Johnny Sexton scored all Ireland’s points in a far from convincing 19 – 12 win in the 2020 Six Nations against Scotland at Lansdowne Road on Saturday afternoon.

Sexton scored the only try of the match and kicked four penalties, and a conversion, to give Andy Farrell victory in his first game as Ireland head coach.

Adam Hastings booted four penalties in reply for Scotland who generally struggled to break the Irish defence. However, the game will likely be remembered for a Stuart Hogg knock on in the act of scoring, which kept Ireland in front.

Scotland started the game well putting Ireland under pressure in a free flowing attacking game and they were first on the scoreboard with a Hastings penalty after 4 minutes.

Ireland looked to slow the game down and looked to their forwards who worked their way upfield for a lineout close to the 5m line. A couple of drives infield allowed Conor Murray to find Sexton in space and the Irish captain crossed out wide for the opening try. Sexton added the extras to take the score to 7- 3 after 10 minutes.

The rest of the half was fairly uneventful. Scotland landed their second penalty on the 15th minute after a scrum infringement but Ireland pushed the score along to 10 – 6, five minutes before the break, as Sexton knocked over his first penalty of the afternoon.

Sexton extended Ireland’s lead at the start of the second half with his second penalty but Scotland still looked to be in charge in open play. They finally broke the stubborn Irish defence only for Hogg to knock on while crossing, the play called back for Hastings to knock over his third penalty.

Ireland replied through Sexton to take the score to 16 – 9 on the 56th minute and as the substitutions started Scotland pulled it back, through Hastings, to 16 – 12 with 15 minutes left.

Ireland did what they do best and ground it out for the remainder of the game with Sexton knocking over his fourth penalty to take the score to 19 – 12 with seven minutes left on the clock.

The visitors had one last chance from a Hamish Watson break, but the game came to the end with another promising Scottish attack stopped on the try line by a CJ Stander turnover.

IRELAND: Jordan Larmour, Andrew Conway, Garry Ringrose, Bundee Aki, Jacob Stockdale, Johnny Sexton, Conor Murray, Cian Healy, Rob Herring, Tadhg Furlong, Iain Henderson, James Ryan, CJ Stander, Josh vd Flier, Caelan Doris. Replacements: Ronan Kelleher, Dave Kilcoyne, Andrew Porter, Devin Toner, Peter O’Mahony, John Cooney, Ross Byrne, Robbie Henshaw

SCOTLAND: Stuart Hogg, Sean Maitland, Huw Jones, Sam Johnson, Blair Kinghorn, Adam Hastings, Ali Price, Rory Sutherland, Fraser Brown, Zander Fagerson, Scott Cummings, Jonny Gray, Jamie Ritchie, Hamish Watson, Nick Haining. Replacements: Stuart McInally, Allan Dell, Simon Berghan, Ben Toolis, Cornell du Preez, George Horne, Rory Hutchinson, Chris Harris