WATCH: Ireland Survive Scotland Scare

IRELAND have defeated Scotland 27-24 at Murrayfield yesterday afternoon.

Although entertaining at times, this was an error-stewn encounter.

Ireland tried to attack with more ambition but handling errors and indiscipline became problematic for both sides.

The Irish lineout functioned excellently throughout. The visitors disrupted Scotland ball time and times again as hooker George Turner suffered a nightmare outing in Edinburgh.

Aside from that however, there was not much more to write home about as Ireland will feel relieved to fly home with a victory.

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Robbie Henshaw scored the opening try of the match as Johnny Sexton kicked high into the Scottish sky. Keith Earls chased well and after some good work knocked the ball back into the path of the impressive Robbie Henshaw who scored his eight international try.

Scotland replied before the half hour mark after a comedy of errors from Ireland.

The ball bounced off the face of Stuart Hogg, the fullback kicked it forward and a howler from James Lowe allowed Finn Russell to dot down.

Lowe had a game to forget on the left wing and will be fortunate to be selected next weekend against England.

Scotland’s set-piece woe meant Ireland enjoyed momentum either side of half time.

Johnny Sexton added two penalties before the break to give Ireland a 14-10 lead but it was a Tadhg Beirne try on 48 minutes that gave Andy Farrell’s men some breathing room.

The Man of the Match crashed over after some good pressure from Ireland and Sexton converted to make it 21-10.

Ireland were look comfortable up until the hour mark but somehow let Scotland back into the game.

Substitutes came on for both sides and as Scotland secured their possession effectively, the strength of their attack began to tell.

What should have been a straight forward piece of defending, resulted in substitute centre Huw Jones gliding past James Lowe in the 60th minute. Scotland passed from left to right outside the Irish 22 and the visitor’s defence had no answer to what was hardly the most difficult of questions.

Stuart Hogg converted to make it Scotland 17-24 Ireland.

And it got worse. Scottish tails were up after Jones’ try and pounded the Irish try line ten minutes later with some brutal ball-carrying. Ireland and try-saver Will Connors defended particularly well at first but after a tap and go Scotland found themselves inches from the chalk.

Standout openside flanker Hamish Watson put in a great shift and was duly rewarded with a try in the 73rd minute. The Edinburgh star showed brilliantly flexibility to reach over the try line and place the ball while under pressure from Irish defenders.

Yet Ireland survived. With the scores at 24-24 heading into the closing stages Ryan Baird came on to make an instant impact. The Leinster second row pressured the Scottish backfield into conceding a crucial penalty and Johnny Sexton stood up to convert the winning penalty.