A hard-fought win.
After last week’s defeat to England, Ireland faced a tough prospect at Murrayfield in the first kick off of this weekend’s Six Nations schedule.
Joe Schmidt’s men found themselves three points down following an early penalty to Scotland, but a huge screw-up yards from the Try line gave Conor Murray the chance to put Ireland 5-3 up before the nerves set in.
After that, a beautiful move that saw the ball change hands between Irish players in the middle saw Jacob Stockdale surge through and leave the Scotland forwards in his wake as he ran beneath the posts.
Johnny Sexton, who missed an easy kick early on, was replaced by Joey Carberry after a prolonged blood substitution.
Carberry started very shakily, a loose pass easily intercepted and allowing Scotland to charge forward, popping the ball back on the Try line to give Sam Johnson an easy try.
But it was a game of two halves for Carberry. Early in the second half, the replacement fly-half broke through the Scotland line and threw a huge, looping pass and found Keith Earls who widened the gap. Carberry stepped up again shortly afterwards to convert a penalty, leaving Ireland 22-13 up.
While Ireland kept the pressure on for the final 20 minutes, a fourth try and bonus point remained elusive — but this performance will definitely help put last week’s memories behind them, and leave Ireland feeling confident about the World Cup repeat of the fixture.
At this rate, 22 September in Yokohama is going to be very tasty indeed. #SCOvIRE #SixNations
— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) February 9, 2019
Fair play to #Carberry Always gets thrown into the deep end, and always produces the goods. An-imreoir. #SCOvIRE
— Richie Ó hEadhra (@OHeadhra) February 9, 2019
Holy crap.
What a pass from Carberry 😍
— Paul Williams (@thepaulwilliams) February 9, 2019
Joey Carberry is a quality player. He's made a few mistakes today since coming on but believe me he's good
— G-Mac (@GreggMac11) February 9, 2019
Brilliant try from Stockdale. Afterburners on big time. #IREvSCO
— Owen Webb O Rourke (@OwenWebbORourke) February 9, 2019
