Allan Massie: A famous victory, here's to more of the same

Published on Monday 22 March 2010 22:04

SO WE won, and deserved to do so. Some may say luck ran our way, for, if Jonathan Sexton hadn't missed kicks at goal, Ireland would have won. But that's like saying the Open champion would have lost if the runner-up hadn't missed a couple of putts.

• Dan Parks and Chris Cusiter bask in the warm glow of victory after Saturday's match, which has injected fresh optimism into success-starved followers of the Scotland rugby team. Picture: Laurence Griffiths/Getty

Goal-kicking is as much part of the game as giving or taking a try-scoring pass. Ireland picked Sexton rather than Ronan O'Gara at stand-off, and if O'Gara would probably have kicked these goals, he might not have set up Brian O'Driscoll for Ireland's first try, as Sexton did – and never mind that the final pass is getting a foot or two further forward every time it is recalled.

Of course the game might have gone either way, like eight or nine other fixtures in the tournament. This time it went Scotland's way, and after the calamity of that awful late collapse in Cardiff, who could reasonably quarrel with that?

Make no mistake: this was a famous victory. Over the years Scotland have found it hard to win away from home, and not only at Twickenham and in Paris. This was Scotland's first win in Ireland since 1998. What is more remarkable perhaps is that Andy Robinson's team came within seconds of a Cardiff-Dublin double. There is no doubt that, building on the foundations predecessor Frank Hadden left him, Robinson is getting a lot right.

Success in rugby stems from the forwards; not, I admit, invariably, but usually. France had the best pack in this year's championship and have been rewarded with the Grand Slam. Arguably, we may have finished with the second-best pack, yet finished fifth in the table. Certainly it is years since the Munster-Ireland lineout was demolished as it was on Saturday evening at Croke Park.

The set scrum remains a lottery, subject to refereeing whim. The IRB is surely going to have to come up with a remedy – though not, one presumes, until after next year's Rugby World Cup takes place, for there is a moratorium on law changes. All it can do in the meantime is tinker with instructions given to referees.

This Scottish pack should have its best years ahead of it. Only the admirable Allan Jacobsen is over 30, and, as a prop, still has two or three years of international rugby in him. Ross Ford had his best season so far; I was surprised to see him taken off and wished he had been left there for the full 80 minutes, but it seems he was suffering from cramp.

If Euan Murray had his problems, they seemed to be as much with referees as his immediate opponents. Al Kellock and Jim Hamilton were immense as locks, and there is no need to repeat the praise rightly lavished on the Glasgow back row of Kelly Brown, John Barclay and Johnnie Beattie. If the British and Irish Lions were playing a Test in a fortnight's time there would be some indignation if they weren't selected en bloc, They've been that good.

Behind the scrum we still lack anyone with the finishing ability of Ireland winger Tommy Bowe, but again, if you had said a year or two back that we could lose three first-choice backs in the second game of the championship – Chris Paterson, Rory Lamont and Thom Evans – and still draw with England and win in Dublin, you might have been recommended to go see your doctor.

We take the excellence of our scrum-halves for granted – and both Chris Cusiter and Mike Blair were very sharp on Saturday, outplaying the much-praised Tomas O'Leary – but Dan Parks' renaissance has been quite remarkable. Many have had to eat their words, myself among them. Graeme Morrison and Nick De Luca were both very good in Dublin. If they maintain this form and continue to improve, they will be hard to dislodge and we may have found an effective centre partnership.

It is reasonable to believe that this Dublin win will not be a one-off, partly because there is now enough competition in most positions for players to be selected on form rather than on past reputation or in hope. Even the three Bs in the back row are being challenged, by the Edinburgh trio of Ross Rennie, Roddy Grant and Allan Macdonald, and by Glasgow's Richie Vernon, while Ally Hogg, still only 27, should be playing again next year. It will also be interesting to see whether Simon Taylor's move from Stade Francais to Bath in the summer revives his international ambitions and career.

We may not have comparable strength in depth everywhere – the 'A' team's results were disappointing – but, except at fly-half, we have more options than we have had for some years. So the outlook is getting brighter.

That said, this assumption will be well tested in Argentina in the summer. It is the ideal tour at this stage in the team's development: two hard internationals which we are capable of winning. There won't be many experimental selections, but, though Hugo Southwell had a very good game on Saturday, it would be interesting to see Ben Cairns given a run at full-back in one match at least.

Meanwhile, there were moments in Dublin to be savoured for a long time, especially Johnnie Beattie's try, barging through Geordan Murphy like a bullock on the loose and then shrugging off Paul O'Connell's attempted tackle. Some of the midfield tackling was splendidly abrasive – defence wins matches too. There was that magnificently-judged kick from Dan Parks deep into the Irish 22 and the swift follow-up by Simon Danielli and Nick De Luca which forced Rob Kearney to concede the penalty that gave Parks the chance to win the match and enduring glory at the same time.

He took it with the sort of kick that people will tell their children about, their grandchildren too probably. It almost wiped out the memory of these final ghastly minutes in Cardiff.