Simon Easterby delighted to keep Scotland ‘at arm’s length’ in Ireland victory Simon Easterby hailed ruthless Ireland as they kept Scotland “at arm’s length” to steal a significant march in their quest to land a third consecutive Guinness Six Nations title with a bonus-point 32-18 triumph at Murrayfield.
Calvin Nash and captain Caelan Doris both scored as the Irish built a 17-0 advantage by the 32nd minute, with the Scots’ predicament not helped by having record try-scorer Duhan van der Merwe shown a 13th minute yellow card before losing two more influential backs to head injuries after Finn Russell and Darcy Graham collided with each other in the 21st minute.
Reflecting on the game, Townsend said: “When you’re 17-0 down, when things haven’t gone well for you and you’ve had to make changes, you do fear that the opposition could build on that, but I was really proud of the way we came back at the end of the first half.
England’s victory at home to France on Saturday paved the way for the winner of Sunday’s Murrayfield showdown to go clear at the top of the table, and Ireland duly capitalised ahead of their trip to struggling Wales on Saturday week.
Scotland rallied, with a Van der Merwe try just before half-time and two Blair Kinghorn penalties early in the second half reducing their deficit to just six points.
