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10th February 2017
11:52am GMT

"To come from 21-5 [behind] early in the game to lead 22-21, the biggest disappointment for me personally was not the start. It was the finish and it was the finishing. I think we had nine line breaks. I know that we scored our tries mostly on penalty advantages because it was very hard to get a line break and to keep playing off it, because they made it very difficult." "There were definite opportunities from set-pieces, close to the line, and from overlaps we created and balls went out on the full. That, for us, is the unforgivable stuff that we know we've got to be better at."Two of the clearest scoring opportunities involved Kearney, Ultan Dillane and CJ Stander. The Connacht lock and Munster back-row fumbled a lineout maul with the Scottish tryline only yards away. The other arrived on 68 minutes. Paddy Jackson was twice involved in a sweeping, right-to-left attack that would have put Simon Zebo one-on-one with Scotland outhalf Finn Russell
Unfortunately for Ireland, Kearney's pass to Zebo was not only forward but went straight out of play. The Scots got a lineout from it and did not give Ireland the ball back until the 73rd minute, by which stage they were 24-22 ahead.
With only Iain Henderson and Tommy Bowe missing from the match-day 23 that lost in Edinburgh, most of the players have the opportunity to show Schmidt and the Irish coaching staff that their Six Nations opener was a blip.Explore more on these topics: