Six tries scored, but defence the standout for Ireland in hammering of Scots

With just under 15 minutes played at the Stade de France on Saturday Ireland had barely touched the ball, and yet their win against Scotland felt almost inevitable.

Leading 5-0 after James Lowe's try inside the first 60 seconds, Ireland were back into a corner as Scotland briefly got on top.

A Caelan Doris high tackle gave the Scots the field position to attack while further penalties followed against Tadhg Furlong and Lowe.

It was off the lineout following Lowe's penalty that the game was effectively over. First Scotland went for the maul, but the Irish pack didn’t budge, and from there Scotland moved the ball wide. For 18 phases they held onto possession, and for most of those 18 phases they went backwards.

It was relentless defence from Ireland, who bullied their opponents even without the ball. When the turnover was eventually forced by Ireland, even at such an early stage of the game it felt like a turning point. Scotland had thrown 18 of their best shots at Ireland and barely put a scratch omn them. When they next got back within a reasonable chance of scoring a try the score was 31-0.

"The work we'd done in that first-half set a brilliant foundation for the result," defence coach Simon Easterby said yesterday.

"It's been said before but I think this team understands how important the defence is to the overall success of the team. We work incredibly hard on being disciplined and not giving sides any access, and credit to the players, the way they go about their business and like you say, you can sense the feeling of excitement when the opposition have the ball, it's a chance for us to put a stop to their attack and take a bit of energy away from them as well.

"I think we saw that certainly in the first half when they had