Ireland win big by upping the pace

And with one bound, Ireland were free. Just like that. It's amazing what a bit of pace and variation, a bit of old-fashioned aggression and a little bit of confidence and luck can bring. But what a day. What a metamorphosis.

It was scarcely credible really. The sun for once shone gloriously on this normally overcast fixture, Lansdowne Road rediscovered its spirit and even the singing was good.

Out of a backdrop of 12 years of hurt against the Scottish nemesis and three championships without a home win, Ireland etched an unprecedented chapter in the history books with 44 unanswered points in a dream-like 47 minutes.

For sure, the Scots committed second-half suicide. The match statistics were remarkably even, but Gregor Townsend lost the plot after a brilliant start as they did what Ireland did in Twickenham and recycled dead ball.

Two foot-rushes for 14 points is a bit freakish too, but, unlike at Twickenham, when the Irish defence was so stand-offish they were never there to latch onto spilled balls, this time the trademark Gatland, four-up, in yer face defence hungrily hunted the scraps and had the pace to feed off them.

The 80 minutes went exactly as no one predicted. Ireland needed early scores to help them settle. In fact, the pack settled quickly into its stride. Even when the game was going against them, the likes of Keith Wood, Anthony Foley and Kieron Dawson were going well.

A class act, Dawson's intelligent and instinctive openside play has filled a yawning void going back the guts of a decade, and with Foley making the big hits and taking the ball up well, and Simon Easterby (a real find) closing down the narrow side, grafting away like a true number six, there was a far, far better balance to the back row.

The tight five too did its stuff. Peter Clohessy just keeps on going, getting through a mountain of work, and there could be another good season or two in the old warrior yet. The incomparable Wood was, well, Wood. But privately perhaps no display would have given Gatland and Lenihan more pleasure than that of John Hayes.

His performance was the culmination of three years' investment by the Irish management. Even when Shannon put him back in the second row, Gatland and Lenihan kept investing. Hayes eroded the doubts about his scrummaging, getting down nice and low, locking or tweaking the scrum. He even saw his Lions opponent taken off.

The rest of his big hits and work around the paddock were no surprise. Fingers crossed, now Gatland and Lenihan will reap the rewards from what they've sewn with the Bull, who could become a bulwark and a Lansdowne Road cult hero.

Galwey is an honest old pro as well as a rallying force, and showed he is worth his place. O'Kelly - primed more than anyone to deliver by Gatland - revelled in his looser role as a fourth back rower, won three Scottish lineouts and, by the by, played left wing for the crucial, opening try.

That score - sorely needed to settle the team, and augmented by O'Gara's spirit-lifting touchline conversion and brace of pre-interval penalties - again showed the virtues of punching the blind side. That it came with a hooker at out-half, a left wing at inside centre, a flanker at outside centre and a lock on the wing underlined the potential skill which runs through this team.

At 0-10 Lansdowne Road was fretting. Yet, despite the early nerves of the debutant half-backs, panic did not spread through the team. As we know, Galwey and the Munster spine don't panic.

Yet even after recovering to 13-10 by the break, it still looked no more than a 50-50 game at that point. Whereupon everything fell into place.

There were many reasons for this. The defensive aggression was reinforced at the interval and by the introduction of Rob Henderson. Desperately unlucky to miss out on the World Cup after getting himself fitter than ever, and then losing his club place at Wasps, Lazarus hadn't made even the original 45-man squad, or even the A squad a fortnight before. See you in another 12 months Rob?

Not likely. As he showed yet again, the buffalo on stampede is a huge tactical weapon off the bench.

The interval had also been used to reinforce the need for quick, off the top lineouts, as we had seen in the first half with Ronan O'Gara's beautiful long pass in front of Horgan for the equalising penalty.

Most of all, though, was Peter Stringer finding his range. He put pace on the already quicker ruck ball and everything flowed from there. Not only does he clear the ball quickly, and usually chooses the right option, he compels his out-half to run onto the ball whether he wants to or not.

Stringer isn't the finished article but, no less than Kevin Putt at London Irish or Stu Forster at Leinster, his play reaffirmed the value of a quick service.

At first, Stringer was flinging the ball out a tad nervously and did little for O'Gara, and you felt a little sorry for the other Munster kid. After settling himself into the game, he gave way to an inspired David Humphreys, who played with the freedom of someone who had decided that if this was going to be his last game for Ireland, he was going to enjoy it.

It was a masterful tactical substitution, perfectly timed. Humphreys elevated Ireland to another level. His line-kicking added another string to the bow and, for his try, his deft left-footer without breaking stride, and with backspin, was, for sheer skill, the high point of the game. Oh to bottle him in this mood.

Outside of him, Brian O'Driscoll was a simply different class again, on a different level to anyone else on the pitch. He is a Lion's shoe-in if his talent is fulfilled, and Ireland can make loads more yet off his half-breaks.

The re-born Dennis Hickie underlined the value of having real pace and a cutting edge out wide, as much for the team's mind set as anything else.

This young team is up and running now. Five tries, my word, and a record championship score which comfortably eclipsed the 30-17 win over Wales in 1996.

Seven tries from two games. Yerragh, to hell with the critics and whisper it, but Ireland are, er, the leading try scorers in the championships.

Scoring sequence: 3 mins: Logan pen 0-3; 19: Logan try and con 0-10; 27: O'Kelly try, O'Gara con 7-10; 38: O'Gara pen 10-10; 40: O'Gara pen 13-10; 42: Horgan try, O'Gara con 20-10; 56: O'Driscoll try, Humphreys con 27-10; 60: Humphreys pen 30-10; 67: Humphreys try and con 37-10; 72: Wood try, Humphreys con 44-10; 76: Metcalfe try, Logan con 44-17; 81: Graham try 44-22.

Ireland: G Dempsey (Terenure College); S Horgan (Lansdowne), B O'Driscoll (Blackrock College), M Mullins (Young Munster), D Hickie (St Mary's College); R O'Gara (Cork Constitution), P Stringer (Shannon); P Clohessy (Young Munster), K Wood (Garryowen, capt), J Hayes (Shannon), M Galwey (Shannon), M O'Kelly (St Mary's College), S Easterby (Llanelli), K Dawson (London Irish), A Foley (Shannon). Replacements: R Henderson (Wasps) for Dempsey (37 mins), D Humphreys (Dungannon) for O'Gara (51 mins), J Davidson (Castres) for Galwey (57 mins), J Fitzpatrick (Dungannon) for Hayes (68 mins)

Scotland: G Metcalfe (Glasgow Caledonians); S Longstaff (Glasgow Caledonians), J Mayer (Bristol), G Shiel (Edinburgh Reivers), K Logan (Wasps); G Townsend (Brive), B Redpath (Narbonne); T Smith (Brive), G Bulloch (Glasgow Caledonians), M Stewart (Northampton), S Murray (Saracens), S Grimes (Newcastle), M Leslie (Edinburgh Reivers), B Pountney (Northampton), G Simpson (Glasgow Caledonians). Replacements: D Weir (Newcastle) for Murray (52 mins), A Nicol (Glasgow Caledonians) for Redpath (66 mins), G Graham (Newcastle) for Smith (66 mins), R Russell (Saracens) for Bulloch (68 mins).

Referee: J Dume (France).