Ireland will be crowned NatWest 6 Nations champions at Twickenham next Saturday no matter the result, after Joe Schmidt’s men swept Scotland aside 28-8 to extend their lead at the top of the table and second-placed England failed to win in Paris.
A much-prized third Six Nations trophy win in five years for Ireland, adding to the 2014 and 2015 triumphs under head coach Joe Schmidt, was confirmed a week early following England’s 22-16 loss to France tonight. Ireland are nine points clear at the summit ahead of next Saturday’s final round.
The roles are reversed from twelve months ago when Ireland denied champions-elect England a Grand Slam at the Aviva Stadium, but it will be Rory Best and his team-mates gunning for a Championship clean sweep at Twickenham on St. Patrick’s Day (kick-off 2.45pm)
Ireland got the job done today with a four-try display in front of another sell-out home crowd. Jacob Stockdale bagged a first half brace – including another intercept effort – as he took his stunning tally to ten tries in eight Tests. Trailing 14-3 at half-time, Scotland stayed in the hunt with a Blair Kinghorn try cancelling out a Conor Murray touchdown off a maul.
But a 68th-minute lineout drive provided the platform for replacement hooker Sean Cronin to scramble over for the decisive bonus point score, as Schmidt’s side set a new Irish record of 11 Test wins in-a-row, beating the previous best runs from 2002-2003 and 2014-2015 (10 each).
It was a day to remember for Rob Kearney as he produced a man-of-the-match performance from full-back. Kearney and captain Best are the two remaining links back to Ireland’s Grand Slam-winning squad of 2009, and the evergreen pair will pick up their fourth Six Nations winners’ medals in a week’s time.
Speaking about what it means to the current crop of players to be crowned champions, Schmidt said: “From a wider squad perspective, it is particularly satisfying. Joe van der Flier will be delighted. The players have worked hard to get a medal for Josh, the players have worked hard to get a medal for Robbie (Henshaw) and for Chris (Farrell).
“There’s a number of guys who won’t be playing in Twickenham, but are certainly right behind the squad. At the same time, there’s some players who you haven’t seen on the pitch who have worked incredibly hard.
“This will be week number eight but for some players it’s only week two. Garry Ringrose has just joined us and did a super job today so you’re always trying to blend in new players. That was Jordi Murphy’s first run-out and I thought he was outstanding coming off the bench. He carried really well and was very good in defence.
“(The players) do stay in that bubble. It’s very difficult to completely isolate yourself because some of that pressure is coming internally – it’s not just the external talk that’s out there. It’s our expectation of ourselves that we turn up and we’re really competitive next week.”
The New Zealander noted: “There are plenty of knocks but no injuries, one of the good things is we made a few tactical subs but none of them were really injury induced. There are some pretty tired bodies there, I think Scotland made 190 tackles and we made 135 – that suggests that there was a fair bit of collision stuff out there, and it was very hard work post-tackle as well.
“I have a sense it was a bit of a one-score game. It was a 20-point result in a one-score game because Scotland probably butchered a couple of really good chances. I think we made twice as many line-breaks as them, so I don’t think the result should tip the other way but I do think they were very close to getting right away a couple of times.
“I think there were a couple of players who worked incredibly hard. I thought James Ryan was immense again, he made 13 tackles and had 13 ball carries. CJ Stander had 12 tackles and 12 ball carries. I think Garry had 90 running metres, 11 tackles, covered the ground incredibly well for a guy who is probably not up to full fitness. I thought he was super.
“Rob Kearney, obviously. I think he had 140 running metres with the ball – that’s exceptional in any game. Early in the game he did really well contesting the high ball, he almost got away to create that score at one stage. But on the back of that, we created the score with a little set play which worked out really well. I think the scrum was really solid, we had some good lineout defence too.”
Jonathan Sexton, who converted all four tries, added: “Credit to the management team for being able to prepare us with so many changes. I think if you said at the start of the season that you’re going to win a Championship without Josh, Sean (O’Brien), Jamie Heaslip, Rhys Ruddock, Robbie Henshaw, and then to lose Chris Farrell as well, and there’s others in that list as well…
“It’s great though, building forward into World Cups and before that, the Championship next year, that we’ve built a bit of depth. That’s been done over the last couple of years, it’s great that it’s so seamless at times. But we know that the biggest challenge is ahead still (against England).
“It’s very muted upstairs. It’s a very strange feeling to win the Championship with a game to go, and so much still to play for. We know how difficult it’s going to be with England. The shoe is on the other foot after last year and I’m sure they will be licking their lips.”
The portents for Ireland were good in the opening minutes, Keith Earls reading a Finn Russell kick and marking it before the Irish pack, with Stander, Devin Toner and Peter O’Mahony all mucking in, won turnover ball from a second-minute Scottish maul.
Earls was heavily involved in the early exchanges, hitting the line at pace as Ireland pressed in the visitors’ 22. They turned down a kickable penalty after Earls had gotten his fingertips to a Sexton cross-field kick, but the chance was lost when Best’s throw missed O’Mahony as the intended target.
Cian Healy, who was a real workhorse around the pitch, barged through Greig Laidlaw’s attempted tackle to keep Ireland on the front foot. However, a forward pass from Sexton and a subsequent penalty won by Stuart McInally at the breakdown relieved the pressure on Scotland. They also had the rub of the green when the match officials missed a knock-on by Huw Jones in the lead up to Laidlaw’s only penalty goal of the contest, 12 minutes in.
