Scotland supremo Andy Robinson was delighted after his side beat Ireland, whose head coach Declan Kidney was gracious in defeat.
Scotland coach delighted after finally seeing side win
Scotland supremo Andy Robinson was delighted after his side beat Ireland, whose head coach Declan Kidney was gracious in defeat.
Dan Parks was the hero as he kicked 18 points - including a last minute penalty - to scupper Ireland's bid for the Triple Crown in their final game at Croke Park.
Robinson's side won 23-20 to avoid the RBS 6 Nations wooden spoon and the coach was delighted to see his team finally get over the winning line after four games without success in this year's tournament.
He said: "I'm feeling really pleased for the players and the Scotland management team and the supporters.
"I thought we played really well after a bit of a slow start, where I thought Ireland looked tremendous.
"But we got ourselves into the game and controlled it. To get over the wire was really, really pleasing.
"That was the key element: being able to work out how to win the game."
Robinson described Parks' winning penalty as "a great moment" and hailed his side's determination.
He added: "They didn't feel sorry for themselves; they went out there and said, 'We're going to go out and beat Ireland'."
Parks was jeered by the vast majority of the 80,000 plus fans in the stadium as he stepped up to take the last minute penalty but the fly-half did not care one jot after the ball left his boot.
"It was great for me because I knew it was going through," he said.
"The crowd obviously want their team to win and they'll do anything they can to put you off."
Revealing he had walked the pitch before the match to try to get a feel of the wind, he added: "I knew if I hit it perfectly, it would go through, and I hit it perfectly."
Parks believed Scotland should have finished second in the table instead of second bottom.
"We've deserved, I personally believe, four wins out of this championship," he said.
"Every single game I've been involved in - which has been the last four - we could and should've won.
"Wales, I think we all know we should've won that game - it was a freak day. Italy away from home, they did well to get the win but we weren't at our best that day. England, we probably could've won that.
"It could've been a different championship for us. But we'll take the win and we're really delighted."
Kidney gracious
Ireland head coach Kidney was gracious in defeat after seeing his side's Triple Crown hopes evaporate.
He said: "We have to give Scotland credit for playing a good game and keeping the scoreboard ticking over.
"We didn't have our greatest day. We made errors and we've said all along that unless you're right on top of your game any team in this competition can beat you.
"We congratulate Scotland and the way they played wasn't a complete shock to us, we saw it coming.
"But we will take a hard look at ourselves. We tried things in the first half and made a few errors. It's extremely disappointing.
"Days like this are going to happen. It's so disappointing - the venue, the result, everything that was at stake.
"If we look at the Six Nations we feel there's more in us. A lot of the things that went wrong are within our control to rectify."
Lions captain Paul O'Connell was disappointed after the Irish slumped to their second defeat in this year's championship following their loss to France earlier in the campaign.
"It's been a disappointing championship. Two defeats is more than we wanted at the start," he said.
"We're an excellent side and we want to win things. Unfortunately now we're coming away empty handed so we're disappointed with the way it's gone."
