Scotland 18-32 Ireland: Townsend and his tormented players are blown away in familiar tale of woe

Battered and wearied at the end of yet another bruising Six Nations defeat to Ireland, this was an afternoon where Scotland’s pain and suffering felt more mental than it did physical. The sense of torment and psychological scarring was hard to avoid as Ireland dominated at Murrayfield to claim an 11th successive victory over the Scots. They remain firmly on track for the Grand Slam in their bid to become the first team ever to win three successive Six Nations titles.

For Scotland, any notion of them challenging for silverware still feels like a pipe dream. This was Groundhog Day for Gregor Townsend and his players. Scotland are now starting to sound like a broken record. Every year they claim to have learned from previous failures against Ireland. Every year those words are crushed under a green fist. Townsend’s side were physically dominated by the Irish, unable to match their physicality as well as their speed and accuracy with ball in hand.

Ireland celebrate as Jack Conan scores the last of their four tries  in a 32-18 win at Murrayfield. Duhan van der Merwe gives Scotland a glimmer of hope by touching down  just before half-time. Ben White scores a late try but it serves only as consolation in a familiar tale of woe for Scotland. In the first half especially, this was men against boys. How many times have we said that about a Scotland team in this fixture over the years?.

Ireland led 17-0 after half an hour. Bullying the Scots up front, winning all the collisions, smashing their way over the gain-line time and time again, Ireland were ferocious whilst Scotland were feeble. It carried echoes of the past two World Cups. In the end, this was as comprehensive as anything witnessed in Yokohama or Paris. It was a mauling. Scotland were swatted aside as an irrelevance by an Irish team who, already in week two, have the look of champions.

There had been talk that a Scottish victory here would blow the championship wide open after England had beaten France on Saturday night. Rather than blowing it wide open, Scotland were blown away. On a day of shocks elsewhere, they couldn’t do a Plymouth or a Queen’s Park. They couldn’t upset the odds, with this game panning out exactly the same way as so many others against Ireland have done over Townsend’s tenure.

Ireland were led superbly by their captain Caelan Doris, who set the tone for everything up front. Jamison Gibson-Park had a fine game at scrum-half, but he was outshone by half-back partner Sam Prendergast. Winning only his fifth cap, and playing his first Test match away from home, 21-year-old Prendergast barely put a foot wrong all afternoon in an excellent display which oozed composure. Scotland lost Finn Russell and Darcy Graham midway through the first half after a horrible clash of heads. But, by that point, the damage had already been done.

Even before Russell and Graham went off, Ireland’s foot was on Scotland’s throat. Those opening 40 minutes turned into a car crash for Townsend, one we’ve seen all too often against Ireland. The final scoreline flattered Scotland in the end. They will head to Twickenham in round three as a team with bruised pride after having their backsides handed to them by the men in green. In the moments prior to kick-off, the Murrayfield crowd rose to acclaim Sir Chris Hoy as he walked out to present the match ball.

A six-time Olympic champion and an 11-time world champion, Hoy was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer last year and the emotion inside the stadium was clear as supporters took the chance to salute a true icon of British sport. Scotland had hoped to use that emotion as fuel, but they failed to get out of the blocks. Almost right from the off, Ireland were utterly dominant. The opening try came after eight minutes, with young Prendergast looping a pass out wide to Calvin Nash to score in the corner.

Nash had come into the team as a late replacement for the injured Mack Hansen and, when Prendergast converted for 7-0, Ireland had the perfect start. Scotland had been penalised repeatedly for offside, with Ireland having three separate passages of penalty advantage before they finally scored. Nash almost had a second on 14 minutes as he chased a kick into the corner, only to be barged to the ground by Duhan van der Merwe. It was clumsy and needless from the big Scotland winger as there was no guarantee that Nash was actually going to get to the ball.

Van der Merwe was off to the bin for 10 minutes after Kiwi referee James Doleman produced a yellow card. Scotland breathed a sigh of relief that there was no penalty try, but they were rattled. They seemed spooked by it all. Ireland were relentless, their speed of ball invariably quick and punchy. They were winning all of the physical collisions, with Scotland’s sluggishness summed up by several kicks being charged down in the first half.