‘Wind taken out of Scottish sails’ by Ireland defeat – Jones

In a Six Nations campaign that veered from looming dismay to potential glory, Scotland were ultimately left with a familiar feeling in Dublin – as good as they can be and have been in this championship, they are still not quite good enough.

The reaction to an opening defeat by Italy in Rome, a loss that threatened to blow their tournament off course right out the blocks, was impressive.

The wins over England, Wales and, in particular, the jaw-dropping victory over France suggested this Scotland team might just have discovered some tools you need to be battling at the sharp end for the big prizes.

They were there on the final day, playing for a Triple Crown and still in the title mix. That is undoubted progress for the simple reason they have not been in that position before.

But if the magnificent performance in putting 50 points on the eventual champions was a new peak for Scotland under Gregor Townsend, the way they were physically dominated by an inspired Irish team for a 12th consecutive match was a stark reminder of their limitations.

“I guess as a squad we came here full of confidence,” said Huw Jones.

“We knew it was going to be tough. We didn’t come here thinking it’s going to be easy, we’re going to beat Ireland, and we’re all going to be celebrating after the game.

“We knew we had to put the work in and obviously the performance wasn’t quite there.

“I think right now it feels like the wind has just been taken out of our sails. Obviously it’s the end of the championship, you don’t have another week to put it right.

Jones is one of those personalities who carries an air of positivity whether speaking after a win or a defeat, but talking to reporters in the bowels of the Aviva Stadium after the game, his mood was uncharacteristically dark.

Perhaps it was his own individual display that fell well short of his lofty standards that left him feeling so low.

He was beating himself up for the “stupid error” of spilling a restart after Scotland had started to find a way through the Irish storm with Rory Darge’s try to get back to 26-21. “An absolute killer” as Jones described it.

It might have been seeing his first genuine shot at silverware in a decade of playing for Scotland go up in smoke that was hard to handle.

“I think they’re very good at derailing our game,” Jones said. “You obviously just can’t let that happen. I think that’s going to be the key going forward.

“This is obviously the game that every year that goes on that we don’t win. It becomes a bigger and bigger thing.

By the time the sides meet at Murrayfield in the 2027 Six Nations, it will have been a decade since the Scots last tasted victory over the Irish.

Andy Farrell’s side are one of the best in the world and it has been Townsend’s misfortune that his reign has coincided with the strongest period in Irish rugby history.

The counterpoint is that he has faced other top sides – not least a France team in round four that looked on an unstoppable charge to the Grand Slam – and devised a gameplan to beat them.

Yet Townsend seems no closer to solving the Irish puzzle that has wrecked his ambitions at two World Cups and numerous Six Nations. They will meet again in the pool stage of the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia.

It is impossible not to judge this defeat as the latest chapter of the same story, but it is worth considering many Irish pundits and journalists viewed this as Ireland’s best performance since the 2023 World Cup.

Scotland bookending their campaign with the dispiriting loss in Rome and another sobering lesson in Dublin does leave that familiar flat feeling, but the three wins in between provided definite grounds for optimism.

With many predicting a bottom-half finish, third place– as high as Scotland have ever placed in the Six Nations – represents a solid campaign. The problem is for some of Scotland’s more experienced heads, solid is no longer enough.

“At the end of the game, you see the Irish boys lifting the Triple Crown and you know it was on the line today,” Jones said.

“You don’t know how long you’re going to have time in the jersey. You don’t know when your next opportunities are going to be, if they’re going to be there or not.

“So, you’ve got to grab at any chance you get. We didn’t get it right. There have been times in the championship where we’ve been brilliant. We haven’t all the time. I think in this competition, to win it, you have to be at your best every week. We’ve never really found that.