In a championship where momentum is key, Ireland arrived 30 minutes too late and puffed out 10 minutes too soon.
Arriving in Glasgow on the morning of Ireland’s Six Nations opener, I allowed my taxi driver to talk up Scotland’s chances but never bought into his optimism. This was the first step on Ireland’s inevitable championship decider against England on March 18.
If there was any game I dreaded, it was not Scotland at Murrayfield. Wales at the Millennium Stadium on a Friday night? Now that’s the big test. These Scotland lads were getting better all the time but they didn’t know how to win big games.
Seven hours later and a Scottish journalist turned to the press room on the way out – “Good luck with that wooden spoon lads!”
How in God’s name had it come to this?
Prophecy meets lethargy
“The minute you look past that first game,” Sean O’Brien told us during the week, “you’re in trouble.”
It wasn’t a minute O’Brien should have been worried about, it was the first 30. Indeed, Ireland arrived a whole seven minutes late to the stadium after the local police failed to shift traffic at a quick enough rate.
Shifting traffic was the problem Schmidt’s players faced once the game kicked off. The Scots were flooding the breakdown, pawing at Conor Murray, not rolling away, wantonly straying offside, yanking Irish players into and on top of rucks. Every time an Irish player went into contact he either lost the collision of got parity and presented painfully slow ball.
It was enough for Paddy Jackson, loitering eons behind the gainline, weep. The Gray brothers – Jonny and Richie – were cleaving into green jerseys and Josh Strauss was making a nuisance of himself. Ireland were moshing the scrums but nothing else was working. Nothing.
On the other side, the Scots looked dangerous each time they had the ball. Finn Russell and Stuart Hogg were made to look world-beaters.
By the end of the first half, Ireland’s travelling support was thankful for an all-or-nothing Rob Kearney tackle on Hogg that prevented the Scots from taking a 28-8 lead into the sheds.
That opening 40 was, according to Rory Best, hugely frustrating ‘because almost everything we talked about doing we didn’t do’. Easy half-time chat so – JUST DO THE BLOODY THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT!
O’Brien set the comeback touch-paper and Ireland responded with tries from Iain Henderson and Jackson. 22-21 and I told those within bragging distance that the Scots simply don’t know how to win big games.
Ireland needed one more score to sap Scottish will but they got sloppy. England captain Dylan Hartley refers to his team’s subs as ‘impact players’. Ireland’s subs had an impact but it was not a hugely positive one – Ultan Dillane spilt the ball with the tryline yards away and Josh van der Flier was steam-rolled by one Strauss charge. Tommy Bowe was lucky not to be yellow-carded after a high tackle.
Ian Keatley, meanwhile, spun the wheels on a stationary bike and hoped to get a chance but it never came. Jackson was hitting bum notes again but this is his education. Schmidt was letting him see it out until the end, for good or ill.
It turned out to be ill as the outhalf found himself engulfed in a ruck with the bigger boys and couldn’t get away. This was one of the ‘cheap, stupid penalties’ O’Brien lamented.
22-24. Time running out but time still to give away another penalty.
"They've only got a minute to take it [the penalty]," says Best
"No. There's no rule about that," says Poite
— Pat McCarry (@patmccarry) February 4, 2017
Greig Laidlaw took all the time he needed. As the clock went red, Flower of Scotland was already taking the roof off the windy, old place. We asked Laidlaw what thoughts were going through his head as he sized that kick up. He considered, smiled and replied:
“Don’t hit the post was one thing.
“That’s what dreams are made of, the whole stadium was signing the anthem.”
22-27 and game over. History had been made but Ireland wanted nothing to do with it – They became the first ever Six Nations team to pick up a bonus point [albeit a losing one].
Ireland may yet look back on that bonus point as crucial if they can string some wins together and be within touching distance of the leaders when England pay a visit on March 18.
In Edinburgh Airport, having just passed through security, there was one Irish player left behind for the routine baggage and belonging checks – Ian Keatley.
Shoulders slumped, he was consoled by a member of the team’s backroom staff. The rest of his teammates had long gone to their departure gate and passed an airport bar to a smattering of sympathetic applause. One hopes this is not his final take-away from his time as an Ireland international.
Thoroughly beaten by the day myself, I sought refuge in a vending machine supper of water and a Double Decker.
“Has it truly come to this?” came an exasperated query from behind.
I turned to find former Ireland and Lions prop Paul Wallace frowning at the machine and complaining that it was a poor substitute for hot food.
This is what winning a losing bonus point looks like.
