Ireland claim Triple Crown and keep Six Nations hopes alive with Scotland scalp

Ireland kept alive dreams of Guinness Six Nations glory by clinching the Triple Crown with a convincing 26-5 bonus-point victory over Scotland in Dublin.

Andy Farrell’s men threw down the gauntlet for Grand Slam-chasing France by moving three points clear at the top of the standings courtesy of tries from Dan Sheehan, Cian Healy, Josh Van Der Flier and Conor Murray.

Les Bleus must now beat England in the late kick-off in Paris to complete a tournament clean sweep and deny the Irish the championship title.

Captain Johnny Sexton successfully converted three of the four scores to help Ireland end an 18-year wait to secure silverware on home soil.

Scotland had prevented Ireland winning the Triple Crown at Croke Park back in 2010 – their last victory in Dublin.

But Gregor Townsend’s visitors never seriously threatened to mastermind an upset and Pierre Schoeman’s first-half score was scant consolation as their miserable run in this fixture continued on a chastening evening.

Defeat for the Scots – an 11th from the past 12 meetings between the teams – was a disappointing end to a largely forgettable campaign which began so positively with the jubilation of retaining the Calcutta Cup.

However, they at least avoid finishing second bottom of the table thanks to Italy’s shock win in Wales.

Scotland’s hopes of springing a surprise were not helped by Finn Russell, Ali Price and captain Stuart Hogg being among six players disciplined for breaching team protocols by visiting a bar following last weekend’s win over Italy.

With influential fly-half Russell dropped the bench, the away side began relatively brightly in a frantic opening quarter before Irish hooker Sheehan burrowed over in the 17th minute to calm home nerves.

Ireland’s