Johnny Sexton urges Ireland to build on success after victory over Scotland seals Triple Crown

• Ireland claim first Triple Crown since 2018 with win over Scotland in Dublin
• Victory moved them top of Six Nations table before France beat England to seal Grand Slam

There was a fevered rendition of the Fields of Athenry as the phases were built for Conor Murray’s 79th-minute try to seal Ireland a bonus-point win over a dogged but ultimately outclassed Scotland, ensuring they did all they could to boost their Six Nations title hopes and secure a first Triple Crown since 2018 in the process. 

Such were events in France, England could not do Ireland any favours, and so it was only the Triple Crown that Ireland will take from this championship – at least when it comes to silverware.

But head coach Andy Farrell will take far more out of this campaign, there can be no doubting that. This was a performance where old soldiers like the veteran scrum-half Murray stood up with young prospects of great potential, such as hooker Dan Sheehan, to give Ireland a positive end to their Six Nations campaign.

There is always a charged atmosphere at the Aviva Stadium when Ireland are playing at home on St Patrick’s weekend. Even the way the anthems were sung laid down a marker. 

Ireland head coach Farrell shared the sentiments of the home crowd at full-time when he reflected on his side's three wins in a row, with the second-round loss against the French costing the Irish what could have been a Grand Slam. 

“Obviously delighted to get the bonus-point win and I thought Scotland played as they always do. It was a proper Test match because they brought their own intensity to it but we ground out a brilliant win in the end,” he said.

“We have shown that we can play some really good rugby and scored quite a few tries but we have also shown in the last few weeks that we have got some grit and some nerve to stay calm and take the game right to the death and get the bonus-point win. We dusted ourselves off after the disappointment in Paris and got back on the horse and that’s all you can ask for.”

For Ireland, this game was about so much more than the Six Nations alone, given their title hopes depended on matters elsewhere in Paris. Having last won the tournament with a Grand Slam in 2018 – at the exact same point in the World Cup cycle as they find themselves now – there was a sense that they had peaked too soon after they were dumped out at the quarter-final stage by New Zealand in Japan in 2019. 

Was this Ireland performance perfect? No, but it showed a team building towards what is going to be a tough task to finally reach the last four in France in just over 18 months’ time. The reality is they will have to overcome either the All Blacks or hosts France to make the semi-finals, but on this season’s evidence that is distinctly possible, if not expected.

It’s for that reason that Ireland captain and fly-half Johnny Sexton, who is due to retire after the World Cup, revealed his frustrations with the performance and suggested that they will need to improve with a tour of New Zealand up next this summer .

“I don’t think we played our best rugby, but they make life very tough,” Sexton said. “Their defence is probably the best organised defence we have faced. We didn’t exploit it as well as we could and at other times we showed some great things and then gave the ball away quite easily at times a few yards out from the try line.

“[But] It’s a good place to be, isn’t it? It is a good place to be because there is so much more in us. We have to keep driving it home. We will enjoy tonight but we have the biggest test in rugby now with a lot of games down in New Zealand so we will have to be a lot better in the next year-and-a-half and that’s what all our focus is on.”

An example of the ambition Sexton wants from his side was shown by Leinster flanker Josh van der Flier – sporting his trademark red scrum cap in homage to his home county of Wicklow - went over for Ireland’s third try after a fabulous carry. The crowd exploded after a cagey third quarter in which Scotland had threatened to make a firm contest of the final 20 minutes, but Ireland now expects and there was a clear and obvious demand for the bonus-point fourth try.

Another Leinster player, Jamison Gibson-Park, showed speed and nous in his passing that made life difficult for Scotland particularly in the first half and continued his blossoming partnership with Sexton, the ever-growing telepathy clear for all to see.

But Gibson-Park’s final contribution to the game was a knock on, which brought dismay from a crowd desperate to see the bonus point secured. His replacement, the beloved Murray, ensured they did not head home disappointed, crashing over from James Lowe’s offload to secure the maximum haul.

It was the hooker Dan Sheehan who scored Ireland’s opening try to get the ball rolling. Sheehan is an excellent example of a player that would have been under the radar until last year when he made his Test debut. The 23-year-old Leinsterman opened the scoring after 17 minutes off the back of a maul that came from excellent Irish lineout efficiency – a symbol of Paul O’Connell’s growing influence as an assistant coach to Farrell.

Sheehan made 14 carries and 11 tackles, a supreme front-row showing which led to him being deservedly named man of the match. After a difficult day for Ireland’s front row at Twickenham last week, they atoned somewhat. Centurion Cian Healy scored Ireland’s second and his third try in five Tests. From a lineout - 15 yards from the try line - a rolling maul allowed Sheehan to go close and set up Healy to burrow over.

Scotland clawed their way back into the game before the break via a try from a prop of their own in Pierre Schoeman, though he was somewhat lucky not to be given a card of either colour after the restart for a forearm to Iain Henderson. 

Scotland took heart from their score and gave Ireland a trying third quarter, as Darcy Graham and Stuart Hogg made life uncomfortable - the latter guilty of selfishly going it alone when a try was begging had he passed inside.

