The Scots truly believed that this was the case. With about seven or eight minutes to go in yesterday's game I was thinking of the O factor. Oh Christ. Oh Jesus. Oh no, not again. One of the worst Scottish sides of all time was going to jam one of the most unlikely and costly victories in Ireland's Six Nations history.

That they didn't was down to the fact that when the game was there for them they didn't have the wit or the ability to take advantage.

There are now two things visible on Earth from space.

The Great Wall of China and the gulf in class between Ireland and Scotland. I cannot put it down to the unjust laws of a sporting contest but I am still at a loss for words to understand why a Derby favourite only edged out a donkey by a nose. Of course, every twohorse race can have two winners. I just don't understand why Ireland only scraped out of the valley of death in the last few minutes when in truth, if they had been a little bit more focused, they could have won this game by 50 points such was the difference in ability and class between the sides.

There are three ways to get something done. Do it yourself, hire someone, or forbid your kids to do it. Yesterday, when it really came down to getting something done the two main men in this team and Ireland's leaders O'Driscoll and O'Connell, part of the O factor, put their hands up and steered Ireland through in a tense last 15. The value of their leadership and experience, particularly towards the end of the game, was immense.

The match was only three minutes old and I turned around to a few of my colleagues in the press box and I said, "this game is over". From the initial skirmishes, Nathan Hines picked up the ball and scuttled round the side of a ruck. He was picked up by three members of the Irish pack and knocked back four yards. Euan Murray, the Scottish tight head, came in to retrieve. He picked and went and he ended up another three yards behind the gain line on his arse.

Ireland would now just totally dominate the physical exchanges. There was no need to play another 78 minutes.

Scotland just could not compete. A minute later, John Hayes picked off a ball at the back of the line-out. The Scottish throw was malfunctioning. If they didn't have a platform, let's just call the game off. Minutes later, Paul O'Connell made a huge line break down the left-hand side of the pitch. He had acres of room and several outriders. Nothing came of it, but then we'd have plenty more like this. At this stage Scotland couldn't get anything right. Even their lazy runners were crap. They couldn't time their run back to upset Stringer when he was ready to pass. Though Ireland were in the ascendancy and my they looked good, they attacked again going down the left side of the pitch. O'Driscoll threw a long flat pass, Dempsey reached down to pick it up at knee height. He was clean through and he had the option of Hickie on his outside but strangely he did not manage to hold onto the ball. It was well within his remit and skill set to do it, but he knocked on. When you look back to the England game and remember the three or four balls that he took in wet greasy conditions and held onto, you wonder how he managed to knock this one on. Never mind, there'd be about six or seven more of these chances.

Minutes later again, Ireland set up a maul. It was stopped illegally by the Scots, yet Ireland brilliantly and collectively set it back up again and steamrollered the Scottish pack into oblivion. This was a turkey shoot. I actually looked at my RBS statistics handout to see what the highest score against Scotland was, so sure was I that Ireland were going to walk away with this. But amazingly it stayed at three-all until half an hour into the game. Ireland couldn't get the scoreboard ticking over on a consistent basis. They didn't nail their chances and that was the encouragement Scotland needed. They were only quite willing to roll over and die if Ireland had got points ahead early. But as the match wore on, Scotland forgot that they were completely crap and gave Ireland a horrible fright.

I think the punch-up which Brian O'Driscoll was involved in, provoked by a punch by a Scottish player, gave further encouragement and this had been preceded by a dangerous moment when Lamont had put Paterson away. Hickie's pace and composure was essential as he made a great one-legged tackle, got back up on his feet and forced Paterson to give away a penalty for holding on. This gave the Scots further encouragement, they were able to open Ireland up. Ireland's concentration waned a little bit and Scotland, after being blown out of it for the first half an hour, now had their heads above water and were trading punches.

Ireland delivered what I thought would be the hammer blow when Parks had his kick blocked down by O'Gara. It was symptomatic of Ireland's malaise at this stage that they made hard work of scoring this try after capitalising on the initial mistake. It took a long pass to D'Arcy before it came back into Easterby who flicked it back to O'Gara. It could easily have all gone wrong. Surely 10-3 was the springboard to go forward for our rout.

But it went wrong almost immediately and surprise, surprise, it was kickoff time where Ireland ceded the advantage immediately. Although he redeemed himself, O'Connell should have claimed that ball and Ireland again could have been home and dry. But from there on, it was as nervy and worrying a performance as I've seen from this side. They gave away needless penalties when they weren't under any pressure and at half time I had that sick feeling in my stomach. I personally had been there before in Murrayfield.

Ireland's performance at this stage was like the go-go girls at half time.

They weren't going anywhere. They were out of sync. And some of the passages of play were as ugly as the cellulite on the legs of some of the performers who were doing their thang out on the track. Ireland now, going into the second half, had begun to lose their shape offensively after only two or three recycles.

The mini mauls around the side of the rucks, although well executed, didn't really commit anyone even if they did make ground and Scotland had the bit between their teeth as their silent crowd suddenly began to find a voice.

The big difference between this game and the English game was in ball presentation. Christy Moore has a great song called, 'Don't Forget Your Shovel' and Stringer had to shovel out really slow ball that was improperly presented at the breakdown by his ball carriers.

He really struggled in this department.

It was not his fault whereas against England the ball he received was like some of Johnson, Mooney & O'Brien's finest, straight out of the toaster. If they couldn't get quick ball even when they got in behind the gain line, Scotland would just fan out again and cover back. It is to their credit that Scotland managed to stop Ireland creating one try - Ireland's only touchdown came from a mistake - but this Scottish team really is going nowhere. It must have been a very frustrating game for the Irish players to play in yesterday. From Scotland's perspective, how do you mullock your way to victory?

Chris Paterson's accurate boot was all they had and it wasn't enough. And Ireland held their heads to close out the final two minutes when it looked like Scotland had worked themselves into a scoring position.

The luck that deserted us against France was repaid in spades yesterday.

Oh yes.