And so the brief glare of sunshine that glinted over the peak of the East stand before kick-off soon turned to rain as Scotland felt the full pressure of a difficult first half at the hands of the Irish and, more tellingly, the referee Wayne Barnes.
From the start this was very obviously going to be a tight contest between two sets of players, very familiar with each other and determined to wield any kind of advantage, whether legal or not. Determined not to pander to the Irish choke tactics at the breakdown the Scottish pack set about creating a state of Martial Law in the contact areas.
Despite the cheating being fairly robust on both sides, referee Barnes decided to err on the side of the Scots when handing out the free-kicks and penalties in the first half. This was no more obvious than when he sin-binned Ryan Grant on 15 minutes for not retreating 10 metres before tackling. No warning, straight card.
Scotland weathered this storm with Sean Lamont filling in at flanker in the scrums to continue Scotland’s dominance in this area. Meanwhile, when there were some outbreaks of running rugby it was the Irish backs who looked the more dangerous.
With the Scots scrambling well in defence and working very hard to stand still, Barnes eventually gave Ireland the chance he’d been trying to give them since the kick off and Paddy Jackson made up for an earlier penalty miss by slotting his chance. Rob Harley was lucky not to be carded shortly after for taking an Irishman out in the air before a late, and extremely rare, penalty to Scotland (orchestrated by Sean Maitland’s savvy) was just kicked short by Stuart Hogg to bring to an end a turgid, penalty ridden, frustration of a half.
An early second-half, soft Irish try from Craig Gilroy in the bottom corner led to a big punch up and some blood injuries. Amid the carnage was a missed conversion by Jackson who thankfully seemed to have left his kicking boots in Ulster.
Dougie Hall (on for Ross Ford) absolutely melted Rob Kearney in a tackle on the half-way before loose lips from the Irish saw them lose 20 yards. Scotland kicked for touch, grunted it up a bit from the line-out, got another miracle from Barnes and Greig Laidlaw stepped up to get Scotland’s first points of the day. It was straight back down the other end though for an Irish penalty which Jackson again horribly sliced wide.
Meanwhile, Scotland were beginning to creep back into things. Barnes had suddenly decided to penalise the Irish for everything, particularly at the scrum, and Laidlaw managed to knock another over to close the score to 8-6. Game on with 20 minutes still to play. There is a growing menace about Scotland in attack these days and some sustained pressure on the Irish line led to another penalty from everyone’s favourite Jedhart and Scotland had the lead for the first time in the game.
Barnes was now well and truly warming to his Scottish theme and every decision was going the way of the men in dark blue. Some absolutely mental kicking and uncharacteristic panic from the Irish led to yet another penalty to Scotland for offside in defence. That man Laidlaw extended the lead to 12-8 and it was set to be a tense final 5 or so minutes. It seemed now a case of whoever got into the oppositions 22 was getting a penalty and Ireland took their turn with a kick for a line-out. About a hundred nerve-wracking phases by the Irish eventually led to a Scottish penalty, three reset scums on the Scottish line and the Irish were handed their chance to win the game. Tap and go by the Irish, some quick hands then a huge knock-on in the centre by Luke Marshall signalled a vital win for Scotland. The sigh of relief around Murrayfield was monumental.
This wasn’t a pretty win and there was more than a whiff of good fortune about it but Scotland stuck in well, played as a team and refused to be beaten. Once again Jim Hamilton, Kelly Brown and the ever-reliable Laidlaw had huge games.
The result? Back to back wins in the Six Nations for the first time since 2001. Heady times for Scottish Rugby indeed, long may they continue.