LONG READ Johnnie Beattie: How Scotland can end Irish hoodoo after 'most dominant performance I've ever seen'

I don’t remember much about 20^th March 2010, the last time a men’s Scotland side won in Ireland. I was dropped off at our team hotel by horse and cart, whisky in hand, at 06:30 the following morning. I don’t remember how we ended up on the cart. I don’t remember where we’d been beforehand or how many beers I’d drank, save we’d had a hell of a night. I do remember Rory Best escorting us home like a genial tour guide, then dispatching the horse back to the Irish quarters.

Scottish fans still talk about that day, partly because our 23-20 victory has not been replicated since. I got on the end of a brilliant team try, scoring after Ross Ford, Kelly Brown and Graeme Morrison had linked down the left touchline. I bounced off the ground, teammates ecstatic, and looked all round the stadium at the smatterings of blue, erupting in a sea of green. