Six Nations: Ireland showed 'incredible bravery' in Scotland win - Sexton
- Published
Jonathan Sexton scored all of Ireland's points in Dublin
Ireland captain Jonathan Sexton has promised more to come from his side after their unconvincing win over Scotland on Saturday.
Andy Farrell's side were on the back foot for much of the game and owed their win to a combination of fantastic defending and poor Scottish finishing.
"We didn't see it all," said Sexton, who scored all 19 of Ireland's points.
"I don't think we played off a scrum and we didn't get many set-pieces to play off."
He added: "We didn't really show as much off set-piece as we'd planned so hopefully some of those ideas will come to fruition over the next four games."
After a poor World Cup in Japan, the Six Nations opener was a first glimpse at life after head coach Joe Schmidt, who exited following six years at the helm.
"There are some things that we learned from the World Cup, some big lessons and we'll try to take that with us," Sexton added after Farrell's first game in charge.
"We didn't gloss over the World Cup and just pretend it didn't happen, we sat down and we learned the hard way."
Having fallen behind to an early Adam Hastings penalty, Ireland struck back with Sexton's try after 10 minutes.
They never surrendered the lead from that moment, but made heavy weather of seeing out the victory while Scotland were guilty of passing up some glorious chances to assume control of the game.
Stuart Hogg's fumble with the try line gaping was costly for Scotland
While struggling in attack, Ireland did produce some heroic defending in key moments to protect their slender lead.
"We could just never get that two scores clear, we had chances to do it," said Sexton, who missed one kick from the tee.
"When you go two scores clear it allows you to really open up and try and get that next score but four points, seven points, it's an arm wrestle.
"It's not how we wanted the second half to go but there are lots of lessons in there for us to learn and get better from.
"You can't account for some of the bravery you saw. It was incredible, some of the guys tracking back, some of the front five guys towards the end having to play 75 minutes and they get back and make a tackle."
'We're where we want to be'
Next week Ireland welcome Wales to the Aviva Stadium before facing a trip to Twickenham to meet England two weeks later.
Wales, under new head coach Wayne Pivac, sailed past Italy on Saturday to record a 42-0 victory in Cardiff while England begin their campaign against France on Sunday.
Ireland do at least go into the second week with a win under their belts. A year ago a home defeat by England on the opening day ended their chances of a repeat of their 2018 Grand Slam and set the tone for a poor tournament.
"The first game of the tournament is all about winning," Sexton said.
"Last year after the England game, Triple Crown gone, Grand Slam gone, uphill battle to try to even win the Championship.
"We're alive in everything and that's where we want to be."