BETTER to nearly lose than nearly win, as the man said. In claiming their ninth Triple Crown of all time, their third in the past four seasons, Ireland came mighty close to defying all rugby logic by losing a game that they had enough possession to not only win, but to win by the length of Edinburgh's Royal Mile.

Thankfully, they showed enough patience and poise to turn a five-point deficit into a one-point victory in the game's tumultuous final quarter but that, we learned afterwards, was only half the day's drama. After the final whistle, Irish coach Eddie O'Sullivan accused an unnamed Scottish player of attempting to choke Ronan O'Gara.

It was a bizarre claim to make but you can be sure he wouldn't have made it unless he was 100 per cent certain of what he was saying. The manner in which the Irish medical team rushed to the attention of their out-half on the final whistle did indicate that the situation was serious, but nobody thought for one second then that O'Gara's injury had been deliberately inflicted.

"Someone tried to choke him on the ground, " said O'Sullivan at the media conference immediately after the game. "They cut off his air supply and he went blue. I daren't say who it was." The coach was then pressed as to whether he felt the incident was deliberate. "I do, " he replied. "Putting a hand around a guy's throat, it doesn't happen by accident."

The one saving grace from a disgraceful incident was that O'Gara was able to leave the field unattended after Brian O'Driscoll picked up the Triple Crown trophy, and it was pretty apt that Ireland's best player on the day, and eventual saviour, could enjoy the moment.

For it was the out-half who kept his cool to calmly kick Ireland back in front when it appeared as though Scotland were going to steal this game.

All game long he was primed to cause damage, from blocking down Dan Park's awful clearance to set the wheels in motion for a try he would also finish off, to keeping the Scottish back-row honest with as many breaks as we've ever seen him make in an Irish shirt.

In that opening period, when his sniping was at its most frequent and best, O'Sullivan's side owned possession, bossed territory and created enough opportunities to win two games of rugby, never mind the one. But somehow, and there'll be plenty of head scratching as to why, Scotland found themselves in front thanks to Chris Paterson's fifth successful penalty in the 63rd minute.

And when the Scottish captain landed the ball between the sticks for the sixth time moments later, the home side were five points to the good with 12 minutes of normal time remaining. It was mind boggling stuff considering Ireland's marked superiority in nearly every aspect of the game, particularly their ability with the ball in hand.

The 1.30 kick-off, as Brian O'Driscoll observed during the week, meant that Ireland had to eat mash potatoes for breakfast, like Pat Short and Jon Kenny of D'Unbelievables fame used to do. Just so they'd, like, have a clear run at the day. And it seemed to work early on, as Ireland had a clear run at Scotland for a good quarter of an hour. It was in this period that they'll rue their profligacy this morning.

Paul O'Connell could have put Gordon D'Arcy away but didn't, O'Driscoll just failed to do the same thing, while Girvan Dempsey would have put Denis Hickie away down the left had he been able to collect O'Gara's pass. And despite those missed opportunities, you still got the feeling that Ireland were going to run riot if only they could get try number one out of the way. But when they did manage that, thanks to O'Gara's quick thinking and the rapidfire hands of Simon Easterby and D'Arcy, it only appeared to encourage Scotland.

A barren half an hour, which was only brightened by a Paterson break that Hickie did wonderfully well to halt, was followed by a 10-minute spell where they put the ball through the phases and worried Ireland just enough to infringe on the floor. Paterson did the business with his right boot and a 13-9 half-time deficit was turned into an 1813 just after the hour mark.

It seemed like this game was going to go down an ohso-familiar route but unlike the boys of the past, this Irish side are made of sterner stuff.

It also helped that Scotland lost the plot a little as the scent of victory wafted through their nostrils. Allan Jacobsen, the Scottish replacement prop, was adjudged to have slowed down Irish ball about 40 yards out when he didn't really need to, and O'Gara dished out the necessary punishment. With Scotland's lead now down to two points, referee Dave Pearson penalised the home side for straying offside as Ireland attacked around the fringes.

O'Gara again held his nerve to put Ireland back in front. And rightly so.

The one blip on the outhalf 's copy book was that he didn't give his side some extra breathing space in missing another late, late penalty but his own breathing space, or rather lack of it, was his main worry in the game's final seconds. It's an incident that could rumble on and on but at least there's a happy story at the end of it all.

MATCH REPORT AND REACTION, PAGE 35; NEIL FRANCIS'S ANALYSIS AND PLAYER RATINGS, PAGE 34; ITALY vWALES, PAGE 33