Ireland captain Jamie Heaslip believes he made the right decision to kick for the corner against Scotland despite watching his side become undone by four Greig Laidlaw penalties at Murrayfield on Sunday.
Heaslip’s side were in dominant control in the first half against Scotland and turned down kickable penalties, opting to go for the corner in pursuit of a try.
Scotland’s last-ditch defence held firm however and Ireland could only take a 3-0 lead in at half-time before Laidlaw kicked his side to victory in the second half with the visitors again guilty of failing to convert good chances.
Debutant fly-half Paddy Jackson missed three kicks to compound Ireland’s woes but Heaslip believes he made the right calls.
“Just where we were with the momentum of the game I thought they were the right decisions,” said Heaslip.
“We were applying a lot of pressure and we took the kicking opportunities that were right in front of the posts and the other ones I thought it was best to go for the corner.
“It was that we weren’t accurate with our opportunities and they took theirs which was disappointing. We made a few line breaks and applied a lot of pressure but we weren’t accurate and that was disappointing.
“Even though they came back into the game I felt confident that we could hang onto the ball and get the territory and get the turnovers but I think they held onto the ball quite well and we didn’t help ourselves with some mistakes.
“In the last five or ten minutes we applied a lot of pressure but we didn’t take the opportunities.”
