The visitors were winning with more ease than anybody had imagined.
Hope arrived at the end of the half for Scotland when, having coughed up a lineout close to the Irish line, they went again, ran direct through Jack Dempsey and then found the holy grail of fast ruck ball and accurate hands.
Huw Jones fed McDowall, who slipped it out the side door to Van der Merwe. His finish was sensational.
There was a further sliver of optimism early in the new half. A solid start brought a Scotland penalty. Kinghorn banged it over. A nine-point game now.
Still a mountain to climb, but there was an edge to the Scots now that wasn’t there before.
Kinghorn launched an attack from deep and Ireland scrambled. Henshaw came within a whisker of being done for a deliberate knock-on, a yellow card and possibly a penalty try, but like Van der Merwe, he escaped.
Back we came for penalty advantage and Kinghorn narrowed the gap to six from in front of the posts. Eleven unanswered points and expectations rising at Murrayfield.
Ireland were having none of Scotland’s revival, though. In seven minutes leading up to the hour they struck out and settled the contest once and for all.
It was Lowe who finished it after Scotland were dragged right and left. The wing stepped around Kinghorn who had come barrelling out of the line and went over.
Prendergast’s conversion made it 24-11 and soon after Gibson-Park took advantage of a woefully flat Scotland defence when dinking a kick over the top.
With nobody in the backfield, Ireland didn’t have a massively difficult job in putting Conan over for the bonus point try.
There was that Prendergast penalty and the White try to come, but they were academic.
Ireland march on with serious intent while Scotland are shunted back into wearily familiar territory.
Leave a Reply