It was a familiar tale of woe for Scotland at Murrayfield on Sunday as Ireland underlined their superiority to claim an 11th-straight win between the sides and puncture any home hopes of a title challenge.
All the bullish talk of belief that emanated from the Scots’ camp in the build-up was swiftly silenced as the visitors raced into 17-0 lead before Finn Russell and Darcy Graham were taken off after a nasty clash of heads.
Scotland have not managed to get the better of their Irish cousins since Vern Cotter led them to a 27-22 success at Murrayfield in the 2017 Six Nations, and the psychological damage of yet another heavy reverse could have a lasting impact.
Here, former Scotland captains ANDY NICOL and JASON WHITE join our deputy chief sports writer CALUM CROWE to pick over the bones of another bruising defeat to the Green Machine…
What were your thoughts on how the game panned out? Where did it go wrong for Scotland?
Calum Crowe: For Scotland to be 17-0 down after only half an hour, it was difficult to envisage how things could have gone any worse for them at the start of the game. It was a horror show – and one we’ve seen all too often before against Ireland.
Jack Dempsey fails to make it through the Irish line as Scotland once again came up short
Gregor Brown, Grant Gilchrist and Sam Skinner (L-R) reflect on another setback against the Irish
Caelan Doris with the Centenary Quaich after Ireland made it 11 consecutive wins over Scotland
The visitors dominated the collisions, smashing their way over the gain line time and time again, meaning they were able to play with quick ball. It was relentless. It just felt like a repeat of what we saw in the last two World Cup games in Paris and Yokohama.
For Gregor Townsend, that was the most damning aspect of it all. It was all so very predictable. Even when Scotland briefly flirted with the idea of mounting a comeback early in the second half, they were undone by some basic handling errors. It was an awful performance and one which will probably have wrecked the chances of certain players being picked for the Lions tour.
Andy Nicol: Scotland were miles off. Ireland totally dominated the game from the first minute pretty much to the last. We scored just before half-time so there was no momentum and then we butchered a try early in the second half which could have brought us back to 17-15. We got the penalty to make it 17-11 and then coughed up the kick-off and Ireland controlled the game from that point on.
It was a 14-point defeat that felt like a 40-point defeat because I never really felt we were in the game. Ireland were brilliant at disrupting the contact area and this meant that they didn’t really need to get out of second gear to win.
I thought Scotland were better than this, I thought we could impose our game on any team for a period of the match to properly impact the outcome of that match. We did it against South Africa in the Autumn before they pulled away in the last 10 minutes. On Sunday, the game was almost done after 10 minutes.
Jason White: Ireland were completely dominant in the first half up until Duhan van der Merwe scored. They squeezed us and gave us no avenues into the game. I think it was at least twice that we held up them over the line.
Watching it had the feel of a much bigger scoreline at half-time. We had a period of pressure in the second half but needed to kick which we were not able to do. Obviously losing both Finn Russell and Darcy Graham in the same play was a huge blow and certainly did not help.
Van der Merwe’s acrobatic try gave the Scots brief hope but the comeback was not to be
Do Scotland have a mental block against Ireland?
AN: I don’t think they do. It is all physical for me. Ireland clearly had a game plan to be fiercely competitive at the breakdown and it worked. They got penalty turnovers and when they didn’t get the penalty, they slowed the ball down to allow their defence to be fully formed for the next contact. Scotland were running into a green brick wall all day long.
The start wasn’t helped with two of our best players going off from the same incident. Much has been made of Scotland’s backline before the Six Nations, yet 10 minutes into the second game, we had Tom Jordan at 10, Stafford McDowall at 12 and Jamie Dobie, a scrum-half, on the wing. This was very unlucky but these things do happen.
CC: I do think there’s a case to be made that some of these players are so scarred by 11 straight defeats by Ireland that it has become a mental block. Certainly under Townsend, this team are continuing to make the same mistakes in these matches against the Irish and continuing to fall short in the same areas. To do the same thing repeatedly over and over again and fall short, that’s a failure of Townsend’s coaching and a failure in Scotland’s game plan.
At no point on Sunday did they look like a team who genuinely believed they could win the game. Townsend claimed afterwards that it would have been a ‘massive shock’ had Scotland won. That’s quite an alarming thing for a head coach to say. On and off the pitch, there was a lack of belief and conviction in everything Scotland did.
JW: For me, Ireland again confirmed that they are one of the best in the world and we are in the tier below. It is hugely frustrating that the losing run against them continues and the pressure will mount again the next time we play them. Getting ahead on the scoreboard early is key and we were so far away from that in the first half.
