Rugby Union: Elwood squares Irish account: Five Nations' Championship: Scots gain first point as hosts pay penalty for near misses

Ireland. . 6

Scotland. .6

ANOTHER match where both sides seemed more intent on settling old scores than righting new ones, was decided by penalties. And although the Irish kicker, Eric Elwood, who had more opportunities, might have reproached himself for some of his near-misses, at least Gavin Hastings for Scotland, intensely worried about his form against England, did everything that could be asked of him since he landed the only two penalties he was offered.

So Scotland scored their first championship point of the season, with France still to be played at home, while Ireland, who had hoped to end their season with two wins out of four - the target they had set themselves - were probably the more disappointed. Perhaps not more disappointed, however, than the crowd who were mainly puzzled by a hectic but ineffectual game.

As the teams came out to play their first game of spring - parodied by a buffeting wind from the Dublin End which Scotland faced in the first half - nobody pretended that this game had the emotional charge of its Parisian counter-attraction. But more than most tournaments, the Five Nations exists in a continuum, where, as Wales have shown, one season's modest improvement can lead in the next to a bid for the Grand Slam. Besides which, in a fixture that dates back to 1887 the immediate match matters just as much as any of the 105 that have gone before.

As was soon apparent. Peter Clohessy and Alan Sharp came to blows and had to be separated even before the ball had been thrown into the first line-out. And though the wind did nothing to cool the mood, it did rob Elwood, who had to use his captain as a placer, of two early penalty goals. In both cases the ball spun in the air and fell short.

With touchline kicks hard to judge the following breeze was not an unqualified help to Ireland, and it was Scotland who developed the first really threatening moves by short interpassing between their pugnacious scrum-half, Gary Armstrong, and his forwards. One, involving Peter Walton, Shade Munro and Kenny Milne - the hooker feeding the ball out to Gregor Townsend after Armstrong was trapped between a heap of bodies - took play right up to the Irish line and was only halted by the Scots moving ahead of the ball.

Instead it was the Irish who went ahead, with Elwood kicking a penalty from close to the right touchline. But he failed with his fourth and fifth shots, and three points seemed a poor return from a half in which the Irish had used the wind to so little tactical advantage. The question was whether the Scots would now employ it more fruitfully.

The early pointers looked good for them. Hastings had gone off just before half-time to have a cut on his forehead bandaged. And having not had a kick at goal in the first half, he was immediately presented with a soft opportunity right in front of the posts. Also using a placer, Armstrong, he lofted the ball over to level the scores.

Hastings' second and more difficult penalty just grazed through the inside of the left upright after 53 minutes, putting Scotland in the lead and dispelling the memory of those disastrously low returns against England. So far his time spent watching old movies of his place-kicking action seems not to have been wasted.

The game was not otherwise uneventful, both sides attempting to run the ball whenever they could. But no movement ever went the distance without breaking down. And after Elwood had made a brave attempt to curve to the right and down the touchline, it was his sixth penalty attempt, after 72 minutes, which enabled him to level the scores again.

With a few minutes to go, Simon Geoghegan, coming in from the left wing, put in a burst to the right and kicked ahead, but Sod's Law was firmly ruling the day. Instead the ball went bobbling over the touchline, and with it Ireland's last chance.

Ireland: Penalties Elwood (2). Scotland: Penalties G Hastings (2).

IRELAND: C O'Shea (Lansdowne); R Wallace (Garryowen), M Field (Malone), P Danaher (Garryowen), S Geoghegan (London Irish); E Elwood (Lansdowne), M Bradley (Cork Constitution, capt); N Popplewell (Greystones), T Kingston (Dolphin), P Clohessy (Young Munster), M Galwey (Shannon), N Francis (Old Belvedere), B Robinson (Ballymena), D McBride (Malone), P Johns (Dungannon).

SCOTLAND: G Hastings (Watsonians, capt); A Stanger (Hawick), S Hastings (Watsonians), D Wyllie (Stewart's Melville FP), K Logan (Stirling County); G Townsend (Gala), G Armstrong (Jed-Forest); A Sharp (Bristol), K Milne (Heriot's FP), P Burnell (London Scottish), S Munro (Glasgow High/Kelvinside), A Reed (Bath), P Walton (Northampton), I Smith (Gloucester), G Weir (Melrose).

Referee: E Morrison (England).

(Photograph omitted)