Ireland 15 Scotland 9: O'Sullivan finds way to turn the tide on Scotland

Eddie O'Sullivan proved that you can teach an old sea dog new tricks after the Ireland coach used the tide to help keep his team on course for a second Triple Crown in three years and, more significantly, a chance of their first championship title since 1985.

It was about a millennium ago that King Canute proved the tide cannot be halted, but on Saturday O'Sullivan took the old Dane's experiment a step further by proving that rugby teams should "go with the flow".

Lansdowne Road has a notoriously tricky air flow at the best of times, and the conditions on Saturday qualified as the worst of times. So, based on his fishing trips as a youth, O'Sullivan studied a tide table for Dublin Bay. "I know from fishing as a youngster that when the tide turns, the wind drops," he explained.

And the maritime studies revealed that the wind was going to get worse in the second half. "The wind is a big factor at Lansdowne Road. It's a bit of wind tunnel," added O'Sullivan. "If you are going to play into the wind for the first half at Lansdowne Road then you need a good reason.

"Mine was that I reckoned it was going to get stiffer, the rain was going to get heavier and that it would get harder to hang on to the football. We actually chose to play into the elements."

The research paid off. While Ireland did not exactly blow away a dogged Scottish side, neither did they succumb to the elemental forces of the visiting team.

The one area where Ireland were masters was at the line-out. No matter that Scotland boasted Nathan Hines and Scott Murray; Ireland's locks Paul O'Connell and Malcolm O'Kelly, ably assisted by the flanker Simon Easterby, were in imperious form.

They stole eight Scottish throws, and afterwards Murray put his finger on the why and the how. "The one thing Ireland are really good at is the one-man lift," he said. "It creates an extra man at the line-out."

O'Sullivan added: "Paul, Mal and Simon get the credit for stealing the ball, but it is the props John Hayes and Marcus Horan who got them in the air in the first place."

The staggering thing is that each prop is doing the lifting on his own. So the 19st 1lb Hayes might have to hoist all 17st 4lb of O'Kelly unassisted, while Horan, at 16st 7lb, would be responsible for thrusting all 17st 7lb of O'Connell into the air.

The innovative tactic, which gave Ireland more room and more free men at the line-out, was a contributory factor in setting up the Triple Crown and championship chance against England at Twickenham on Saturday.

The conditions dictated the style of play over the 80 minutes, and while it might not have been attractive rugby it was nevertheless fiercely efficient. Whenever the Scots creaked and groaned under the pressure exerted by the Irish pack, Ronan O'Gara would step up and knock over the resulting penalty. The Ireland fly-half's return of five out of seven was just enough to see off the Scots, for whom the right winger Chris Paterson landed three penalties.

The victory also meant that the final Six Nations match at Lansdowne Road - after the three autumn internationals this year the dilapidated old ground is scheduled for a £255m rebuild - wrapped up 128 years of rugby at the ground on a high note.

Not that anyone seemed overly bothered at the end of an era. There did not seem to be a moist eye in the house when the final whistle was blown.

Maybe the home supporters felt like the Ireland full-back Geordan Murphy. "I have mixed emotions," he said. "Lansdowne Road has a tradition and a lot of history. But as a full-back I won't be sad to see the back of it.

"The wind at Lansdowne is unique, forever shifting and changing. And it is never nice to have high balls floating in over the top of you, from all angles."

Sadly the old ground will not be the setting for the climax to a gripping championship. That honour is bestowed upon Twickenham, where Ireland, having shown that they can perform a one-man lift, will be striving to lift a nation.

"We're in the situation we wanted to be in at this point," O'Sullivan said. "We're still in charge of our own destiny. We go to Twickenham with a Triple Crown there for the taking as well. That's a nice place to be after four games in the championship."

Ireland: G Murphy (Leicester); S Horgan, B O'Driscoll (capt), G D'Arcy (all Leinster), A Trimble (Ulster); R O'Gara, P Stringer; M Horan, J Flannery, J Hayes (all Munster), M O'Kelly (Leinster), P O'Connell (Munster), S Easterby (Llanelli), D Wallace, D Leamy (both Munster). Replacement: D O'Callaghan (Munster) for O'Connell, 66.

Scotland: H Southwell; C Paterson, M Di Rollo (all Edinburgh), A Henderson (Glasgow), S Lamont (Northampton); D Parks (Glasgow), M Blair (Edinburgh); G Kerr (Leeds), D Hall (Edinburgh), B Douglas (Borders), N Hines (Perpignan), S Murray (Edinburgh), J White (Sale, capt), A Hogg, S Taylor (both Edinburgh). Replacements: S Lawson (Glasgow) for Hall, 62; C Smith (Edinburgh) for Douglas, 57-66 and 75; J Petrie (Glasgow) for White, 72; C Cusiter (Borders) for Blair, 58; G Ross (Leeds) for Parks, 58; S Webster (Edinburgh) for Paterson, 70.

Referee: S Dickinson (Australia).

Lansdowne Road statistics

* TOP CARRIERS

Denis Leamy 14

Geordan Murphy 12

David Wallace 8

Ronan O'Gara 7

Shane Horgan 6

* TOP TACKLERS

Ally Hogg 16

Simon Easterby 10

Andrew Henderson 10

Jason White 10

Simon Taylor 9

* MOST MISSED TACKLES

Marcus Di Rollo 2

Jerry Flannery 2

Andrew Henderson 2

Scott Murray 2

Simon Taylor 2

* MOST OFFLOADS IN TACKLE

Gordon D'Arcy 2

Andrew Trimble 2

Mike Blair 1

Simon Easterby 1

Andrew Henderson 1

* MOST HANDLING ERRORS

Ally Hogg 7

Dougie Hall 5

Mike Blair 3

Paul O'Connell 3

Dan Parks 3