Scotland 18-32 Ireland: report & player ratings as Irish bogeyman haunts Scots again in Six Nations

Scotland fans have seemingly watched this exact game of rugby time and again as they put everything into trying to record a long overdue win against Ireland but were just never really in any danger of doing so.

The atmosphere pre-match was raised a level as Sir Chris Hoy entered the pitch to present the match ball to rapturous applause from the Murrayfield crowd and Scotland had some early flourish. However, Ireland were quickly in their 22 and piling on the pressure and a string of penalties and penalty advantages eventually resulted in a missed pass out wide to Calvin Nash, a late replacement the day for Mack Hansen, to score in the corner with Sam Prendergast adding the conversion.

New Zealander James Doleman was the man in the middle for this one and did not endear himself to the home fans with some dubious early calls but Duhan van der Merwe's 14th minute yellow card for foul play was pretty cut and dry. It was definitely on the soft side but the towering winger clearly had two hands on Nash as they chased the ball down and pushed him over.

Ireland continued their domination and in the midst of all the pressure there was a nasty collision between Darcy Graham and Finn Russell who colashed heads at pace. Russell had to go off for a HIA, which became a permanent sub, being replaced by Stafford McDowall who went to 12 with Tom Jordan moving to stand-off. It was worse for Graham who was seemingly knocked clean out and had to be stretchered off the pitch. He was replaced by Jamie Dobie.

Scotland were closing in on surviving van der Merwe's sin binning without conceding any points but just before the winger was due back on they gave away a penalty which Prendergast slotted through the middle of the posts to make it 10-0. Jordan struggled with the adjustment to 10 as his first two clearing kicks inside the 22 were charged down by the Irish and they remained in the 22 almost exclusively throughout the next 10 minutes before a dominant scrum gave them a penalty advantage and Caelan Doris powered over from close range with Prendergast again adding the extras to make it 17-0 on the half hour mark.

It was obvious at this stage that Scotland needed something on the scoreboard before half time but they couldn't even get within 10 meters of the Irish line with the visitors stealing a line out and holding up a maul each time the Scots tried. It looked like nothing was coming as Ireland simply needed to win their own scrum, make one carry and kick the ball dead but Scotland won a huge jackal penalty and with the clock red they tapped, went for the line and sent it wide to van der Merwe who acrobatically finished in the corner. Blair Kinghorn, taking on kicking duties with Russell off, missed the kick.

Scotland were able to keep the scoreboard momentum in their favour after the break with an early penalty which Kinghorn slotted to make it 17-8. The handling errors were starting to show for the Irish as well so Scotland had a chance to get right back into this game but they would need to capitalise and sooner rather than later.

They had a massive chance following a lung busting line break by Huw Jones from inside his own half which looked for all the world that Kinghorn was going in the corner but Ireland got back and covered before conceding a scrum. They closed in on the line again but just couldn't get over. However, from another penalty award Kinghorn added three more points to make it 17-11 and a one score game.

Infuriatingly though, Ireland were back on the attack and despite defending manfully phase after phase one missed tackle by Kinghorn and James Lowe was over to score with Prendergast again adding the conversion for 24-11. Then came the score which as good as finished the game off as Scotland finally started to show signs of the hard defensive work they'd put in when a simple chip from James Gibson-Park was recovered by Lowe just metres out and then from the attack it was a straightforward finish for substitute Jack Conan.

Scotland didn't bow though, despite the score, and kept at it trying to do anything to get back into the game. After a penalty a driving maul got Murrayfield off its feet and Ben White was alert following the breakdown to dash over the line. Kinghorn added the conversion for 32-18 but with 75 minutes played it was too little too late.