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Humphreys lays the jinx to rest for rampant Irish

Scotland 6 Ireland 36

Simon Turnbull
Monday 17 February 2003 01:00 GMT
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As Brian O'Driscoll climbed the steps of the West Stand to collect the Century Quaich here yesterday, the stadium announcer invited the crowd to put their hands together "for the Irish captain, Denis Hickie". Apart for two penalty kicks, Scotland fluffed every line of their Six Nations opener. Not that Ireland could have cared.

When O'Driscoll took the match trophy from the Princess Royal and hoisted it skywards, 18 years of Irish hurt at Murrayfield suddenly disappeared in a flash of silver. There could be an even more glittering prize to come, of course, the Championship trophy and the invisible Grand Slam when England visit Dublin on 30 March, possibly. For the time being, though, the dark horses are happy enough to have cleared their Becher's Brook.

They did it, ultimately, in style, racking up a point-per-minute in the final quarter. The last Irish winners in Edinburgh sneaked victory in the final minute. That was way back in 1985. Yesterday they updated the history books with a vengeance. It was a record win against Scotland on foreign soil. It was also a seventh successive victory, eclipsing the national record run achieved by the class of 1968-69.

Unsurprisingly, it was O'Driscoll who paved the way. It was his waltzing break that set up the first of three Irish tries. For once, though, the centre of supreme excellence failed to get his name on the score-sheet. Unlike David Humphreys.

The supposed weak link twixt the pack and the back line plundered 26 points: a try, three conversions and five penalties. He produced a wonderfully assured performance too. If, as expected, Ronan O'Gara's damaged ankle heals up this week, the coach, Eddie O'Sullivan, will have a headache picking his outside-half for the trip to Rome on Saturday.

Not that the Irish coach was worrying about that in the immediate aftermath of a famous Irish victory. "I don't know about records," O'Sullivan said, "but we wanted to start the Six Nations well. Murrayfield has not been a happy hunting ground for us but we're over it now. I'm happy that we did so well."

Sadly for Scotland, Ian McGeechan could not say the same. "I'm very disappointed," the coach lamented. "We had our chance to put points on the board early." Indeed, they did, but Stuart Grimes was deemed to have knocked on when the video referee, Nigel Whitehouse, was called on to adjudicate on a close call of a touchdown by Brendan Laney with just 21 seconds on the clock.

It was not the only wake-up call for Ireland. Laney was fortunate to escape with merely a word of admonition when he crudely lassoed O'Driscoll around the neck but the stand-in captain administered his own brand of punishment.

It was delivered in the 29th minute, with Ireland already 3-0 up. From a line-out on the left, Victor Costello set off for the posts and fed O'Driscoll for a looping break that brought the home line within sight. Kenny Logan could only bring a temporary halt to the charge, Hickie gathering quickly recycled possession and charging through, to the right of the posts.

Humphreys added the conversion, and another penalty, though Scotland ought to have cut the 13-0 deficit in first-half injury-time. With a three-man overlap on the left, Laney threw an over-ambitious pass out to Gordon Bulloch and the open-goal-of-a-chance was gone. It was hardly the happiest of afternoons for Laney.

Not that the native Kiwi was the only player short of pace and handling precision early in the second half as Scotland huffed and puffed but failed to blow the Irish house down. All they got from 10 minutes of close-range pressure was another Ross penalty.

It was not nearly enough to stem the green tidal wave of points that followed as Ireland cut loose. Ten of them came courtesy of tries: the first from the boot of Geordan Murphy, the replacement wing showing the football skills that once earned a trial from West Brom as he dribbled clear from his 22 and outpaced Logan; the second from a textbook handling move started on the left by Humphreys and finished under the posts by the outstanding stand-in stand-off.

The dark horses were up and running at a fine gallop in the championship stakes.

Scotland 6
Pens: Ross 2

Ireland 36
Tries: Hickie, Murphy, Humphreys
Cons: Humphreys 3
Pens: Humphreys 5

Half-time: 0-13 Att: 60,000

SCOTLAND: G Metcalfe (Glasgow); K Logan (Wasps), A Craig (Orrell), B Laney (Edinburgh), C Paterson (Edinburgh); G Ross (Leeds), B Redpath (Sale, captain); T Smith (Northampton), G Bulloch (Glasgow), B Douglas (Borders), S Murray (Edinburgh), S Grimes (Newcastle), M Leslie (Edinburgh), A Mower (Newcastle), S Taylor (Edinburgh).Replacements: G Kerr (Leeds) for Douglas, 63; G Townsend (Borders) for Ross, 65.

IRELAND: G Dempsey (Leinster); S Horgan (Leinster), B O'Driscoll (Leinster, capt), K Maggs (Bath), D Hickie (Leinster); D Humphreys (Ulster), P Stringer (Munster); R Corrigan (Leinster), S Byrne (Leinster), J Hayes (Munster), G Longwell (Ulster), M O'Kelly (Leinster), V Costello (Leinster), K Gleeson (Leinster), A Foley (Munster). Replacements: G Murphy (Leicester) for Horgan, 20; A Quinlan (Munster) for Costello, 70; M Horan (Munster) for Corrigan, 73; L Cullen (Leinster) for Longwell, 74; F Sheehan (Munster) for Byrne, 78; G Easterby (Llanelli) for Stringer, 78; P Burke (Harlequins) for O'Driscoll, 79.

Referee: A Cole (Australia).

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