Scots delight in smash and grab as Irish fail to land knockout blow
Asked to put some sense into the outcome of a game in which they struggled to win and retain possession, their jubilant coach Scott Johnson joked they were lulling Ireland into a false sense of security.
“We took our opportunities, the few that came our way, and they didn’t take theirs, that was the sole difference,” he said.
“At half-time I felt like having watched Ali and Foreman fight or something, lulling them into some false sense of security. My neck was getting sore looking down one end of the pitch, there was no vision anywhere else and it’s a funny thing. I’ve been involved in games, on the other side as well, and it puts a bit of pressure on the team doing all of the attacking that they should be further in front. There’s a bit of scoreboard pressure there. I was happy to take 3-0 I can tell you, so we took it, and then took our chances and they’ll be hurting because of that, so we’ll enjoy the next 24 hours.”
Beside him, skipper Kelly Brown smiled and admitted he had never experienced playing with such little possession in any game at any level.
“We’re really happy to get the win but if we play like that against Wales we will not win that game. We’ll be happy with our defence on the one hand but not happy that they made three brilliant line breaks that could on another day have really hurt us.
“I suppose they will feel they made a couple of mistakes that stopped them from scoring tries but I think we also deserve credit for scrambling back and ultimately getting men in positions to defend.”
Ali Kellock was another who couldn’t keep the smile from his face as he recalled how backs-to-the-wall defence won the day, citing Scotland’s massive 128 tackles to Ireland’s 44.
“At any level, but especially at this level, you’ve got to do what you have to do to win matches. We made an incredible amount of tackles particularly in the first half, we came out of it a little bit in the second half and it allowed us the territory we needed to force them to make some mistakes for a change.
“The quality of our defence was superb, even the scrambling defence, because the amount of ball they had meant they were bound to make some line breaks. To scramble back as we did when they broke through us a couple of times in the first half was magnificent and our line speed was hugely impressive. We put them under pressure to make decisions, the ball was a little slippy so that favours the defence. We got in their faces and maybe forced them make decisions that they weren’t happy having to make.”
Kellock’s recall of the closing moments was one of delight, especially having conceded a penalty that allowed Ireland launch one last desperate offensive.
“I don’t know why the penalty was conceded but we didn’t have any time to argue about the decision. The backs were screaming at us [the pack] to get back into the line, we got back into the line and happily we dealt with it, although it was scary at the time.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
