What a balls-up.
Scotland tried to do what they did to Ireland only once before and it blew up in their face.
With Ireland on the rack at Murrayfield, the Scots got a 5-metre lineout and went with a plan formulated by their forwards coach and with a 0% success rate in Test rugby.
It worked.
Three backs – Alex Dunbar, Greig Laidlaw and Tommy Seymour – joined seven Scottish forwards in the line. Ross Ford found Dunbar and he cantered over without an Irish hand being laid on him.
Once Ireland saw the Scottish trick-play evolve, they had two options – call in backs to mark or get the forwards to fill the gaps. They did neither and Dunbar was over.
Asked about the move that flummoxed Joe Schmidt’s Ireland after his side’s 27-22 victory, Scotland coach Vern Cotter said:
“It’s one of Jonathan Humphreys’ ideas, it was up his sleeve, he was dying to bring it out. I wasn’t sure we should use it today, but it worked pretty well.”
It certainly did. Defence coach Andy Farrell has received a lost of praise for the work he has done in tightening Ireland up since his arrival last summer. This was a day to forget.
However, two Irish forwards stepped up when the game was over to take full responsibility for the defensive lapse that led to the Dunbar try.
At the post-match press briefing below the West Stand at Murrayfield, Ireland captain Rory Best put his hand up. He claimed the score was on him and Tadhg Furlong, who was in a good position to see the Scottish play unfolding. Best said:
“I just think that lineout try summed up where we were, myself and Tadhg were a bit behind there, we didn’t quite cover all the bases the way you’ve got to at this level.”
Ireland recovered from 21-8 down at half-time to go 22-21 ahead going into the final 15 minutes. They messed up a couple more scoring chances and Scotland came back with two late penalties to win. Best commented:
“When we took the lead we said we have to keep playing, because we’d seen their danger when they get momentum.
“We gave up a couple of penalties, lost field position and another penalty then gave them the lead back. But the talk was to keep attacking them, because we know how good they are.”
Scotland are good but Ireland are better. They are supposed to be better.
