Simon Easterby: Scots will make us pay for another slow start

The story of Busgate 2017 has been told often enough.

It's eight years and 10 games ago since Ireland last lost to Scotland, a 27-22 defeat at Murrayfield that has become infamous for Ireland’s team bus running late. When it arrived, Ireland seemingly forgot to get off it.

Joe Schmidt’s side were 14-0 down inside 20 minutes in Edinburgh that day, and despite rallying back to take the lead into the final quarter, it took too much out of the tank, as two late Greig Laidlaw penalties saw the Scots over the winning line.

There were no transport issues against England last week, but Ireland’s slow start in their win in the opening round is enough of a cautionary tale to keep Simon Easterby’s side focused on the job at hand this Sunday (live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player).

Ireland’s struggles to get out of their own half in the first 10 minutes against England were in stark contrast to Scotland’s blistering start versus Italy, with two tries in the first eight minutes seeing them race out into a 14-0 lead.

The Ireland interim coach naturally took comfort in the fact that his side navigated their way through a sloppy period early on against England before eventually making their extra power count.

However, he knows a similarly slow start could prove fatal on Sunday, against a Scottish side who will naturally come out pumped full of adrenaline given their recent history in this fixture.

"We have to bring intent and we have to bring a start to the game that is going to be difficult for Scotland because we know how quick they started against Italy," Easterby said, ahead of his side’s departure for Edinburgh yesterday.

"I think we had that period at the start [against England] and we were a little bit under the cosh. They got seven, eight, nine