The Irish clinched their third Triple Crown in four years with a nervy 19-18 triumph over Scotland that was light years away from their stellar performance at Croke Park two weeks earlier.

Eddie O'Sullivan's side may be the best of the home nations by some margin but the lifeless, if ultimately professional, manner of dispatching the Scots was a major comedown.

Ronan O'Gara landed two late penalties to reclaim the lead and halt Scotland's revival.

Only a handful of players raised their hands in jubilation at the final whistle with most consumed by relief, and D'Arcy acknowledged it had been a frustrating afternoon.

'Just because we'd won the Triple Crown twice in a row doesn't detract from the achievement,' he said.

'To beat the three teams in back to back seasons is a great achievement and we are delighted to have won another Triple Crown.

'The reason we weren't jumping around at the end was because we want to do better.

'We wanted to repeat our performance against England. It might be expecting a lot but that's what we must strive to do.

'We set our own standards and we didn't live up to them against Scotland. The boys knew that.'

D'Arcy, who produced another sparkling display and is a leading contender for the player of the tournament award, accused Ireland of over-elaborating but was impressed by the home defence.

'Scotland were coming off the back of their defeat to Italy and they really wanted to restore their pride,' he said.

'When games are close like that you have to fight for every blade of glass. They were fighting for their lives.

'We kept the ball for a long time and became a bit giddy with it when we should have kept it solid.

'We started well and we looked like we were wearing them down but then they got back into the match in the second half.

'They got their tails up and (Chris) Paterson punished our poor discipline - you can't give someone like that anything.

'We're disappointed to concede those six penalties - especially as our defence was good enough not to give them away.

'It was never going to be a 20-point win and so we'll take the one-point win. We're still there or thereabouts in the championship.'