However, Van der Flier’s score sealed the result. Regardless of where the title ended up, it will be a celebratory St Patrick’s weekend in Dublin city.

Scoring sequence: 5-0 Sheehan try, 7-0 Sexton con; 12-0 Healy try, 14-0 Sexton con; 14-5 Schoeman try; 19-5 Van der Flier try, 21-5 Sexton con; 26-5 Murray try, 28-5 Sexton con

Ireland: H Keenan (J Carbery, 74); M Hansen, G Ringrose, B Aki (R Henshaw, 56), J Lowe; J Sexton (captain), J Gibson-Park (C Murray, 67); C Healy (D Kilcoyne, 52), D Sheehan (R Herring, 63), T Furlong (F Bealham, 68); T Beirne, I Henderson (K Treadwell, 63); C Doris, J van der Flier, J Conan (P O’Mahony, 52).

Scotland: S Hogg (captain); D Graham, C Harris (F Russell, 67), S Johnson (M Bennett, 62), K Steyn; B Kinghorn, A Price B White, 61); P Schoeman (A Dell, 74), G Turner (F Brown, 52), Z Fagerson (WP Nel, 56); J Gray, G Gilchrist (S Skinner, 52); R Darge, H Watson, M Fagerson (J Bayliss, 63).

By Richard Bath

Attack was the best form of defence for a Scotland side as they attempted to finish a disappointing Six Nations with a flourish in Dublin. After a difficult week Scotland sought to change the narrative both on and off the pitch.

Off it, captain Stuart Hogg said after the match that the disciplinary breach last weekend was “something that will hurt me for a long, long time. I apologised to the squad, I held my hands up and said I’d made a mistake. As leader of this side I’m bitterly disappointed and frustrated.”

On the pitch, that frustration was reflected in a style of play markedly different from anything else we have seen from Scotland in this tournament. From the moment the ball was moved in front of Scotland's posts, from coast to coast, in the opening seconds, Scotland's high-risk high-reward gameplan at the Aviva became crystal clear. After almost three years of playing cannily and putting their faith in Steve Tandy's defensive systems, this was a reversion to balls-out attack. The fastest rugby in the world (© Toony Rugby, circa 2016) was back. At last, Scotland looked like a side who didn't want to die wondering.

Ireland were clearly discombobulated when Darcy Graham ran the ball out of Scotland's 22 the first time the visitors got the ball, eating up space down the right wing and taking the ball deep into Irish territory. Scotland rammed home the message by running virtually every piece of front-foot ball they won. Ali Price was next to have a dab, the scrum-half dummying before making major inroads. Then Pierre Schoeman rampaged forward like an angry wildebeest in open tundra.

There was none of that phase-play nonsense. Operating at warp speed, they ran virtually every scrap of ball and looked for offloads, the most spectacular coming from Blair Kinghorn, the 6ft 5in stand-off taking a tackle while waving the ball one-handed above over his head in Kareem Abdul Jabaar skyhook style.

It should not have come as a shock. Gregor Townsend's side had nothing to lose and the definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. After six successive losses to the men in green, why not mix it up ahead of their meeting in the pool of death at next year's World Cup?

Jamie Ritchie's injury meant Scotland arrived in Dublin with two fast, mobile ball-carrying opensides, while Finn Russell's latest disciplinary fracas meant they started with a running fly-half. With this year's Six Nations campaign already a damp squib, Townsend the gambler went all-in.

If Scotland's execution had been slicker, it might have worked. But their kick-chase was nowhere near as effective as England's last week, with Price's kicks invariably two yards too far, while the ball was turned over when ball-carriers became isolated.

That lack of precision and the turnovers that are inevitable when you play with such ambition gave Ireland routes back into the game as possession yo-yo'd between the sides. Scotland's looseness was partly responsible for facilitating the home side's two-try lead midway through the first half, with Dan Sheehan and Cian Healey's scores coming from line-out drives resulting from turnovers.

Yet still Scotland stuck to the script, showing commendable bravery even in the red zone. When before Schoeman muscled his way over for Scotland's try, the ball arrived via a superb one-handed offload in the heaviest of traffic by Hamish Watson. It was real death or glory stuff.

With the shackles removed, several Scots blossomed. Sam Johnson carried on those great cutback lines of old, Jonny Gray was a willing workhorse, and the back row worked tirelessly. An assured Kinghorn acted more as a distributive pivot than a playmaker, leaving the kicking duties to Hogg and Price, although his threat ensured he had the Irish back row's full attention.

If the tempo made for entertaining and intense rugby, it also ensured a succession of chances. Scotland certainly had their share, and had Hogg passed to support when Scotland had a four-on-one in Ireland's 22 shortly after the break when they had momentum they could – indeed should – have registered a second try. That was Scotland's big chance.

Townsend's thirst for innovation saw Russell come on at outside centre 15 minutes from time, but by then it was all over. Ultimately Ireland won at a canter, dominating the gain line, possession and territory after the break.

This was closer than many Scottish fans feared, particularly in the first half, and a great spectacle to boot. But a solution to Ireland's stranglehold over this fixture seems as far away as ever.