A hat-trick of tries from centre Brian O'Driscoll steered Ireland to a 43-22 victory over Scotland in the Six Nations Championship at Lansdowne Road today. Eddie O'Sullivan's team had few troubles notching up a victory with an impressive five tries to Scotland's one.
Three first-half tries, two from O'Driscoll and one from Shane Horgan, helped Ireland to a 22-12 lead at the break. In the second half replacement Simon Easterby crossed the line for Ireland and replacement Martin Leslie scored a try for Scotland before O'Driscoll raced through the Scots defence at the end to put a finishing gloss on the win.
Ireland were on the attack first, with flyhalf David Humphreys landing a simple kick to give a 3-0 lead with barely a minute gone. Scotland struck back in the 10th minute with a penalty from Brendan Laney before two more well-taken penalties from Laney gave the visitors a 9-3 lead with just over 20 minutes gone.
The first try came after Ireland were awarded a penalty close to the Scottish line and elected to take a scrum. Scrumhalf Peter Stringer whipped the ball out to Humphreys, a miss pass found outside centre O'Driscoll who crossed over. A rare miss from Humphreys left the Scots holding a slim 9-8 advantage. Ireland took the lead again just after 30 minutes.
After a ruck just on the Scots' 22-metre line, flanker Eric Miller flung a long pass out to O'Driscoll who managed to cling on despite being surrounded by Scottish defenders. O'Driscoll swiftly offloaded the ball to Horgan and the winger ran in unopposed. Humphreys made no mistake with the conversion.
Just before halftime Scotland were attacking deep in the Irish half when an error gifted the home side another score. Laney was unable to hold a wild pass from flyhalf Gregor Townsend, and O'Driscoll stole the ball with a brilliant take before sprinting the length of the pitch to score. Humphreys landed another conversion, before Laney put over another penalty to make the score 22-12 at the break.
After the restart another penalty from Laney narrowed the gap, but Ireland responded with two more penalty kicks from Humphreys in quick succession to give them a 28-15 lead. On the hour Humphreys stretched the lead further with another penalty, a double blow for Scotland after flanker Budge Pountney had been sin-binned for dissent.
Five minutes later another Scottish handling error, this time deep inside their own half, gifted Ireland another try. Centre James McLaren fumbled a bouncing pass and Horgan seized on the loose ball, finding Humphreys who fed Easterby - a replacement for Miller - who ran in for the try.
With 10 minutes remaining Scotland finally scored a try. After a period of pressure inside the Irish 22, a tapped penalty was followed by a forward drive and replacement Martin Leslie crossed the line. New Zealand-born Laney landed the conversion, his sixth successful kick of the match, to make the score 36-22.
But as the match entered the 80th minute O'Driscoll once more found space to score his third try. Ronan O'Gara, a late replacement for Humphreys, slotted the conversion.
Filed by Sinéad Kissane
