'Ireland played well... they always seem to play well against us'

Gregor Townsend admitted Scotland were given a hard reality check in Dublin as Ireland stretched their decade-long dominance of the fixture with a 43–21 win that extinguished Scottish hopes of a first Triple Crown since 1990.

Fresh from last week’s seven try thriller against France, Scotland arrived at the Aviva Stadium talking openly about belief, momentum and the chance to take the Six Nations title fight to the wire.

Instead, Ireland surged clear early, punished Scottish inaccuracies, and closed the game out with the kind of clinical edge that has repeatedly haunted Townsend’s side in this match-up.

Asked for his reflections, the Scotland head coach was adamant the Championship as a whole should still be viewed positively, but he acknowledged that Ireland once again too good for his charges.

“The performances we’ve delivered, especially those three victories, is some of the best rugby that I’ve seen this team play,” said Townsend. “Today, it’s a reminder and a lesson. The reminder is this is what we need to do to play at our best and when we do that we can (compete against) one of the best teams in the world.

“Ireland are ranked third in the world, like England and France were,” said Townsend.

“We’ve gone up against some of the best teams in the world and in that period, we scored points, we put them under pressure.

“But the lesson is it has to be for a longer period, we’re not saying 80 minutes, no one can play 80 minutes where they dominate possession. But we’ve got to be better when we do have those opportunities.

“(It’s) just another game for us to know what works and what we have to lean into more, double down on more. We have to keep at our game.”

Scotland were 19–7 down at the break and twice rallied to within a single score in the second half, but Ireland’s response was ruthless each time. Tommy O’Brien’s late brace wrapped up the bonus point win and underlined once again why Scotland have not beaten Ireland since 2017.

Townsend said his side paid for a slow start, but insisted that inconsistency is simply part of high-level Test rugby.

“That’s sport, that’s rugby. If you want a perfect performance every week then you’re living in fantasy land.

“Every team is going to have moments in the game where they don’t do as well as the opposition, every team’s going to have a performance, especially in the Six Nations, where they don’t achieve their highest level of rugby.

“The positive was that we regrouped in the second half, we played some excellent rugby but it wasn’t enough to win.

“They (Ireland) played well – they always seem to play well against us. We needed to be better today.”