Ireland ran in four tries, including three while Scotland were down to 14 men in each half, as they concluded their RBS 6 Nations campaign with a hard-earned home win.
Munster duo CJ Stander and Keith Earls touched down in the first half, with the latter marking his 50th cap with a try, to help Ireland on their way to a 21-13 interval lead. Jonathan Sexton kicked 11 points to move ahead of David Humphreys as Ireland’s second top scorer of all-time.
Joe Schmidt’s men should have been further in front given their stranglehold of possession and territory, but a superb solo try from Stuart Hogg and a last-minute penalty from captain Greig Laidlaw had Scotland still in the hunt.
Conor Murray’s third try of the Championship from a close-in ruck was the ideal launchpad early on the resumption, but the Scots showed their resilience by setting up Richie Gray for a well-worked response just before the hour mark.
Crucially, the home side managed to capitalise on Alex Dunbar’s sin-binning for a reckless clear-out on Sexton – just as they had done when Stander and Earls scored while John Barclay was in the bin between the 24th and 34th minutes.
Man-of-the-match Jamie Heaslip’s inviting offload saw Devin Toner dive in under the posts for his first international try. Sexton converted to complete his 15-point tally but he paid the price for a succession of penalties in the Irish 22 when infringing at a maul.
Minus their sin-binned out-half, Ireland leaked a try out wide to the returning Dunbar. Laidlaw was unable to convert, though, and Schmidt’s side – with a 10-point cushion – ended the game on the front foot and pressing for another score.
With the result in Dublin – coupled with England’s Grand Slam-clinching defeat of France – seeing Ireland finish third in the table, head coach Schmidt said: “It (the win) was always going to be really hard-earned. The players deserve a lot of credit because we had to work really hard to manage the first half as well as we did.
“Our ability to control possession, to work our way into space and find space, and make things attritional for our opponents, we did a pretty good job of that.
“There weren’t too many lineouts or scrums in that first half. There was a lot of ball-in-play time and the commitment to looking after the ball and working hard was very evident.
“That’s three Six Nations we’ve gone through and we haven’t lost at home. We take some pride in that. We get some massive support for that too and we’re really appreciative of that. We try to earn it every time we go out.”
Indeed, Ireland are now unbeaten in their last nine RBS 6 Nations matches at the Aviva Stadium, their best ever home run in the history of the Championship.
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