A BATTLE of attrition on Lansdowne Road's Six Nations bow and one just about won by Ireland. Ronan O'Gara's trusty boot . . . he managed five successful penalties from seven . . . allied to a battling effort around the fringes from Ireland's loose forwards gave Eddie O'Sullivan's side their third victory of the campaign to set up a potential championship showdown against England at Twickenham next weekend.

Ireland can claim the Triple Crown too if they do a job on Andy Robinson's side but they'll have to make a lot less errors than they did yesterday if they're to do so.

The rain shower 10 minutes before kick-off was of course a factor in all of this and it essentially dictated how this one would have to be played. The slimy ball and the soft underfoot conditions were hardly conducive to wide, running rugby and although Ireland did put some decent width on the game, their handling in the conditions more often than not contributed to their downfall. All in all the weather appeared to suit Scotland.

They mopped up the mistakes Ireland made on the front foot and generally thrived on the sloppy stuff around the fringes, without actually creating anything of substance with the possession they got.

Ireland, on the other hand, appeared capable of a lot more with the ball in hand but their final execution let them down on a number of occasions.

It's something we've seen in every game this season but we'll forgive them most of the errors on view yesterday on account of the conditions. As the game wore on, they flung the ball wide with less and less frequency but that wasn't how it was at the start.

After three undeniably slow openings in their first three games of the championship, Ireland looked bright and bubbly for a change.

Their rock solid line-out and the line-kicking of Ronan O'Gara gave them the field position, and they almost crossed the Scottish line as early as 60th second when Shane Horgan was hauled down by Sean Lamont just short of the right-hand corner. They even recycled it from there, but Brian O'Driscoll fired a ball at Gordon D'Arcy that he couldn't do anything but knock on.

Still, the Scots were offside for half that move and O'Gara put Ireland in front with a penalty bang in front of the posts.

The home side continued on the front foot, dominating possession, but they could have been a touch more careful with it. For example, O'Gara had a three-on-two overlap to his left inside the Scottish 22 but his grubber kick was easily collected and cleared by Hugo Southwell.

Opportunity lost.

O'Gara did make amends, though, with a second penalty on 11 minutes after Scotland had infringed at a ruck but that appeared to be the signal for the visitors to wake themselves up. From the resulting kick-off, Ireland were guilty of obstruction and Chris Paterson made no mistake with the penalty.

Six minutes later the same player drew Scotland level after Geordan Murphy was guilty of deliberately knocking on at a ruck. Two visits to the Irish 22, two scores for the visitors. They were hanging in there.

And the rest of the half continued in much the same fashion; Ireland dominating possession and territory for the most part, with Scotland picking up the scraps the home side were leaving behind.

O'Gara, having missed a penalty on the right on 18 minutes, put his side back in front on 24 minutes after the Scots wandered offside for the third time deep in their own half, but Paterson restored parity three minutes later after Ireland repeated the same trick when the visitors finally put a couple of phases together in the opposition half. Again, before the interval, Ireland had a number of try-scoring opportunities but poor handling and passing contributed to their downfall, most notably when Murphy passed behind both D'Arcy and David Wallace as Ireland once again appeared to have an overlap out wide.

Nevertheless, and not for the first time, Scotland had been penalised for standing offside and O'Gara's kick gave Ireland a 12-9 interval lead, one they certainly deserved.

Eddie O'Sullivan could only have asked for more of the same from his side in the second half, the errors aside of course, and they did appear to go about things the same way, albeit with a little less width.

Andrew Trimble almost crossed the line in the 51st minute after Geordan Murphy appeared to put him away wide left, but Southwell just got across in time to tackle the Ulster man about half a yard from the tryline. All that left you wondering what they outcome would have been had Eddie O'Sullivan selected a genuine winger in the number 11 shirt.

But Ireland appeared to have the bit between their teeth at this point and Scotland just couldn't get out of their own half. Right on cue, Denis Leamy, with a little help from David Wallace and John Hayes, forced Gavin Kerr into holding onto the ball on the ground, and O'Gara knocked over the resulting penalty on the 22 to put a just-aboutbreathable gap of six between the sides.

As the conditions deteriorated, so did the quality of the rugby and it was really turning into an old-fashioned type of game, one that the old ground would have well recognised from the days of past.

Almost every second ball was kicked by both teams and as things became looser and looser you began to worry about Scotland actually nicking the game with a late, late try.

It wasn't to be, though, and although Ronan O'Gara missed a penalty in the sixth minute of injury time, Scotland couldn't do anything with the loose ball afterwards and the game was Ireland's.

SCORING SEQUENCE 3 mins O'Gara pen, 3-0 10 mins O'Gara pen, 6-0 11 mins Paterson pen, 6-3 16 mins Paterson pen 6-6 24 mins O'Gara pen, 9-6 28 mins Paterson pen, 9-9 38 minsO'Gara pen, 12-9 55 mins O'Gara pen, 15-9