This a great Irish team but they're just not playing great rugby. Adverse conditions offer mitigation but there is still an appreciable lack of fluency and penetration to the backplay. In contrast the Irish pack was absolutely brilliant, collectively and individually.

Scotland were courageous but poor. The fitness levels have improved immeasurably and this enables them to be an obdurate defensive unit but they offered precious little in possession. They produced a carbon copy of the Edinburgh tactics. The Scottish players lie deep and the movement is lateral. They try to pass the ball to the extremities.

When that doesn't work there is little else. They have added a sound maul but Ireland had done their homework and pretty much negated that gambit.

They were crying out for a Plan B that didn't exist. There are skills issues that they need to address when they are going forward, primarily their ability to offload in contact.

There is a school of thought that might suggest that the players aren't big enough or strong enough to do it but that misses the point. The physical conditioning of the Scottish players has improved but more importantly the ability to offload in the tackle is not alone about power.

Willie Anderson was brilliant in coaching the philosophy that it is not necessarily about breaking the tackle but instead centres on footwork, body position and an attitude of staying on your feet. The current New Zealand team best highlights the importance of being able to offload in the tackle.

They do it better than anyone else in the world game and it's a style of play adopted by their Super 14 teams.

According to the official statistics Scotland had to make 102 tackles in the match compared to Ireland's 58. When you marry that statistic with the fact that the Scots lost eight of their own lineouts, it encapsulates the pattern of the match.

The visitors didn't have the ball for much of the game, a state of affairs that suited them to some extent because they have such an aggressive defence that in previous matches has forced errors from which they have capitalised.

When it was put up to them and they were asked to chase victory they simply didn't have the wherewithal to do it, especially from long range.

They couldn't establish field position other than fleeting visits to the Irish half. I thought the Irish pack were magnificent. It was a case of glorious Munster rugby in green jerseys. There were several outstanding performances but none more so than the secondrows.

Paul O'Connell was immense and dominated the game but was only just in front of Malcolm O'Kelly. Those who wrote off and were very critical of Mal earlier in the championship should ring up and apologise. The most eloquent defence of his ability was his performance on Saturday. He raised his game and was quite simple superb.

There is no doubting that they make an excellent pair in the secondrow as their qualities complement one another. O'Connell is about energy and power while O'Kelly has those silken footballing skills. The Irish backrow were also superb, all three playing very well individually. I would still have some issues about them as a unit but it would be churlish not to acknowledge their respective performances.

I have never questioned the individual talent of the three. On Saturday they didn't have to get out into the backline much because it wasn't that sort of game. Ronan O'Gara kicked intelligently and pulled the strings in the second half, nursing Ireland into field position while I thought Shane Horgan had another big game.

He is a bundle of enthusiasm, energy and aggression that galvanises his team-mates and for me has been Ireland's best player in the tournament even before they play their final game. The essence of any match is to score more points than your opponent and Ireland once again fulfilled that remit.

However, it shouldn't wallpaper over some of the shortcomings.

One of the worst inventions as a teaching aid in rugby is the tackle pads because it encourages players to run into them. Ireland need to learn the difference between attacking the player and attacking the space. For most of Saturday they spent their time running into contact instead of attacking space.

Take a GAA analogy. You don't see players handpass the ball towards a defender; they handpass it into the space for a colleague to run onto.

That's one aspect of the game in which Ireland are falling down. They have to rediscover the ability to create and then exploit space on the rugby pitch. At the moment they are predictable and they shouldn't be.

This is a great team. They just have to discover the key to unlocking that potential and to be multifunctional in their approach.