Ireland reveal key to beating Scotland as Sam Prendergast and Six Nations title posers addressed

It was certainly mission accomplished in that regard for the Irish, with the visitors 17-0 ahead by the half-hour mark, laying the foundation for a 32-18 bonus-point victory that maintains their hopes of winning the title and the Grand Slam.

Doris bagged one of Ireland’s four tries - Calvin Nash, James Lowe and Jack Conan also crossed the whitewash - and this victory maintains the iron-grip dominance they have over Scotland, extending their winning run over the boys in blue to 11 matches.

“We know they're a confident outfit and rightly so,” Doris said of Scotland. “I was talking about a fast start and I think we did that pretty well, scoring within the first ten minutes and applying quite a bit of pressure.

“When you add up a couple of scorelines, a couple of scores, it's very enjoyable. It's enjoyable being a part of this group in general. Lads love representing the group, representing the country.”

Ireland head coach Simon Easterby echoed Doris’ sentiments and believed the scoreboard could have been even more emphatic in favour of the visitors.

“I'm pleased with the application of the players,” said Easterby. “I think we always knew that we have to shut them down and stop them getting time and space and momentum. I thought we did that really well without the ball, but also on attack.

“I felt like we delivered a lot of what we worked on in the week, trying to attack Scotland in the right way. Although we conceded a late try in the first half, I thought the scoreline was a reflection of our dominance in the game and maybe it could have been one or two more scores up.

Scotland lost talismanic figures Finn Russell and Darcy Graham to head injuries after the duo collided in sickening fashion, but did put Ireland under some pressure, with Duhan van der Merwe landing a try right on the break before the hosts pushed for a second at the start of the second half.

“I think you're always going to come up against a purple patch, Scotland playing the way they do,” continued Easterby. “They were missing Finn Russell and Darcy Graham - hopefully he's OK. We always know that they're going to come out of the blocks and try and stress the team defensively, the way they play the game.

“At times we dealt with it really well and at times they stretched us and that's part of the game. I thought we scrambled well. We managed to turn around a few situations where they got a little bit of ascendancy and we kept them at arm's length and then we had the opportunity then to go up the other end and be clinical with the ball.”

Hopes are now growing of an Irish clean sweep and when pressed on that prospect, Easterby responded: “I think we set out at the beginning of this Championship to work hard, keep getting better, keep challenging each other in terms of the standards and I think we're seeing some of that today. There is an opportunity which has been well documented.”

“We've got to make sure that we prepare in the right way for Wales and go to there with the same sort of mindset that we came here with.”

Easterby also had words of praise for his 21-year-old fly-half Sam Prendergast, who was only making his fifth appearance for Ireland and his first outside of Dublin. The No 10 was never flustered and put in a mature performance, landing the man-of-the-match award.

“He was good, wasn't he?” smiled Easterby. “Playing in a different game away from home, he delivered not only in terms of mixing his game, attacking the line, his kicking game, but also off the tee he was excellent. It just allowed us to keep staying ahead and keep pushing out the scoreline. On some other days it's tighter than it needs to be, but I thought Sam was excellent.”