
In the space between, Scotland should have wrestled the contest back in their favour. Yet even as Ireland’s error count rose and Scotland came forward in waves, it all came to nothing, Townsend’s side failing to register a single point in the second half.
Instead, Ireland rode out the storm and killed the game with a brilliant double. It helped that when Farrell opted to make substitutions on his own watch, he could call on players of the calibre of Jamison Gibson-Park – whose high-tempo approach perfectly suited the end-game here – and Robbie Henshaw, Ireland’s strength in depth making a telling difference.
First Lowe got over in the corner after a series of hard carries at the line by the Ireland forwards. Four minutes later Jack Conan supplied the body-blow third try.
On both occasions Sexton nailed the extras as he drew level with O’Gara, that long-standing battle still roaring along after all these years. After the game Sexton joked O’Gara will be looking to pay him off into early retirement now. Tune in on Saturday to see how that one plays out.
If all goes to plan, Sexton will take the record and Ireland will land a first Grand Slam since 2018, and their first to ever be won in Dublin.
They may have to do it without a string of frontliners, but this performance will only have strengthened the belief that this is a squad capable of shipping a couple of knocks and still keeping the bow pointed firmly at their final destination.
It’s now within touching distance.
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