Rory Sutherland is squeezed out as the Irish take a firm grip on proceedings at Murrayfield
Rory Darge claimed Scotland hadn’t been bossed in the physical battle? Do you agree?
CC: Darge is a fine player, but he’s talking nonsense. Scotland lost the physical battle emphatically in that first half. It really wasn’t up for debate. The first half-hour set the tone for everything. This is where Scotland enter the realms of delusion. Rather than just holding their hands up and saying: ‘Yeah, we weren’t good enough, that was unacceptable’, it’s almost like they try and gaslight people into believing a different narrative.
Sitting together at the top table, there was a moment in the post-match press conference where Darge turned to Townsend as if he was almost looking for verification on something and permission to speak. This squad are so detached from reality at times, so afraid to actually speak honestly, that it becomes painful to watch. Ultimately, that comes from the top. There’s a lack of personality and accountability.
JW: It is interesting that is how Darge felt on the pitch. If not bossed, we certainly did not get parity or win the physical battle which is so key. Ireland’s accuracy was better and they had so many small victories in the first half that stopped us from exerting any pressure on them.
AN: We were bossed in the physical battle, absolutely. Darge will defend this and he has a right to because he and others like the Fagerson brothers carried it well and defended well at times. It was the collective physicality that won through for Ireland and the consistency of it.
Co-captain Rory Darge insisted Scotland had not been muscled out… but he was fooling no one
What sort of shape does this leave Scotland in as they head to Twickenham?
JW: Definitely licking our wounds. We have won at Twickenham twice in recent years, so there is no reason the group will not fancy it. We will be underdogs after England beat France, which is definitely a good thing for us. This England team worries me with a good victory behind them.
AN: Scotland are still very much in the tournament but to remain so, they must win at Twickenham. England were good in patches and hung in there to give themselves a chance of winning the game at the very end. They were allowed to because France made more handling errors in one game than you would expect from them in the whole tournament! Even the great Antoine Dupont dropped a try-scoring pass. France could have been 21 points up with the game won at half-time but they were not and England exploited this to the max.
England will be full of confidence from the win but they still have issues to deal with in their selection, although they have found the stand-off to start and that is Fin Smith. Scotland know they can win there but it will be very tough indeed.
Darge leads his battered and bruised team-mates past the Irish guard of honour at full-time
CC: Fair play to England for beating France. They managed to fight back and scrape over the line, but I don’t buy this narrative that they are suddenly back with a bang. Ultimately, England profited from some horrendous errors from France. The French left a good two or three tries out there due to some woeful handling errors.
It wasn’t the sort of performance from England that screamed of a team being reborn. Personally, I just didn’t see that. But, then again, nothing I’ve seen from Scotland over the opening two games gives me any great confidence that they can go down and win at Twickenham.
Townsend keeps telling us that Scotland have improved and moved on since the World Cup, but I don’t see it. It feels like his tenure is reaching an end-point. If Scotland were to lose at Twickenham, and lose heavily, it might only accelerate his departure. Why? Because they would be staring down the barrel of another two-win championship.
What happens if Finn Russell and Darcy Graham both don’t make it?
CC: There’s going to need to be a major reshuffle in the backline. Already without Sione Tuipulotu and Kyle Steyn, you can add Graham to the list of absentees. One option might be to move Tom Jordan to full-back, Blair Kinghorn to the wing, with Russell at 10. But, given the news that he’s being treated for concussion as a failed HIA, it now seems unlikely Russell will play. He won’t be able to train in the build-up, meaning Scotland must devise a game plan without him. Jordan would most probably play at fly-half, with Stafford McDowall at centre, and perhaps Kyle Rowe on the wing. It’s all a bit messy.
Russell was withdrawn despite passing his HIA and is now set to miss the trip to Twickenham
AN: The reality will be Tom Jordan starts at 10 and Kyle Rowe comes in on the wing. They are both good players but they do not have the proven international pedigree that Russell and Graham have.
Both are right in the mix for the Lions in the summer so any team would suffer from losing this level of quality. Both are game-breakers; they do things that can win you tight matches and that is exactly what Scotland need to go to Twickenham and win.
JW: Firstly, it was great to see the Scotland team prioritising Finn’s health after he passed his HIA and keep him off. Any team would miss two players like them. We have the squad to cover but it would be a tough one to take.
I am crossing my fingers both recover and, although the extra week certainly helps, it does look unlikely that we’ll see them at Twickenham.
