Scotland were miles off it during their humbling Six Nations defeat by Ireland - where it all went wrong for Gregor Townsend's side and what shape are they in for the England clash

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.