British & Irish Lions
• British & Irish Lions tour Australia in 2013
Ireland Rugby
Scotland 18 – 21 Ireland
It was close, too close for comfort in many minds in a game filled with indiscipline which has to be got rid of before Ireland become a team famed for winning ugly. The side clearly know this with Alain Rolland being present at training in between the last two games!
Ireland were off to a confident start and the game was just six minutes in when a series of rucks formed after the lineout, Rory Best sucked in two defenders and passed to Heaslip to score by the posts. O’Gara’s conversion was quickly answered by a penalty from Chris Paterson.
Paterson took over place-kicking duties when Ruaridh Jackson missed a long range shot at goal and Scotland were awarded a second successful penalty  in the 18th minute. Penalties are starting to cost Ireland dearly, not helped my O’Gara missing a difficult one himself!
O’Gara got Ireland firing again with a trademark kick to touch and the forwards setup a five-metre scrum. The Scots were heaved backwards to allow Heaslip to peel free before Reddan ripped the ball from his arms and raced over unchallenged for his first senior try. O’Gara converted with ease.
Scotland came under fire again but O’Gara was penalised for not releasing after good pressure from Cian Healy and Sean O’Brien. Sean Lamont executed a try-saving tackle to end a first-half dominated by Ireland, but not before Paterson’s penalty cut the gap to 14-9
HT: Scotland 9 – Ireland 14
With Allan Jacobsen quickly heading to the bin in the second half after a binding offence O’Brien went on rampaging runs into the 22nd sending tacklers flying left, right and centre. Great work, only for an infringement at the breakdown to call a halt to it metres from the try line.
It had been coming for a while and in the 53rd minute Healy broke down the Scots defence to allow O’Gara to hand off Ross Ford and round in behind the posts. O’Gara converted his own before Paterson grabbed two penalties to take the score 21-15 and aim for a Scots fightback.
Max Evans become Scotlands biggest threat as an onslaught started from the home side. A drop goal from Parks made it 21-18 before pressure from the Irish defence forced two knock on’s to halt the onslaught!
Speaking afterwards, head coach Declan Kidney said: “We have been a bit stop-start by our own standards, but barring one or two decisions by everyone involved in the French game we could be in an extremely positive place.
“We are progressing and we’re building experience. We are quite a different unit to what we were two years ago because there are quite a number of changes in the squad.
“So, I think we’re progressing without shouting form the roof tops that we are there yet. We have quite a bit to do.”