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Ireland Comfortable Winners in Murrayfield.

Ireland Comfortable Winners in Murrayfield.

Any sense of satisfaction that the Irish management might have felt with their side’s 29-10 victory over Scotland will have been tempered by the loss through injury of Geordan Murphy.

Any sense of satisfaction that the Irish management might have felt with their side’s 29-10 victory over Scotland in Murrayfield will have been tempered by the loss through injury of Geordan Murphy. The full back was stretchered off the field after sustaining an injury in the 19th minute and is believed to have suffered a broken leg.

That injury came at a time when Ireland were countering out of defence in an opening half that was fairly uninspiring but ended with a score from Kevin Maggs that gave his side a 10-3 interval lead. They were however fortunate to go into the break with that advantage because in injury time of the opening half Scotland looked to have scored a perfectly good try when Alan Jacobsen was driven over the Irish line only for referee Nigel Whitehouse to adjudge that he had lost control of the ball.

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However, in the second half, Ireland, unlike their opponents, made the most of their possession and scored three tries, the final two converted from out wide by Ronan O’Gara

The first came as a result of Denis Hickie’s speed when he skinned the Scottish defence on the outside to score close to the corner flag.

Then five minutes later, O’Gara hoisted a beautiful garryowen which Brian O’Driscoll collected superbly and when he off loaded to Anthony Horgan the Munster winger shrugged off two tackles to take his first international try with style.

O’Driscoll was again involved in the 71st minute when he made inroads into the Scottish half before finding David Wallace who raced home to score his side’s fourth try. The Irish defence which had been superb for over 80 minutes finally yielded in injury time to allow Simon Webster in for a consolation try.

Ireland
G Murphy (Leicester Tigers); A Horgan (Munster), B O’Driscoll (Leinster), K Maggs (Bath), D Hickie (Leinster); R O’Gara (Munster), P Stringer (Munster); M Horan (Munster), K Wood capt (unattached), R Corrigan (Leinster), M O’Kelly (Leinster), P O’Connell (Munster), E Miller (Leinster), D Wallace (Munster), V Costello (Leinster).
Replacements:
S Byrne (Leinster) for Wood 77min;
S Best (Ulster) for Corrigan 75 min;
S Easterby (Llanelli) for O’Connell 75 min;
K Dawson (Lon Irish) for Miller 69 min;
G Easterby (Rotherham) for Stringer 75min
, D Humphreys (Ulster) for O’Driscoll 75 min;
G Dempsey (Leinster) for Murphy 19th min.

Scotland.
G Metcalfe; C Paterson, A Craig, A Henderson, K Logan, G Ross, M Blair; A Jacobsen, A Bulloch capt, G McIlwham; S Grimes, N Hines; R Beattie, S Taylor, A Mower.