Sean Lineen’s side clinched their second straight win of the competition, putting their opening defeat to England well behind them, in dramatic circumstances – Allan kicking a late conversion to seal a 21-20 win.

Wing Damien Hoyland continued to enhance his burgeoning reputation with a pair of tries while full-back Ruaridh Young also got his name onto the scoresheet.

Victory took Scotland to third in the table but level on points with second-place England and two points behind Wales, who will face Allan and co next Friday in Inverness.

And Allan believes that if Scotland can replicate the defensive effort produced against Ireland in their remaining two matches, they have every chance of topping the pile.

He said: “We did really dig deep there, second half we were really up against it but it shows that we’ve been training so much on our defence and it showed out there.

“We want to win all the games we have left and then have a chance of winning the Six Nations. We’ve just got to keep working week after week and build ourselves up and then we’ll get the results.”