COMMENT: Football provided the shocks... but Scotland's defeat to Ireland was lamentably predictable As someone who supports Rangers and Liverpool, this was an afternoon that couldn’t have gone much worse for Gregor Townsend.
Not that the Scotland head coach would have had much time to lament his football teams’ cup exits as he picked over the bones of another defeat to Ireland.
Every team in every sport has a bogey team that they just can’t seem to beat no matter the circumstances or personnel — and Scotland’s is undoubtedly Ireland.
Barring a brief spell at the start of the second half when they reduced the deficit to six points, they didn’t play like a side that really believed they had what it took to defeat Ireland at the 11th time of asking.
There will be talk about cutting out individual errors, ‘easy fixes’ and ‘trusting in the process’ over the next fortnight before Scotland head to Twickenham to try to stop an England side buoyed by that win over France.
