Stuttering Irish fall over line

IT WAS not the performance Ireland would have wished for but Declan Kidney’s side just about got back to winning ways at Murrayfield yesterday.

For the third game in succession in this 2011 RBS 6 Nations championship, the Irish squandered the chance to record a decisive victory and for the second time in the campaign they allowed an inferior side to push them to the very limits.

Outscoring Scotland by three tries to none, Ireland should have cruised to a win here on a crisp, sunny afternoon in Edinburgh, Jamie Heaslip having cantered unopposed over the try line in the fifth minute, with Ronan O’Gara converting to indicate that the numerous mistakes and penalties conceded in the win over Italy and the defeat to France had been suitably dispatched.