Ireland comforted by the chaos of last trip to Murrayfield

“I just remember coming in at half-time, Dan had gone down, Hendy had gone down, my shoulder was at me a bit, but there was no panic,” Rónan Kelleher recalled ahead of this weekend’s trip to Edinburgh.

Ireland’s Johnny Sexton and Josh van der Flier celebrate winning at Murrayfield in 2023. Pic: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan.

Laughter isn’t the most frequent of sounds to be heard at half-time in a Test match dressing-room.

It was all some of Ireland’s players and staff could do two years ago as they came to terms with a freakish run of injuries in Murrayfield.

The course of events doesn’t seem any less bizarre now than in March of 2023 when Caelan Doris was the first forced off after 12 minutes. Dan Sheehan followed six minutes later and then Iain Henderson joined them early into the second quarter.

All of this could have spelled disaster.

Scotland had lost to France by 11 points in Paris in the previous round but defeats of England and Wales earlier in the Six Nations left them very much in the hunt for a title and just 80 minutes shy of a first Triple Crown in 33 years.

Gregor Townsend’s side was a live and present danger playing some very good rugby and the sense of occasion was heightened by the fact that it was the 300th Test played at Murrayfield and Stuart Hogg’s 100th cap. The place was hopping.

Ireland were somehow 8-7 in front by the time they made for the sheds at the interval having absorbed fierce Scottish pressure and all those casualties. Rónan Kelleher, Sheehan’s replacement, was already nursing a crook shoulder.

And their problems were far from over.

Kelleher’s problem would force him off eight minutes after the restart and so it was that Cian Healy, a prop, would stand in at hooker while Josh van der Flier, a flanker, would throw in at the lineout. The game should have been sponsored by Band-Aid.

“I just remember coming in at half-time, Dan had gone down, Hendy had gone down, my shoulder was at me a bit, but there was no panic,” Kelleher recalled ahead of this weekend’s trip to Edinburgh.

“I just remember a few people laughing, like 'this is wild'. But yeah, just a ‘next man up’ mentality.

“Church obviously went in, did unbelievably well in the scrum, Josh did unbelievably well at the lineout throws, but there was no panic, no sense of dread or anything really. It was just more of the funny situation, but people were willing to step up and I thought we did well as a squad to get through that.”

Garry Ringrose would add to the injury toll eight minutes from time when suffering an awful head injury in an attempted tackle so the eventual 22-7 scoreline in favour of the visitors absolutely belied the adversity they faced as they moved a step closer to the Grand Slam.

Andy Farrell had already begun to share his thoughts about the side’s willingness to embrace whatever “chaos” might come their way. This was chaos. He described their character on this day as “immense” and rated it the best game he had been involved in.

It’s an afternoon that should serve them well as they go back to Murrayfield for the first time since that win on Sunday. After all, if they could, not just survive, but thrive in those circumstances then they should be comfortable whatever the fates might throw at them.

“Yeah, there was definitely an element of that,” said Kelleher. “It was more just funny looking around. No-one panicked, everyone was like, ‘right, we have a job to do’ and it just showed not only the experience but also the quality in the squad.

“Cian was able to slot in pretty seamlessly into the hooker position and Josh was the same throwing-wise. It was a brilliant day and we were delighted and it led to a big Grand Slam win the following week, so yeah, it was massive.”

Scotland’s losing run against Ireland is legion by now. Their last win in this fixture was 2017 when Vern Cotter was still in charge over there. Townsend has faced Ireland ten times and lost every single time. It’s actually remarkable.

The Scots in that same time have won five and drawn one of their last six meetings with England, including the last four. France have been beaten five times, three of them in the Six Nations and one of those coming in Saint-Denis.

Ireland have been their kryptonite.

There have been games where Ireland have beaten them out of sight. Others, as in the Aviva Stadium last season, where it has been a closer-run thing. There will be no lack of motivation for the home team this Sunday.

Their opening win over Italy got them off to a winning but far from impressive start and Ireland go there on the back of a much more testing opener at home to England which, in purely attritional terms, was night and day to the earlier game featuring the Azzurri.

“Scotland are always very difficult to play against,” Kelleher explained. “They have some class players throughout the team. But, yeah, we need the extra day off just because it was a physical battle out there, a few sore bodies.”