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EDINBURGH – Ireland’s marauding forwards laid the foundation for a dominant 32-18 win against Scotland in the Six Nations on Sunday, which kept the Irish on course for the Grand Slam as the only unbeaten side left in the tournament, coach Simon Easterby said.

He was also pleased with the contribution of 21-year-old flyhalf Simon Prendergast, who added 12 points to the four tries Ireland scored at Murrayfield with his kicks.

“I thought the forward pack was excellent,” Easterby said during his news conference after the game. “I think the attack was good.

“Our set pieces were excellent, and it’s so difficult for a team to get into their rhythm when they’re getting scrappy ball when their delivery of lineouts and scrums isn’t what they’d like.

“I think that they, on both sides of the ball, in attack and defense, laid a great platform for us.

“I thought Sam Prendergast put us in the right areas more often than not, and that is what you need.”

There was little that went wrong for Ireland.

“I thought we scrambled well,” Easterby said. “We managed to turn around a few situations where they got a little bit of ascendancy, and we kept them at arm’s length. Then we had the opportunity to go up the other end and be clinical with the ball.”

Having started slowly in their opening game against England last week, Ireland got out of the starting blocks quickly at Murrayfield and took eight minutes to score their first try as Prendergast set up Calvin Nash for the opener.

“Although we conceded late in the first half, I thought the scoreline was a reflection of our dominance in the game and maybe we could have been one or two scores up,” Easterby added.

“I was pleased with the application of the players. I think we always knew that we’d have to shut them (Scotland) down and stop them getting time and space and momentum.

“I thought we really did that without the ball but also on attack I felt like we delivered a lot of what we had worked on in the week around trying to attack Scotland in the right way.”