Tadhg Beirne had his fingers crossed as Scotland fought back in Edinburgh but the Ireland flanker admitted he should have known better than to doubt his teammates.
Beirne was again influential in a 27-24 success, scoring a try and being named Guinness Six Nations Player of the Match for his all-round display.
However, he left the field with quarter of an hour remaining and his side 24-17 up, only for Scotland to draw level through Hamish Watson’s try.
From the restart, Ali Price was scragged on the ball, and from the resulting penalty Johnny Sexton made no mistake to hand Ireland the victory.
And after a game that the visitors had controlled for large periods, there was some relief for Beirne that they had not let it slip away.
He said: “It was a bit strange. It felt like we had control but Scotland just managed to keep in there and for it come down to that last play was huge from the lads.
“I was in the stands for it but I was just crossing my fingers and hoping the lads could pull it off. Of course, they did. I should never have doubted them. I wasn’t surprised that Johnny pointed to the posts at all.”
Having lost their first two games of the Championship, Ireland have now responded with successive victories on the road and sit second ahead of the final weekend.
They will host England on Super Saturday, with Eddie Jones’ side coming off a crucial win of their own against France, and Beirne expects it to be a tough battle.
He added: “It’s huge (to beat Scotland), we spoke after the first two losses, we felt like we were building on something. We spoke again about building on Italy and getting the win here was massive for us in terms of going forwards.
“England dug deep and won at the death. It’s going to be a physical game, it always is against England. They are an incredible side, but I’d back our boys every day of the week.”
