Ireland hold off Scotland in a scrappy battle to win Six Nations title

For the second year in a row Ireland have been crowned Guinness Six Nations champions on home soil, and for the second year in a row they survived a few scares along the way to seal it.

Andy Farrell's side completed back-to-back championships with a 17-13 defeat of Scotland on the final day of the campaign, overpowering the visitors in the final quarter after what had been an error-strewn first hour, which wasn’t helped by an injury in the warm-up to Hugo Keenan, who saw his place in the side taken by Jordan Larmour.

On another day, it could have been a procession for Ireland.

An indisciplined but committed Scottish defence gave up penalty after penalty in the third quarter of the game, with Ireland leading by just four points, 10-6 at the time.

Tadhg Furlong and Robbie Henshaw both saw potential tries ruled out by the TMO, while handling errors by Calvin Nash and Garry Ringrose saw further gilt-edged chances fall by the wayside.

Dan Sheehan’s fifth try of the championship had given Ireland a 7-6 lead at the break, the numbers told us that this game would decided in the final quarter, with 40% of Ireland’s tries coming in this period, and the Scots managing just 10 points in the last 20 minutes. And so it came to pass.

Gregor Townsend’s side had defended ferociously with their backs to their tryline, but Ireland finally forced their way over for their second try 15 minutes from time, as Andrew Porter gave them a 17-6 advantage.

And while they had to survive a tense final two minutes following a Huw Jones try for the visitors, they played in the right areas of the pitch to see out a championship win, giving Peter O’Mahony the honour of lifting the Six Nations trophy on what many people believe could be his final game at the