Robinson savours Scotland success

Andy Robinson hailed his Scotland side for finally solving the riddle of how to win a rugby match after watching them score a sensational victory in Ireland to avoid the RBS 6 Nations wooden spoon.

Scotland produced one of their best performances in recent memory to stun their Triple Crown-chasing opponents with a last-gasp 23-20 win in the last ever Test at Croke Park.

It was Robinson’s first Six Nations success since he took charge and the visitors’ first victory in Dublin for 12 years and the former England boss was delighted with the outcome.

“I’m feeling really pleased for the players and the Scotland management team and the supporters,” Robinson said.

“There’s a lot of effort put into every game we’ve had this year.

“I thought we played really well after a bit of a slow start, where I thought Ireland looked tremendous.

“But we got ourselves into the game and controlled it.

“To get over the wire was really, really pleasing.

“That was the key element: being able to work out how to win the game.”

Man of the match Dan Parks kicked 18 points, but Robinson felt Johnnie Beattie’s superb first-half try was the turning point today.

“It makes a difference when you score a try – it really does make a difference,” said Robinson, whose side had failed to cross the whitewash in five of his previous seven games at the helm.

“That five points was really good.”

He also singled out centres Graeme Morrison and Nick De Luca for praise as well as hailing the line-out and defence.

“Ireland base their game on a very strong line-out platform but we were able to disrupt that line-out ball, which was very good,” he said.

“The wave after wave of attacks that were thrown at us, I thought the guys were very courageous in their defence.”

Captain Chris Cusiter admitted the way Scotland dealt with Ireland drawing level at 17-17 proved they had improved from their cruel defeat in Wales five weeks earlier.

“That was the test for us,” the scrum-half said.

“With what’s happened this championship and how some of the other games have gone, I’m really pleased with what happened in that period.

“I knew that when they got back level with us, we had to earn the win.

“For me, that was a significant step from what we’ve been doing at the end of the games.”

Robinson, who described Parks’ winning penalty as “a great moment”, refused to look back on “what could’ve been” in this Six Nations after Scotland dominated four of their five matches but won only one.

He added: “They didn’t feel sorry for themselves; they went out there and said, ’We’re going to go out and beat Ireland’.”