Ireland’s execution in the back-line was letting them down, a move having broken down between Bundee Aki and Sexton before Scotland took the lead, and then Earls flung a poor pass out to Stockdale which went into touch. In contrast, lovely hands from Russell, Ryan Wilson and Kinghorn had Scotland in their most advanced position yet, before Dan Leavy latched onto a ruck ball and won an important penalty.
Despite a second lost lineout, Sexton reignited the Irish attack by collecting his own dink over the top and linking with Murray who was half-tackled by Stuart Hogg. Sexton’s radar was off when he tried the cross-field kick option again, but it was Scottish centre Peter Horne who miscued in the 21st minute, putting too much on a pass that was gobbled up by Stockdale who gleefully sprinted over halfway and in behind the posts in front of the North Stand.
Schmidt said afterwards that ‘obviously getting the intercept, it was something that we had looked at and we did feel that it was an opportunity’. “It wasn’t suddenly something that sprang out. Jacob knew that if he tucked and waited that they might throw that long ball, as they did last week when Huw Jones picked it up but Jonathan Joseph could potentially had done the same thing (as Jacob),” he explained.
Sexton converted from straight in front for a 7-3 lead, and there was the promise of another try four minutes later. Playing only his second game for province or country since returning from ankle surgery, centre Ringrose brilliantly stepped inside Horne and broke deep into Scottish territory but could not connect with the supporting Earls.
As the pace of the game increased, with both sides taking quick lineouts, Jones blew a gilt-edged opportunity to move Scotland back in front. He did the hard work in gathering his own chip on the hoof, breaking through a tackle from Kearney but then throwing a loose pass towards the waiting Hogg. It went to ground and Sexton got the plaudits for putting just enough pressure on the advancing centre.
Scotland took Ireland through a number of phases in the table toppers’ half, yet their momentum was broken up by counter-rucking from O’Mahony, Stander and Aki, while Earls profited from a breaking ball in the air. The hosts absorbed further pressure in and around their 22 before striking for a crucial try on the stroke of half-time.
Ireland’s attack lit up off the back of an overthrown Scottish lineout which Ryan collected at the tail. A tip-on pass from Ringrose released Kearney to dart clear of Kinghorn. He dummied and carried deep into the 22 before Murray and Aki was both stopped short near the try-line. From the resulting five-metre scrum, Ireland pulled the defence infield before a wraparound between Aki and Ringrose set up Stockdale to cut inside Kinghorn and dot down in the left corner. Sexton added the extras with a surefooted strike from out wide, sending Ireland off at the interval with a visible spring in their step.
Stockdale’s second try of the game and his sixth of the tournament saw him enter the record books. The Lisburn-born winger and England’s Cyril Lowe (1914) are the only players in the 137-year history of the Four, Five and Six Nations Championships to have scored multiple tries in three successive matches. Six is also the most tries scored in a single Six Nations campaign, with Stockdale matching the feats of Will Greenwood (2001), Shane Williams (2008) and Chris Ashton (2011).
14-3 became 21-3 just five minutes into the second period. Kearney and O’Mahony set the tone with a couple of textbook tackles, the latter impressively bringing down Kinghorn and winning a penalty on halfway. Kearney also fought hard on the deck, having competed in the air with Sean Maitland, to win a scrum in the 22.
The lion’s share of territory had to pay off and it did, a penalty conceded by David Denton seeing Sexton kick for the corner and after Ryan’s lineout win turned into a maul, Murray had support from Aki as he crashed over from five metres out. Russell and Hamish Watson were unable to stop the scrum half from scoring his 12th international try, which Sexton converted.
Although a Ryan lineout steal and a decibel-raising carry from Tadhg Furlong – his second big one of the game – Scotland’s ability to sniff out turnovers soon launched them forward. Ireland leaked successive penalties and the Scots opted for a scrum bang in front of the posts. Tall youngster Kinghorn produced a fine diving finish in the right corner, marking his first start with a try via some crisp handling and decoy runs from the back-line.
Laidlaw was unable to convert, though, and another chance went a-beginning for the Scots when Horne, who had got on the outside of Leavy, threw an overly amibitous pass which Kinghorn knocked on into touch. Ireland regrouped and were aided by some fresh legs approaching the hour mark.
Recalled flanker Murphy and the fit-again Iain Henderson joined Jack McGrath as newly-introduced forwards, Henderson replacing Toner who had shown a huge appetite for work during his 54-minute shift and was particularly effective at maul time.
Ramping up the intensity, Ireland used the lineout as a launchpad for 17 phases that took them right up to the try-line, with Ringrose, Murphy and Leavy getting over the gain-line. Murray and Earls could not force the try under a pile of bodies. Another score remained out of Ireland’s reach as Fraser Brown was fastest to the breakdown to win a relieving penalty for his side, and then Sexton pushed a difficult 41-metre penalty attempt wide from the right.
The knockout blow eventually came with 12 minutes remaining. Scotland infringed in their efforts to win a turnover on the ground, allowing Sexton to set up a five-metre lineout. Stander’s take led to a maul which got around the corner and the Scots were guilty of collapsing it before Cronin was able to lunge for the line and score. The hooker’s fifth Test try was successfully converted by Sexton, five metres in from the touchline.
A Tim Swinson knock-on kept Scotland on eight points after they had hammered through for a likely second try, while the closing stages also had Ireland building some blocks for a potential fifth touchdown of their own. Powerful carries from Henderson and Murphy had them nicely positioned in the 22 before Andrew Porter fumbled a pass at close quarters.
In the nod to the growing depth of the squad, Ireland finished out the round 4 fixture with seven players aged between 20 and 23 on the pitch, including the youngest members of the squad – Jordan Larmour, who came on for Kearney at full-back, Ryan and two-try hero Stockdale.
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