Triple Crown Kings

Fittingly Ireland's player of the tournament, Gordon D'Arcy, had the final say going over for the second of his two tries to cap what has been a superb championship for the Irish centre and to put the contest out of Scotland's reach.

Eddie O'Sullivan had talked ad nauseum of the many parties Scotland had pooped in the past - although what potential parties these would have been no one really knows - so it was no surprise when it became apparent that Scotland's tactics would centre more on destructive rather than constructive rugby. The hind most foot rule was largely ignored and Ireland's most lethal weapon, the rolling maul, was nullified by constant Scottish infringements.

As a result Ireland never created a platform to control the match, dictating that superior individual talent rather than team work ultimately won the day for Ireland with Geordan Murphy, Peter Stringer and David Wallace adding tries in between D'Arcy's brace.

Ireland can now look forward to their tour of South Africa with confidence with perhaps, for the first time, a realistic chance of winning the two test series. The number ten issue, however, will not go away. O'Gara seemed to have firmly established the fly-half spot as his own after his near perfect display against England but his poor performance on Saturday has opened the door for David Humphreys again. Worryingly O'Gara twice refused kickable penalty opportunities and while it made no difference in the end such decisions will cost Ireland in the future against better opposition.

For Scotland it was a satisfactory day at the office, marred only by the injury to Simon Taylor who was stretchered off early in the second half. To be level 10 minutes into the second half was a considerable achievement for a team facing the whitewash. Taylor has knee-ligament damage and will now miss Edinburgh Rugby's Heineken Cup quarter-final clash in Toulouse on 10^th April.

Ireland's Munster contingent came through with a clean bill of health and will be ready to take on Stade Franà§ais Paris on the same day in their quarter-final, confident of extending their unbeaten record to twenty-one matches in an effort to reach their fifth consecutive Heineken Cup semi-final.

Heineken Cup Quarter-Finals will take place on Easter weekend, 9^th, 10^th & 11^th April.