Easterby puts Ireland’s defensive lapses down to natural ebb and flow
After the game Ireland coach Simon Easterby seemed nonplussed about the drop in level from his side just before the break and for 10 minutes after. He put it down to the normal ebb and flow of a tough test match, assuming Scotland would come into it at some stage.
Scotland’s brief purple patch was triggered by Duhan van der Merwe, who powered in for his try just before half-time. Then Scotland came out triggered by the upswing of the score and Blair Kinghorn knocked over another six points from the tee.
Ireland had led 17-0 and within a 10-minute phase were just 17-11 ahead. The next score could have changed the outcome of the game. Luckily that was James Lowe, who used his power and low centre of gravity to bump past Kinghorn and touch down for a try. There was also another late try against Ireland in the 76th minute, as there was in the England game. A couple of things to think about after a pleasing result.
Faltering France will surely get their act together for Dublin date
Ireland may not feel at all comfortable about beating France when the teams meet, once they pore over the French team’s performance against England. The scoreline says that England won the match, but the game was littered with handling errors that France don’t normally make, and they surely made for a skewed final score.
France butchered at least three try-scoring chances during the match. French winger Louis Bielle-Biarrey failed to catch a pass, which would have put him in. The best player in the world, Antoine Dupont, then fumbled, again with the line begging. Finally, Damian Penaud dropped the ball as he was bursting through the middle. Add to that a missed easy kick by one of the best in the game, Thomas Ramos, 10 minutes in and a minimum of 18 French points were left behind at Twickenham. They won’t be so profligate when they come to Aviva Stadium on March 8th.
Healy hot on the heels of Parisse’s Six Nations cap mark
From his debut in 2002 to his final appearance in 2019, Italian number eight Sergio Parisse won 142 caps, the most-ever for the Azzurri and third all-time behind Alun Wyn Jones and Richie McCaw. His 69 appearances in the Six Nations are also the most of any player. But when Ireland’s Cian Healy came on in the second half against Scotland, he nudged his number up to 66 Six Nations appearances.
Healy has been breaking many records with his astonishing longevity and if he can stay healthy, he could well draw level with Parisse this year. Ireland play Wales in Cardiff, France in Dublin and Italy in Rome. If Easterby sticks to the usual plan, the prop will come on in the second half of the match in each of those games and 66 appearances will become 69. If that happens, would it be too much of an imposition to have the 37-year-old Leinster player to stick around for another year.
Ireland won’t want to make Tommy’s day on Paddy’s weekend
Ireland’s final match against Italy in Rome on St Patrick’s weekend will be undertaken with some caution. Wales found out much to their cost and Warren Gatland’s 14th defeat in a row that Tommaso Allan can stand up under pressure. The Italian kicker landed a penalty on six minutes when Wales went offside at a ruck and continued in that vein throughout the match.
His second was a conversion on 20 minutes, his third eight minutes later and his fourth just before the half-time break. He landed another penalty on the hour and a final one on 73 minutes to round off a fine day from the tee with 17 points. The five penalties highlighted how poor Welsh discipline was and while Allan landed five, he also missed three. In all Gatland’s side conceded 14 penalties during the game, which allowed Italy to earn their first ever back-to-back win over Wales.
Henshaw a man for all seasons on the stats front
The statistics around each Six Nations match can be dry and sometimes give the wrong impression of how a player performed. But the numbers around Robbie Henshaw for a few of the metrics does show up the Irish centre to be the rounded player we know him to be, with many strings to his bow.
Where just the top five names are listed, Caelan Doris led the number of carries against Scotland with 10, with Henshaw in fourth place with eight, behind Peter O’Mahony and James Lowe who had nine each. Henshaw turns up again in metres carried, where he is second with 71 to the 80 by Doris. In total kicks, he is in fourth place, and in successful tackles, his 13 put him in fifth position. The spread of tasks in which he excels are across both the power and athletic side of the game. In short, a player who does a huge workload across the skill sets.
