Scotland centre became Ireland’s biggest enemy with this one off-ball incident
Scotland knew the task that was ahead of them when they walked out onto the Murrayfield pitch on Sunday to face Grand Slam chasing Ireland.
The hosts were fired up against the world number ones, and that showed when they went over for the first try of the game and Huw Jones sliced through the Irish defence from close range to put Scotland 7-3 ahead. What was most interesting about the try was not what Jones did, but actually what his centre partner Sione Tuipulotu did.
Tuipulotu put Jones through the gap, but then proceeded to stand over, point and shout at Ireland’s Garry Ringrose, who failed to stop Jones. He was even confronted by his opposite man Bundee Aki immediately after.
This was not the best display of sportsmanship you will see this Six Nations, but it equally shows how fired up the Scotland team were. Unfortunately, had they know that these were going to be the only points they were going to score that afternoon, Tuipulotu might have wound his neck in slightly.
Ireland went on to score a further 19 unanswered points as they march towards a Grand Slam. Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend said after the match:
“I am very disappointed with that second half. The first half was a very good Test match – a very good Test match that went end to end. I felt we were on it.
“The players were a bit deflated they were not leading at half-time but that happens. We managed to stop Ireland scoring a couple of times in the first half and a couple of times they stopped us.
“It is just disappointing that the second half was not as competitive or the same energy level from us and Ireland got ahead. We chased the game, maybe we had to, maybe it was too early to chase the game, but we were not happy with that last 15-minute performance.”
Take a look at Tuipulotu here:
¡El dúo del try de Escocia! 🏴🔝
🤝 El tándem Tuipulotu – Jones haciendo de las suyas en Murrayfield.#ESPNenStarPlus #SeisNaciones pic.twitter.com/kiSu03YgB0
— ScrumRugby (@ScrumESPN) March 12, 2023
