Scotland v Ireland match Thread by. chat GPT.

That was some win. Scotland were terrific in the first half, ultra physical and probably should have gone in ahead. Russell was good throughout but very impressive and accurate in that first 40.

They really fell apart in the second half, our breakdown tidied up with whatever adjustments were made at half time and when Gibson-Park came on the tempo completely rocked them. Murray was very good in the first half, when Scotland got motoring they made territory quite effectively and Murray did a tidy job of keeping them out of our 22. We really needed his physical presence in defence on a few occasions when Scotland had us stretched and they heavily targeted both our halves in attack for very little return.

The level and specific nature of the disruption today could have been hugely limiting, effectively losing your set piece in a tight game would be game over for plenty of top sides, but the fact that Ireland didn't seem all that phased was incredible.

We locked our game down a bit in the first half when we started losing players but some big performances kept Scotland out. O'Mahony was utterly unreal, just absolutely everywhere and for a player who usually does 60 minutes he was still launching himself into tackles in the last 10. VDF similarly had a massive game and made up for the loss of Doris with ball in hand, got a couple of steals and of course his composure throwing into the line out was remarkable. Healy similarly should take a bow - a formidable task for both players and they exceeded expectations.

Back three were brilliant, far better than their counterparts. Hansen was deserved motm but Lowe had a huge game and Keenan as usual just makes the right calls consistently. Sexton should be very pleased with his outing, incredible physicality from a 37 year old. Ringrose not at his best today and was largely at fault for their try, but his missed tackle count is often down to closing down space and the wide channels and is clearly a team tactic that he is primarily responsible for implementing (we sometimes see Hansen and Lowe doing the same). Furlong similarly not quite at full pitch though showed great hands a few times. He was bunched at around 25 minutes but got a second wind late in the first half and was solid until he came off. Porter with another 80 minute performance, few props can boast that level of work for a full game but he seems to take it in his stride, phenomenal athlete.

James Ryan matched his France performance and was unlucky not to bag a try (that we really could have done with going into next week). He is creasing lads in contact this season in a way he hasn't before, really upped his physicality. Conan should also be mighty pleased with his performance, he is likely to start next week so no harm getting the confidence up. Coombes might well be about to get a shot off the bench but hard to know - Doris wasn't right after he took that high ball and landed awkwardly but seemed relatively ok at full time.

Ringrose definitely won't be back next week but going by Farrell's post match he hopefully is fine generally speaking. Sheehan likely won't be available given the 6 day turnaround and hard to know how serious Kelleher was but I'm presuming if he couldn't throw then he's a doubt. If Henderson has broken his wrist he's going to miss the rest of the season which would be hugely disappointing as he's been improving game on game.

Brilliant win, 15 points but should have been more even with so much going against us. France's win yesterday and the lack of the bonus point means a win next week is a must, France will BP Wales so we need to take the kitchen sink England are going to throw at us and throw it back at them.

All things being equal it's not up there with our greatest ever wins. We well won in the end and would have absolutely hammered Scotland but for the injuries (we were one score away from doing that either way). We've played against better opposition and won.

But. It's certainly one of our best ever performances. I watch a lot of rugby and have been doing so for a long time and it's extremely rare to have an openside throwing into the line out and a prop as hooker, it's borderline unheard of to have those situations in play and to be winning scrums and securing lineout ball.

Great teams would fall apart in those circumstances, would go to uncontested scrums and would have the ball pinched at line out all game. Ireland actually improved as the situation deteriorated. I've never really seen the like, huge composure, belief and mental acuity to navigate through to a convincing win. Scotland almost beat France and beat England (both away from home) and we made them look average.

You can disagree all you like - 2:43 on the post match, Farrell specifically states that in terms of character and fight it's the best game he's ever been involved in.

Good bad or indifferent, Scotland are a decent side and to lose your set piece and key players against them and then win by multiple scores is exceptional.

Healy was interviewed after the game, such a calm head on him. He didn't seem to phased about scrumming from hooker so I suspect he's covered it at training. Also said that VDF does a lot of line out throwing during training so wasn't entirely new to him either.

I've no idea if it would have been called back but again, that's the problem - if it's not spotted then the defending team has a free shot. We didn't score immediately but I think it was picked up by the linesman and not the TMO so it's probably more likely that it would have been called back.