Couldn't do much about the kicks put into him as Parks managed to kick well.

SHANE HORGAN 6 Was inches away from making a ground-breaking contribution from one of his breaks. Always managed frustratingly to get a hand on him or slow ball down from some of his interventions.

BRIAN O'DRISCOLL 8.5 I'll have to watch the video before I can comment on Prince Naseem O'Driscoll. Made enough breaks to win a dozen matches but those outside him never seemed to take advantage of them. His presence and experience were vital in the last 20.

GORDON D'ARCY 6.5 Some good hits on his opposite number Rob Dewey. As usual always got across the gain line when he got possession. But amazingly I still have more international tries than he does.

This hopefully will end sooner rather than later.

DENIS HICKIE 8.5 His value is inestimable. Threw three crucial try-saving tackles where his experience and composure were vital. Lamont's tackle to stop him on the lefthand side was top drawer.

RONAN O'GARA 7.5 As in the French game, he scored all of Ireland's points. Took a few chances but was generally right or playing to team orders when he launched Ireland's backline from deep within their 22.

Sometimes this is the best point of attack against the Scots.

PETER STRINGER 6.5 Very competitive and aggressive on Scotland's scrum but he managed to upset Chris Cusiter and David Callam on a number of occasions. He was not helped by the fact that he had to dig out a huge amount of ball which was badly presented and had Scottish forwards clawing at him all day from the wrong side of the breakdown.

SIMON BEST 4.5 He did do a couple of things, he cleaned up a bit of scrappy lineout ball and held his own in the scrum. But this was a missed opportunity. All you have to do is compare the number of tackles John Hayes made against the number of tackles he made - there's a huge gap.

RORY BEST 6 Decent performance. Darts were okay except one which was picked off by Scott Murray. He got onto the ball a huge amount and more importantly looked to get on the ball.

JOHN HAYES 8.5 Super performance. Got pinged once unjustly at scrum-time. He used himself as a human buttress. The amount of times he presented himself as an obstacle to Scottish runners coming around the side was incredible.

No matter how hard or fast they came, they never made an inch.

DONNCHA O'CALLAGHAN 5 It is matches like these where he needs to put himself forward as a serious player. It's hard to maintain your concentration when the Scots had indeterminable amount of recycles. He had an indistinguishable game today in every phase.

PAUL O'CONNELL 8.5 Left his mark on the game at vital moments. Critical steal, a couple of pumping tackles, the odd lineout snaf"e and a couple of bullocking runs. He managed to persuade most of his colleagues to hang tough when this game was going down the toilet.

SIMON EASTERBY 6 Brilliant against Wales and England but was back to his French form yesterday.

Comfortably outplayed his opposite number Simon Taylor but lack dynamism and the usual work ethic.

DAVID WALLACE 7.5 Was always a handful but it seemed that the Scots had his number. Whenever he got on the ball, the Scots made an extraspecial effort to come forward and gang tackle him. He can take some of the credit for some of the turnovers on the ground and one or two of his trademark hold-ups.

DENIS LEAMY 7.5 Great aggression on the tackle.

He took a much wider arc when he picked and went from the base of the scrum. All in though, the whole back row didn't gel and blend as well as they did in the English game.

REPLACEMENTS Gerry Flannery 6 Neil Best 5.5

SCOTLAND Hugo Southwell 4 Sean Lamont 8 Marcus Di Rollo 3 Rob Dewey 6 Chris Patterson 7 Dan Parks 8.5 Chris Cusiter 7 Gavin Kerr 4 Dougie Hall 5 Euan Murray 4 Nathan Hines 6 Scott Murray 7 Simon Taylor 5.5 Kelly Brown 7 David Callam 6

REPLACEMENTS Rory Lamont 6 Allister Hogg 6.5 Scott Lawson 5.5 Allan Jacobsen 6 Ross Ford 6.5 Andrew Henderson 5.5 Jim Hamilton not on long enough to be rated