Jamison Gibson-Park happy to 'gouge out' victory over Scotland

Jamison Gibson-Park paid tribute to his team-mates after a nervy 17-13 victory over Scotland as Ireland successfully defended their Guinness Six Nations title.

Andrew Porter's second-half try fatally broke the resistance of the stubborn Scots to ignite the St Patrick’s weekend celebrations and satisfy an expectant capacity crowd at the Aviva Stadium.

A pair of first-half Finn Russell penalties meant Gregor Townsend’s men trailed just 7-6 at the break and he added a late conversion following Huw Jones’ consolation try.

Yet the Scots were powerless to prevent Ireland bouncing back from the disappointment of the dream of successive Grand Slams being agonisingly ended by England last weekend.

Despite an often disjointed performance from the home side, Gibson-Park was proud of the character displayed: "I think we had to stay in the fight," he told Virgin Media.

"It was a good game, with two good teams going at it. They had a Triple Crown on the line and we were going for a Championship, so it was tough going and two good teams were going at it.

"I suppose our backs were against the wall a little bit. I'm so unbelievably proud of the boys and the whole staff have stuck together over the last week and managed to gouge out a performance today that we can be proud of."

Basking in front of the supporters, the Kiwi added: "It's a pretty amazing feeling,

"To be back here in front of our friends, our family and our home supporters is pretty incredible, especially two years in a row."