Visitors were far from wooden

WITH 30 minutes to go, and the match poised at 16 points apiece, there were some pretty nervous Irishmen on the pitch and certainly a heap of them off it.

None more so than the publicans of Dublin who had been expecting a roaring trade from the Irish fans and had certainly not catered for Scotland coming to Lansdowne Road and waltzing off with the champagne.

In the end it was indeed Ireland’s day of celebration, their first Triple Crown since 1985, but the men in green made heavy weather of things right from the off, when Ronan O’Gara had his first clearance charged down and from then on proceeded to serve up possibly the worst display of his career. How he remained on the pitch is a mystery to me.

He missed kicks at goal, and his kicking from hand in fairly good conditions was not up to the standards expected of an international No.10. By contrast, Dan Parks, starting at stand-off for the first time, looked much more assured and thoroughly deserving of his controversial call-up. His drop goal was sweetly taken, and his distribution from hand allowed Tom Philip to make inroads into the much-vaunted Irish defence.

On a slightly disappointing note, Parks will be upset when he looks at the video replay of David Wallace’s crucial score, as the Irishman stepped out of Parks’s tackle without much resistance. The Wallace family are an amazing mob, all three of them British Lions. David - currently about 10th choice as Irish flanker - turned out to be the pick of the Irish pack which came a distant second to the Scots.

The match statistics say it all: Ireland only managed 39 per cent of the ball. But it’s what they do with even meagre possession which makes Ireland so special.

Brian O’Driscoll, their captain and talisman and revelling in the role, had a magnificent game in both attack and defence, but was just edged out for man of the match by Gordon D’Arcy on his inside.

The word is that Scotland coach Matt Williams, while employed by Leinster, took young D’Arcy to the side one day and explained the facts of life for a professional rugby player. As he sat in the stand yesterday watching D’Arcy split Scotland apart with two searing tries, I suspect Matt was regretting the wisdom he imparted.

D’Arcy has been the find of the Six Nations, a complete rugby footballer blessed with natural pace and ball-handling skills.

As for Williams, he will be much happier with his side’s overall performance. After the French debacle last week, he must have wondered what he had to do to get Scotland to put in any kind of a performance, and he obviously found at least some answers.

The pack came out fired up for the fray, and we witnessed some traditional rucking using the feet which discomforts any opposition. Even Simon Webster got a taste for it, and accidentally struck O’Driscoll on the back of the head as he drove in.

For this act he inherited the role of pantomime villain and was booed roundly every time he touched the ball from then on. For me, that tells me more about the game than anything - the crowd did not want their nerves tested far less see their beloved boys in green given grief.

When you don’t hear choruses of Sweet Molly Malone echoing round the old stadium, you know that things are not going according to plan.

In the end, Ireland did pull away in the final quarter, but frankly the score did not reflect the overall play. The difference is that Ireland are playing with confidence and knew they would get a break through eventually, and so it proved.

Scotland will take some heart from yesterday, but the facts speak for themselves. We have a huge uphill task to stay on the big stage of international rugby as a credible force.

On the plus side, at least we know that Chris Paterson looks more comfortable in the No.15 shirt.

Scotland, however, cannot buy a win at the moment, but had they started the tournament the way they finished it I suspect we would not be clutching onto the fabled Wooden Spoon this morning.