Simon Easterby delighted to keep Scotland ‘at arm’s length’ in Ireland victory

Simon Easterby hailed ruthless Ireland as they kept Scotland “at arm’s length” to steal a significant march in their quest to land a third consecutive Guinness Six Nations title with a bonus-point 32-18 triumph at Murrayfield.

The Irish are the only side to have won their opening two matches this season after they followed up their opening-weekend win at home to England with an 11th consecutive victory over the Scots.

Calvin Nash and captain Caelan Doris both scored as the Irish built a 17-0 advantage by the 32nd minute, with the Scots’ predicament not helped by having record try-scorer Duhan van der Merwe shown a 13th minute yellow card before losing two more influential backs to head injuries after Finn Russell and Darcy Graham collided with each other in the 21st minute.

Scotland rallied, with a Van der Merwe try just before half-time and two Blair Kinghorn penalties early in the second half reducing their deficit to just six points.

But Ireland reasserted their authority with scores from James Lowe and substitute Jack Conan taking the game beyond the Scots, who added a late consolation through Ben White.

“We always knew we’d have to shut them down and stop them getting time and space and momentum,” said interim head coach Easterby. “I thought we did that really well without the ball, and I felt we delivered a lot of what we’d worked on around trying to attack Scotland in the right way.

“Although we conceded a late try in the first half, I thought the scoreline was a reflection of our dominance, and maybe we could have been one or two more scores up.

“You’re always going to come up against a purple patch. We knew they were going to try and stretch us defensively. At times we dealt with it really well and at times they