Ireland have kept the Six Nations championship alive - for a few hours at least - with a Triple Crown-clinching 26-5 victory over Scotland at Dublin, meaning France must beat England at Paris to win their first championship in 12 years.
While Ireland were not at their very best, a first clean sweep of their 'home nation' rivals in four years looked rarely in doubt, after first-half tries from front-rower Dan Sheehan and Cian Healy, and a third on the hour from Josh van der Flier.
Replacement scrumhalf Conor Murray's last-gasp bonus-point try removed another title-winning option from the equation, that of a rare bonus-point draw for the French, leaving just a Grand Slam-securing victory on the table.
"I think, for the first time ever, we're cheering for England tonight," says captain Johnny Sexton with a wide smile.
"I don't think it was perfect by any means - we did just enough, but exactly what we wanted to do. Five points puts us in the hunt, puts the pressure on France."
With nothing to lose, fourth-placed Scotland came flying out of the blocks and provided a few early reminders of just how dangerous they can be with ball in hand. Still, Ireland's more controlled attack struck first.
Man of the match Sheehan - who is Leinster's joint-top tryscorer this season, with seven in eight appearances, most of them off the bench - made it two in seven for Ireland, when he finished off a period of persistent Irish dominance.
As they so often do once they get in front, Ireland relentlessly went after more scoreboard pressure and another wave of forward play yielded a second try for the front row, this time for Healy on his 116th Ireland appearance.
Scotland's efforts were rewarded five minutes from the break, when prop Pierre Schoeman powered over for his first international try and only the fourth Ireland had conceded all tournament.
In for regular flyhalf Finn Russell, Blair Kinghorn missed the easy conversion and captain Stuart Hogg coughed up an even better chance to cut the 14-5 deficit early in the second half, when he opted to go for the corner rather than pass inside and was stopped by a superb tackle from opposite Hugo Keenan.
Ireland had plenty of possession with little to show for it, until Van der Flier, one of the most consistent performers in Andy Farrell's ever-improving side, accelerated over to make it a much more comfortable 16-point lead with 20 minutes to go.
The extra point looked like it was slipping away, until Scotland were reduced to 14 men before the last play of the game, when winger James Lowe was powered on by his forwards and popped a basketball pass back inside for Murray to score.
His teammates celebrated as if it was the game-winning try and began to dream of potentially wilder scenes later on.
Reuters
