Ireland 43 Scotland 22

An impressive hat-trick from star centre Brian O'Driscoll kept Ireland in the hunt for the 2002 Six Nations title as they bounced back from their Twickenham nightmare to post a 43-22 win over Scotland at Lansdowne Road in Dublin.

With news of England's defeat in Paris trickling through the Lansdowne Road just before kick-off, both sides' hopes of a Six Nations title received a massive boost but both would have known that defeat in this game would mean an end to those sort of lofty aspirations.

In the end, despite the efforts of a seriously misfiring and 'Keith Wood-less' lineout, Ireland had enough in the tank, and some to spare, to see off the challenge of Scotland, who must now take stock to prevent another Six Nations Championship sliding towards the basement, their landing thankfully likely to be cushioned, once again, by Italy.

Irish stand-off David Humphreys, who had a torrid time against England a fortnight ago, gave the home side a good start as he opened the scoring in the first minute as Scotland strayed offside, Ireland moving to a 3-0 lead.

The men in green certainly started brightly, finding plenty of the gaps in the Scotland ranks, but Scotland evened things up just before the ten minute mark as captain Mick Galwey was penalised for killing the ball, Brendan Laney coolly hitting the three points.

That seemed to galvanise Scotland as they began to dominate possession and the game, Laney adding two penalties to put the visitors 9-3 up midway through the first-half.

However, Ireland struck back and, after their first real spell of possession, centre Brian O'Driscoll found acres of space just inside the Scots' 22 to ghost through for the game's first try.

Although Humphreys missed the conversion, to keep Scotland in the lead by the narrowest of margins, Ireland had the momentum and a turnover just outside the Scotland 22 gave the home side men over out wide, O'Driscoll working the ball wide well to Shane Horgan who galloped untouched into the corner.

This time Humphreys made no mistake with the extras to put Ireland back in the lead and when referee Nigel Whitehouse reversed a Scottish penalty after Budge Pountney retaliated, the Scots must have known it was not to be their day.

Then on the stroke of half-time, Scotland were caught by a sucker punch as they camped inside the Ireland 22.  The ball was sent down the line but was spilled in the mid-field and O'Driscoll reacted the quickest to snap up the loose ball and race away a full 85 metres, with Chris Paterson in hot pursuit, to extend Ireland's lead.

Although Laney pulled a penalty back in the last act of the first half as some reward for their efforts, a clinical Ireland had a 22-12 lead.

The second half started much as the first had finished, Scotland unable to turn possession in to points although Laney hit his fifth penalty of the day to cut the deficit to just seven points on 46 minutes.

Humphreys restored Ireland's ten-point lead a few minutes later with a monster penalty, the kick making him Ireland's all-time points scorer in international rugby, and he added another a few minutes later as the game began to ebb away from Scotland.

Pountney then transgressed one too many times and earned himself a spell in the sin-bin, and with Humphreys boot in fine fettle he made no mistake from the resulting penalty as Ireland were clear 31-15 midway through the second-half.

Scotland were forced on to the back-foot and the final nail in their coffin came as James McLaren spilled a tricky pass inside his 22, Shane Horgan scooping it up and quick hands from Humphreys saw Simon Easterby, on for the injured Eric Miller, scoring his side's fourth try of the day.

Although substitute Martin Leslie got Scotland's only try of the day ten minutes from the end, O'Driscoll cut through for his hat-trick on the stroke of normal time as Ireland move in to the 2002 Six Nations home straight eyeing an April date in Paris on the last weekend.

Man of the Match
They may not have had the lion's share of possession, but when you have the likes of Brian O'Driscoll in your side that probably does not matter too much.  The Leinster man scored three tries and set-up another to deservedly take the plaudits.

Moment of the Match
Brian O'Driscoll's second try was the killer blow for Scotland.  Leading up to it, Scotland had enjoyed a good spell of pressure and just a converted try away from taking the lead but in a flash saw themselves 13 points down and facing a moutain to climb from then on.

Villain of the Match
Generally a good natured match but if Budge Pountney has hopes of regaining the Scotland captaincy then he won't want this game on his CV.  Despite his good work around the edge of the scrum, his retaliation on Peter Stringer cost his side a probable three points at 9-15 down and during his spell in the bin Ireland posted eight unanswered points.

Sin-bin:  Budge Pountney 58-68

The teams:

Ireland:  1 Peter Clohessy, 2 Frankie Sheahan, 3 John Hayes, 4 Mick Galwey (c), 5 Malcolm O'Kelly, 6 Eric Miller, 7 David Wallace, 8 Anthony Foley, 9 Peter Stringer, 10 David Humphreys, 11 Denis Hickie, 12 Brian O'Driscoll, 13 Kevin Maggs, 14 Shane Horgan, 15 Girvan Dempsey
Reserves:  Shane Byrne, Simon Easterby, Guy Easterby, Gary Longwell, Paul Wallace, Ronan O'Gara
Unused:  John Kelly

Scotland:  1 Tom Smith, 2 Gordon Bulloch, 3 Mattie Stewart, 4 Stuart Grimes, 5 Scott Murray, 6 Budge Pountney, 7 Jason White, 8 Simon Taylor, 9 Bryan Redpath (c), 10 Gregor Townsend, 11 Glenn Metcalfe, 12 Andrew Henderson, 13 James McLaren, 14 Chris Paterson, 15 Brendan Laney
Reserves:  George Graham, Martin Leslie, Kenny Logan
Unused:  Jon Petrie, Graeme Beveridge, Duncan Hodge, Robbie Russell

Referee:  Whitehouse n.

Points Scorers

Ireland
Tries:  Easterby S.H. 1, Horgan S.P. 1, O'Driscoll B.G. 3
Conv:  Humphreys D.G. 2, O'Gara R.J.R. 1
Pen K.:  Humphreys D.G. 4

Scotland
Tries:  Leslie M.D. 1
Conv:  Laney B.J. 1
Pen K.:  Laney B.J. 5