Match Centre: Six Nations: Ireland 17-13 Scotland
Andrew Porter was one of the try scorer for Ireland
©Andrew Porter was one of the try scorer for Ireland
Ireland 17-13 Scotland, Aviva Stadium, Dublin
Ireland went on to win the Six Nations tournament after defeating Scotland 17-13 in the final round at Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Saturday.
Andy Farrell's men's chances of winning the Grand Slam was ended by their defeat to England in the previous round but they showed great resilience in edging out Scotland as they finished with 20 points while Scotland managed 12 points in the five matches.
The start of the game saw Andy Christie sprinting aggressively towards a clearance kick by James Lowe, positioning himself for a straightforward scoring opportunity. However, the ball narrowly eluded his grasp and rolled out of play.
The opening points though came in the 8th minute when Lowe was penalised at breakdown and Finn Russell kicked the three-pointer to take his tally to over 50 points in the competition while getting Scotland off the mark.
Ireland struck back almost immediately as Dan Sheenan dived over the line for the opening try of the game after George Turner overshot a lineout from his own five-metre line. Jack Crowley added the extras making it 7-3.
It soon became a one point game as Joe McCarthy was penalised for an off side and Russell slotted a simple penalty goal to make it 7-6. Stafford McDowall looked threatening to score as he went past a tackle from Bundee Aki but was stopped from scoring by a combination of Jack Crowley and Jordan Larmour as the teams completed the opening half with a closely fought 7-6 scoreline.
Crowley kicked a penalty goal early in the second half to extend Ireland's lead to four points before they got a major breakthrough in the 65th minute when they opted to tap and go from five metres out with eventually Andrew Porter going over the line to make it 17-6.
With four minutes left in the game, Ireland lost Harry Byrne to yellow card for a head-on-head contact in a collision with Russell as Huw Jones went over the line but they went on to lose the encounter by four points.
Team line up:
Ireland: Larmour; Nash, Henshaw, Aki, Lowe; Crowley, Gibson-Park; Porter, Sheehan, Furlong; McCarthy, Beirne, O'Mahony (capt), Van der Flier, Doris.
Reserves: Kelleher, Healy, Bealham, Baird, Conan, Murray, H Byrne, Ringrose.
Scotland: Kinghorn, Steyn, Jones, McDowall, Van Der Merwe, Russell, White; Schoeman, Turner, Z Fagerson, Gilchrist, Cummings, Christie, Darge, Dempsey.
Reserves: Ashman, Sutherland, Sebastian, Skinner, M Fagerson, Horne, Redpath, Rowe.
