Only ‘luck and small margins’ separate Ireland from Scotland, says Johnny Sexton

Thu, 11 Mar, 2021 - 06:00

Simon Lewis

The Six Nations record against Scotland tells a story of Irish dominance yet as far as Johnny Sexton is concerned, the difference between the sides has always been one of small margins.

Ireland’s 19-12 win in Dublin on the opening day of the 2020 championship was the 17th by Sexton’s team in 21 years of the Six Nations, the Scots’ fourth and most recent win coming at Murrayfield in 2017. It is a pattern of Irish success that points to a winning formula over their Celtic rivals.

The Ireland captain begged to differ yesterday as preparations continued towards Sunday’s next instalment of the fixture over in Edinburgh.

“It’s a little bit of luck, some fine margins,” Sexton said. “They’re probably very even games, both teams have big purple patches in all those games mentioned and we probably capitalised.

“They’ll look back on when (Stuart) Hogg dropped the ball over the line (in 2020). That’s a big moment in that game, they could very easily have won that first fixture of last year’s Six Nations. Fine margins often.

“In the last game we played them in the Autumn Nations Cup, they dominated the large part of the first half but were only leading 9-3, if memory serves me. We got a couple of scores before half-time and then a couple of scores straight after half-time. We capitalised on our pressure and they didn’t, but I’m sure they’ll look back and say ‘look at these opportunities that we had, we just need to be more clinical’.

“We need to make sure we’re better this week and keep improving.”

Ireland’s 48-10 win against Italy in Rome last time out on February 27 was a first victory of 2021 as Sexton and his team put together their most fluent and creative attacking performance on a sunny day at Stadio Olimpico.

This Sunday could bring very different conditions and Sexton warned supporters not to expect the same bells and whistles at Murrayfield.

“There was no wind or rain, it was a dry ball, so that is a big factor in how you play,” he said of the Italy romp.

“Against Wales we showed some very good stuff with 14 men and it is very hard to do that. I don’t think I’ve ever hit so many rucks in my life as I did in that game but it is all hands on deck and it’s where can you fill in.

“Against France it is a different game, it is a greasy ball, tough conditions for the guys, so it could be tough conditions again this Sunday in Edinburgh.

“By the looks of it, it is going to be wet and windy so we might not see that game. It could be back to rolling the sleeves up and that’s okay as well,” he added.