Parks dishes out a dose of reality

IRELAND 20 SCOTLAND 23AND SO it ended as it began, with a crushing sense of anti-climax. The Croke Park odyssey has now been book-ended with defeats, but harrowing as the last-ditch defeat to Vincent Clerc and co was four seasons ago, this one was even more anti-climactic and self-inflicted.

Akin to Paris, but even more so, this was a strangely cavalier, horse-before-the-cart, wild and inaccurate Ireland performance. Most unlike them, or any side coached by Declan Kidney, it even hinted of overconfidence. Endeavouring to reinvoke the spirit of Rome on St Patrick’s Day two years ago, it even suggested that Ireland had notions, however faint, that an early try or two might open the floodgates and possibly keep their fanciful hopes of the title alive.

Whatever about that, in the final analysis Ireland got what they deserved. This was a highly intelligent, better conceived and better executed display by the Scots, who successfully targeted the Irish set-pieces, and in the process exposed both the Ireland scrum and, much more surprisingly, the Ireland lineout. They also played territory better.

Ireland lacked intensity, weren’t nearly accurate enough and made comparatively less and ineffective use of their bench. The most astonishing was at hooker, where Rory Best compounded the loss of five of his throws with a couple of crooked darts. That Seán Cronin remained on the bench for the entire 80 minutes was hardly an endorsement of the Connacht hooker. In the eight games he has been part of the Irish 22, Cronin has only made two appearances – for the last eight minutes against Fiji at the RDS and for two minutes against Wales.

One can take Declan Kidney’s point that he didn’t want to derail Ireland’s momentum, and that the same approach didn’t stop Ireland from mounting a successful comeback against Australia last November. The difference here was that the primary source of set-piece possession was malfunctioning. Given Leo Cullen’s expertise in this area, it was also a surprise that he remained in his tracksuit. One ventures that had Jerry Flannery been on the bench, or Donncha O’Callaghan, then those changes would have been made. Ditto Peter Stringer, come to think of it.

Indeed, there wasn’t a replacement in the front row until 79 minutes had elapsed. The three South African referees all appear to have had issues with John Hayes’ binding, and although Euan Murray would also incur Jonathan Kaplan’s dissatisfaction, Murray gave Cian Healy a tough time of it. All told, Ireland conceded five indirect penalties and one full penalty at scrum time.

The first-half performance was ambitious yes, but littered with errors. In the opening 30 minutes Ireland moved the ball 26 times, all but four times from around half-way or in their own half.

Only four times in the entire opening period did Ireland elect to kick the ball, once through Jonathan Sexton from a defensive lineout, twice through Tomás O’Leary box kicks and then a counter chip by Rob Kearney which he could not regather.

Ireland’s execution was terrible. In the first half alone there were eight handling errors. One cameo summed up the match. A well-worked move to put Gordon D’Arcy into space floundered when he dropped the ball, Dan Parks sending Ireland back to within five metres of their line with a monstrous touchfinder.

Also using Hugo Southwell’s big left boot to good effect, Scotland played territory better.

All that said and done, the approach did reap the benefits of the opening try. It originated from that rarity, a steal off the Scottish lineout; Ireland’s only one of the day and only the third which this superb Scottish lineout has coughed up out of 49 in this championship. Excellent work it was by Jamie Heaslip too, and after Best and the backrow in turn had set up ruck ball, Sexton worked a lovely loop with Gordon D’Arcy to accelerate through the Scottish defence and link with Brian O’Driscoll’s inside line with a cleverly delayed pass.

However, their ambitious approach contributed directly to the Scottish try which immediately followed with a spate of Keystone Cops rugby. Scampering over half-way, Healy rolled the ball back in contact and Stephen Ferris fired it wildly above the oncoming O’Leary. O’Driscoll tried to hack it and Ross Ford pounced. Kelly Brown passed off the deck for Graeme Morrison to link with John Beattie, but for all the number eight’s power and pace, he should have been stopped but Geordan Murphy tackled too high.

Once again too, Ireland could probably feel aggrieved with the South African’s interpretation at the breakdown. For example, when O’Callaghan was penalised for not rolling away, he was not remotely interfering with the ball whereas Sean Lamont was clearly holding on to the leather on the deck long, long after being tackled to the ground.

And that 11-7 deficit became 14-7 at the break even though, for once, Ireland reclaimed a restart. However, sloppy recycling, a turnover in contact by Paul O’Connell and Kearney’s failure to gather a Parks up-and-under led to the latter landing a drop goal.

It wasn’t until the 50th minute that Ireland employed their rolling maul, and despite knowing he was about to be replaced, Sexton brilliantly held his nerve and poise to land the ensuing penalty. When Ronan O’Gara subsequently landed a superb touchline conversion after Tommy Bowe, along with David Wallace – probably the only Ireland players to play to their abilities – underlined his status as a world-class finisher, it seemed set up for O’Gara to play Ireland’s get-out-of-jail card. But after an exchange of penalties by Parks and O’Gara, the thought occurred that simply by the law of averages and having learned some tough lessons in this tournament, the Scots would finally put one away. Sure enough, they managed the end game far better and a good chase by Simon Danielli and Nick de Luca to ensnare Kearney, who was pinged for not releasing, enabled Parks to seal the deal. As a dose of reality, this was as harsh as it gets.

MATCH STATISTICS

SCORING SEQUENCE:6 mins: Parks pen 0-3; 11 mins: O'Driscoll try, Sexton con 7-3; 15 mins: Beattie try 7-8; 38 mins: Parks pen 7-11; 40 (+2 mins) 7-14; (half-time 7-14); 48 mins: Parks pen 7-17; 51 mins: Sexton pen 10-17; 65 mins: Bowe try, O'Gara con 17-17; 73 mins: Parks pen 17-20; 76 mins: O'Gara pen 20-20; 79 mins: Parks pen 20-23.

IRELAND:G Murphy (Leicester); T Bowe (Ospreys), B ODriscoll (Leinster, capt), G DArcy (Leinster), K Earls (Munster); J Sexton (Leinster), T OLeary (Munster); C Healy (Leinster), R Best (Ulster), J Hayes (Munster), D OCallaghan (Munster), P OConnell (Munster), S Ferris (Ulster), D Wallace (Munster), J Heaslip (Leinster). Replacements:R Kearney (Leinster) for Murphy (27 mins), R OGara (Munster) for Sexton (52 mins), T Buckley (Munster) for Hayes (80 mins). Not used:L Cullen (Leinster), S Jennings (Leinster), E Reddan (Leinster), S Cronin (Connacht).

SCOTLAND:H Southwell (Stade Francais); S Lamont (Scarlets), N de Luca (Edinburgh), G Morrison (Glasgow Warriors), M Evans (Glasgow Warriors); D Parks (Glasgow Warriors), C Cusiter (Glasgow Warriors, capt); A Jacobsen (Edinburgh), R Ford (Edinburgh), E Murray (Northampton Saints), J Hamilton (Edinburgh), A Kellock (Glasgow Warriors), K Brown (Glasgow Warriors), J Barclay (Glasgow Warriors), J Beattie (Glasgow Warriors). Replacements:A MacDonald (Edinburgh) for Brown (27-34, 38-40 and 52-59 mins), M Blair (Edinburgh) for Cusiter (51 mins), R Gray (Glasgow Warriors) for Hamilton (52 mins), A Dickinson (Gloucester) for Jacobsen (66 mins), S Lawson (Gloucester) for Ford (72 mins), S Danielli (Ulster) for Lamont (75 mins). Not used: P Godman (Edinburgh).

Referee:J Kaplan (South Africa).