‘Oh, we're in big trouble’ - Ireland look for similar Murrayfield mentality two years after memorable win

The Ireland players had to laugh at half-time but managed to dig out a famous victory.

Sat, 08 Feb, 2025 - 07:12

Simon Lewis

Ronan Kelleher recalled laughter in the Ireland dressing room at Murrayfield two years ago as his side clung to an 8-7 half-time lead over Scotland, his team-mates dropping like flies with injuries and himself nursing an injured shoulder.

The boss, Andy Farrell, was relishing this moment of rare adversity and the opportunity it presented him to see what his players were made of, but scrum coach John Fogarty was inwardly having a moment of sheer terror.

Bad enough that Ireland had lost No.8 Caelan Doris after 12 minutes and lock Iain Henderson a dozen minutes later, starting hooker Dan Sheehan had also departed hurt in between and now Kelleher, his replacement, was unable to throw lineouts.

Fogarty should have realised this was going to be one of those days after Ireland had had a try disallowed on a bizarre technicality just five minutes in. Sheehan had powered over from close range after Doris had capitalised on a botched quickly-taken lineout from the Scots.

Referee Luke Pearce had awarded the try only for his assistant to call a point of order and tell him the home side had incorrectly used a new ball for their quick throw instead of the one that had been put into touch.

Whatever about the perceived injustice of yet another rugby law quirk that punished not the perpetrators but the sinned against, Ireland also lost Doris to a back injury from the heavy fall which followed his steal.

Sheehan was removed with a shoulder problem soon after, and Henderson to a wrist injury but Scotland failed to add to their opening score from Huw Jones and Ireland found themselves still a point to the good at the break, albeit with a one-armed hooker.

Loosehead prop Cian Healy, a designated hooker on the official team sheet, would replace Kelleher nine minutes into the second half and assume the role at scrum-time while flanker Josh van der Flier stepped up to the plate and took over the lineout throwing. And Ireland barely missed a beat, winning 22-7 and ending the Scots’ hopes of a Grand Slam and Triple Crown three games into the 2023 Six Nations.

"Surprise me? Probably not,” Farrell said in his post-match press conference in Edinburgh. "It was immense, the character. It wasn't champagne rugby, but in terms of character, fight and want for each other - that's the best game I've been involved in.”

Yet at half-time Fogarty had other adjectives to describe the situation.

“Fucked!” was the scrum coach’s appraisal of the situation as he recalled his thoughts earlier this week before moderating his language at the behest of the Ireland media officer.

“Let me try that again. ‘Oh, we're in big trouble’.

“It was a nightmare. For me, I was in a little bit of a panic. I was talking to Cian Healy about, you know, ‘you've got to keep the brake foot up’ and ‘will we do this’ and ‘will we do that’.

“We came in at half-time and I was trying to figure it out in my mind. And I walked into Andy, and he just goes “this is brilliant!”, and he was smiling and way happier in the chaos and what was happening, two hookers, and ‘who's throwing the ball in’ and ‘who's going to scrummage’.

“Have I done enough, have I spent enough time with Cian, how will that look? The game is on a knife edge. They put us under serious pressure that first half and they're in their dressing room thinking ‘we've got ‘em’, you know, and we’re thinking… there was a little bit of that from me and from Paul. Paul isn't as cool as you might think… but we had a good plan and it was more the playing group.

“The playing group took in all the information, were calm enough to go out there and do what an Irish player does and be competitive, stay in the moment. All those pieces they were very competitive, they connected, they were tight. We were tight as a group. We knew we were in a little bit of trouble, we were very connected as a group.”

Now Fogarty is demanding a similar mentality when Ireland return to Murrayfield on Sunday if they are to maintain their bid for a historic three-peat of titles, a run that started with a Grand Slam in 2023 that was forged on that chaotic day in the Scottish capital.

“That's a big point for us as we go over there, in defence and attack, how we think when it's difficult, in how we think when we go down points, how connected we were.

“It was great to see when I'm on the field against England (last Saturday), there's a certain amount of pressure the guys are under. There’s scoreboard pressure, there’s the reality of losing some collisions, and there's a sense of acknowledging that, but also they stayed tight, they stayed together, they had a relative calmness across the group.

“All that stuff is really important. All that stuff happened in Scotland two years ago. All that stuff needs to happen on Sunday when we inevitably have tough times.”