Ireland beat Scots to claim Triple Crown

Scotland were left commiserating after suffering a 19-18 defeat at the hands of Ireland at Murrayfield.

Ronan O'Gara scored all the visitors' points - a try, four penalties and a conversion - as Eddie O'Sullivan's men clinched their third Triple Crown in four years.

Chris Paterson's flawless kicking display could not spare Frank Hadden's men a third defeat and means the Scots have still not beaten the Irish since 2001.

Hadden reflected: "The camp is obviously bitterly disappointed at the outcome of today's game but most disappointing thing of all was that we didn't play well enough.

"Ireland were there for the beating but we didn't do enough or perform with enough accuracy or precision during the game to get a grip of it.

"It was the sort of game where the scoreline was always going to be back and forward and you just weren't too sure who would be in front at the end."

The Scots are one off the bottom of the RBS Six Nations Championship table and Hadden believes his men could be suffering from a loss of confidence following their 37-17 defeat at the hands of Italy last month.

Hadden added: "We started poorly and I wanted to see a performance right from the start. But, perhaps, to be fair we underestimated what the defeat by the Italians took from our confidence.

"There's only so much confidence you have and when you take a pasting from all and sundry following the Italian defeat it is difficult to rebound and I said before the game we'd find out how much it had affected us.

"I was surprised by the lack of urgency we showed at the start. But there were some good cameo moments throughout the game as it swung one way and another but in terms of what we were capable of it was disappointing."

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