On a desperately jittery Aviva evening, a lethargic home side struggling to shake off those debilitating World Cup pathogens, his interventions were vital. It would be a huge overstatement to suggest that this performance injected the opiate of restored confidence into the veins of a team shaken by their World Cup meltdown. Ireland wheezed and gasped over the course of an asthmatic 80-minutes, Sexton's points along with that rousing late intransigence the inhaler-blast providing some life-saving oxygen. If Ireland's World Cup proved a dispiriting, underwhelming, misadventure, Scotland's was a study in sustained catastrophe. But it was Murray's half-back partner, Ireland's captain and alpha male who answered the emergency call and diverted Farrell's opening night from calamity.

Source: Irish Independent February 01, 2020 19:15 UTC