Scotland 18-21 Ireland

A bad performance against a terrible team.
All started bright and rosy with Ireland battering away at the Scots on their own line, sucking in defenders for Jamie Heaslip to walk over the line untouched to score the first try after just 2 minutes.
Great scrum from the Irish pack for Eoin Reddan to trot over for a try after Heaslip peeled off the back. Absolutely awful defence from Scotland contributed to both of the tries.
Both teams seemed bereft of ideas with ball in hand, a lot of running into traffic or putting boot to ball.
In the second half Ireland started well again attacking the Scottish line while the Scots were down to 14 men. Ireland were sloppy though, they turned over the ball to Scotland and gave away a penalty not long after that, both incidents happened on the Scottish line.
Ireland kept it simple and went throught the phases, a gap was going to appear at some stage and when it did Ronan O'Gara took the opportunity with a superb hand off on Ross Ford to dot down under the sticks.
Scotland were very direct for the whole game, but that made them predictable.
Irelands indiscipline at the breakdown continues to be a major problem. They kept Scotland in the match by continually giving away penalties in their own half. Ireland should have blown this terrible Scotland team away. If Scotland had been half decent or Dan Parks had started they probably would have won this match. Ireland were bad and there for the taking, that's 2 games in this championship where Ireland have been lucky to come away with a win. I'm starting to wonder if this business of giving away penalties is a tactic that Kidney & co. have instilled in the squad. Whatever it is it has to stop now!
Declan Kidney's use of the bench is still terrible. One week he doesn't use it and then the next he empties it with the game finely balanced. What is he playing at?!
I've said it before but I really think that Kidney & co. don't know what game to play and who they need to play it.
My Man of the Match is Sean O'Brien. He made breaks all over the field and supported all the other runners too. Honourable mentions for Ronan O'Gara, Eoin Reddan and the front row.
Kidney & co. have an awful lot of work to do.