{"id":23638,"date":"2021-03-14T19:48:39","date_gmt":"2021-03-14T19:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/?p=23638"},"modified":"2021-03-14T19:56:14","modified_gmt":"2021-03-14T19:56:14","slug":"six-nations-2021-inconsistent-ireland-survive-late-scotland-onslaught","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/six-nations-2021-inconsistent-ireland-survive-late-scotland-onslaught\/","title":{"rendered":"Six Nations 2021: Inconsistent Ireland Survive Late Scotland Onslaught"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scotland 24-27 Ireland<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ireland squeezed past Scotland to win the Centenary Quaich after a tight affair at BT Murrayfield this afternoon courtesy of a late Johnny Sexton penalty.<\/p>\n

The men in green started strong with their dominant lineout once again being their best asset.<\/p>\n

A James Ryan steal led to a fortunate try for Leinster\u2019s Robbie Henshaw after Sexton\u2019s had got the game\u2019s first points to give Ireland an 8-0 lead very early on.<\/p>\n

The Scots rallied together to overturn the deficit with the help of some error-strewn passages of play from Ireland.<\/p>\n

Racing 92 fly-half Finn Russell led Scotland\u2019s counter-charge, getting two kicks between the sticks and a try underneath them to get his side into the game after Hogg learned that luck was on his side.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Finn Russell was the catalyst for the first Scottish comeback.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, Ireland continued to batter Scotland with their physicality and worked hard to retake the lead with Tadhg Beirne and Keith Earls working together to earn a penalty.<\/p>\n

Russell missed one at the other end and Scotland number nine Ali Price was penalised for offside, allowing Sexton to add another three points to the board before the half ended.<\/p>\n

Ireland started the second half as they did the first.<\/p>\n

Physical dominance from the Irish led to a second try for the side with Romain Poite believing that Tadhg Beirne had grounded the ball on the Scottish try line after some personal investigating.<\/p>\n

Sexton added a penalty after a second conversion miss to take the lead to 14 but Scotland fought back once again.<\/p>\n

Huw Jones got over the line to give the game the competitive edge it had lost momentarily after a now-common lapse in defensive awareness from Andy Farrell\u2019s men.<\/p>\n

James Lowe threw a ball into touch and Scotland continued their ascent from the depths of defeat to draw level in the 74th<\/sup> minute, having been denied moments earlier by Will Connors.<\/p>\n

Hamish Watson placed the ball over the line and Finn Russell made no mistake with his conversion.<\/p>\n

Ali Price gave away another penalty immediately after this for not releasing the ball following Ryan Baird\u2019s block of his kick.<\/p>\n

Sexton stepped up to retake the lead for Ireland for the third time in the match and the side held on to take four points home with them.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Sexton answered his critics today, outshining his opponent at fly-half.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Farrell & co. will enter next week\u2019s game against O. Farrell & co. with eyes on a positive record in the tournament and a top-half finish to see out the Six Nations.<\/p>\n

Gregor Townsend\u2019s men will feel like they have been their own worst enemy today but will have Italy to cheer them up, and of course, that very important game against the French is yet to take place.<\/p>\n

Both sides are out of contention for a championship win after this weekend\u2019s results but can end this year\u2019s Six Nations with smiles on their faces after mostly inconsistent showings.<\/p>\n

An Focal MOTM: Tadhg Beirne<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/path><\/svg><\/i> \"Loading\"<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scotland 24-27 Ireland Ireland squeezed past Scotland to win the Centenary Quaich after a tight affair at BT Murrayfield this afternoon courtesy of a late Johnny Sexton penalty. The men in green started strong with their dominant lineout once again being their best asset. A James Ryan steal led to a fortunate try for Leinster\u2019s […]<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/path><\/svg><\/i> \"Loading\"<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":11551,"featured_media":23642,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102121,102187,14],"tags":[101304,102281,101660,100350,100085,102282,100352],"class_list":["post-23638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rugby","category-six-nations","category-sports","tag-ireland","tag-irfu","tag-irish","tag-rugby","tag-scotland","tag-scottish","tag-six-nations"],"views":1133,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/images-13.jpg","wps_subtitle":"Ireland scrape a win against Scotland in a competitive affair in Edinburgh, An Focal's James Roulston Mooney reports.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11551"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23638"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23641,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23638\/revisions\/23641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}