Dublin (AFP) - Ireland captain Caelan Doris said the senior players had “stood up” when it mattered after the Irish kept their Six Nations title hopes alive with an impressive 43-21 win over title rivals Scotland on Saturday in the final round of matches.

The Irish were always ahead but the Scots kept getting back within striking distance for most of the match. Sterling defence, especially in the final 10 minutes, helped the Irish to a memorable win.

Doris and his team had started the tournament with a 36-14 hammering by France with many saying they were a side in decline.

He ended the Six Nations with a man-of-the-match performance and lifting the Triple Crown, beating a Scotland team that had arrived in Dublin on the back of a 50-40 victory over France.

“We asked for a big performance from some of our senior players and big match players and they stood up,” Doris told ITV.

“The likes of Tadhg Beirne, some of the turnovers he got were crucial.

“We saw what their attack was capable of last week and again today it came in waves but our defence stood up and big moments helped keep them out.”

Ireland coach Andy Farrell, who has used more than 30 players in the five matches endeavouring to broaden the squad depth, said he was “proud as punch” of his side which had held off a Scotland team that “kept banging at the door”.

“What’s happened over that eight weeks matters more to us in a sense that there’s a lot of firsts with the first caps, first Six Nations, first time for some taking it to the final week.

“How the group have come together and navigated their way through that has been pretty special, so therefore we grow massively because of it and the group has become more resilient because of that.”

- ‘I’m a bit old’ -

An inordinate amount of pressure had been placed on fly-half Jack Crowley’s shoulders, especially after being heavily criticised earlier in the week by Irish great Ronan O’Gara.

It had been O’Gara who once had declared his fellow Munster man capable of assuming the mantle of legendary fly-half Johnny Sexton.

“I thought he was outstanding today,” Farrell said of Crowley.

“I mean, the obvious word is he committed to his performance in every aspect.

“It wasn’t just the goal-kicking or the ball in the air, but you can see that he committed to every aspect of his game and led the team really well.”

The Irish hold a three-point lead over France, who entertain out-of-form England later on Saturday.

“It’s a rare day as an Irish man to be cheering them (England) on and now we’ll sit back and be cheering them on later on,” said Doris.

Scotland coach Gregor Townsend, even in the aftermath of a disappointing result, remained upbeat over the state of play for the Scots.

“Yes, absolutely I feel positive,” he said.

“Those three victories, are some of the best rugby we’ve ever seen this team play.

“Today, it’s a reminder and a lesson. The reminder is this is what we need to do to play our best.

“When we do that, we can compete with one of the best teams in the world.”

Townsend, whose future had been questioned especially after losing to Italy in the opening game, said the lesson the Scots needed to learn was being more clinical.

“The lesson is, there has to be a longer period of remaining competitive with those sides,” he said.

“We’re not saying 80 minutes.

“But we’ve got to be better when we do have those opportunities.”

One of the Irish players who Farrell waxed lyrical about was Robert Baloucoune, the Ulster wing scoring another superb try against Scotland.

Baloucoune was bashful, though, when he was named rising star of the Six Nations.

“It’s probably something I didn’t think would happen,” he said.

“At 28 I think I’m a bit old to be getting named a rising star.”