Ireland v Scotland talking points: Peter O'Mahony starts at Murrayfield

After seeing off England on the opening weekend of the Guinness Six Nation’s Championship, defending champions Ireland’s attention now turns to Scotland at Murrayfield this Sunday. 

Ireland name their team to play Scotland in round two of the Six Nations🏆

📌Peter O'Mahony and Robbie Henshaw into the starting XV
📌Cian Healy set to become Ireland's most capped Six Nations player should he come off the bench.#SixNations #SCOvIRE pic.twitter.com/7mOHhPVvgA

— Ultimate Rugby (@ultimaterugby) February 7, 2025

Simon Easterby’s side know victory will be a major stepping stone towards retaining their crown.

Crowley’s class:

Just as he did in the Autumn, when he came on late to lead Ireland to victory over Australia, Jack Crowley entered the fray last Saturday to give Ireland the direction, energy and impetus they required to get over the line against a resilient England.

Sam Prendergast had just landed a penalty to give Ireland the lead for the first time in the game, but the young Leinster fly-half had struggled with the boot up until that point, both from the tee and out of hand, and despite some nice passes and touches from Prendergast, a change was needed.

Crowley was only earning his 20th cap yet he resembled the experienced old head upon his introduction. 

He is clearly the form out-half at the minute, but Andy Farrell and Simon Easterby have their favourites as Calvin Nash knows to his cost. It was a surprise Crowley’s recent burst of form wasn't rewarded with him getting the 10 shirt this weekend.

He could still end up being one of Ireland’s key players once more this weekend, which would ensure the talk of this out-half battle continues to rumble on, like a modern-day Ollie Campbell v Tony Ward saga.

If the Munster playmaker can just keep doing what he is doing he will secure a starting berth sooner rather than later.

Shock and awe:

Ireland took a long time to break down England last weekend, but when they finally cracked Steve Borthwick’s side they put them away quickly, scoring 22 points in a row to ensure they were well out of sight before late tries from Tom Curry and Tommy Freeman allowed England to leave Dublin with a losing bonus point.

The first half ended up being a long softening-up period, as without the missing Joe McCarthy and Tadhg Furlong Ireland lacked the power and ballast to dominate the collisions early on, but despite repelling Ireland for a long time the English defenders eventually fatigued and began to fall off tackles, with the likes of Alex Mitchell and Marcus Smith being unable to halt the electric James Lowe and Bundee Aki, which ultimately was their undoing.

England spent too much time without the ball in Round 1 and if Scotland are going to scalp Ireland for the first time in eight long years then Gregor Townsend’s side are going to have to deny them the football for long periods of the match.

Confident Scots:

It seems like every year the Six Nations kicks off with Scotland bigging themselves up as serious title challengers only for them to fall flat on their faces. 

There have been some big days, with them losing only one of the last seven Test matches against England, and gaining some famous wins over France in this decade too, but they just have not been able to put enough big performances together to take down enough of the other big guns to really challenge for the big silverware.

Saturday presents them with their latest opportunity to crack it.  

They are blessed with a brilliant backline, even in the absence of captain and centre Sione Tuipulotu. 

Their back three of Blair Kinghorn, Darcy Graham and Duhan van der Merwe could all be in the frame to be starters for the Lions in the summer, while last week’s hat-trick hero Huw Jones and chief playmaker Finn Russell will have similar aspirations.

Ultimately, it will probably come down to whether the Scottish pack can win enough ball to release their exciting backline, as in recent years they have tended to come out second best against superior Irish units.

They have gone a remarkable ten Test matches without beating Ireland, with the Scots only getting within a score of Ireland on three of those losses. 

This record sequence is likely to be extended on Sunday.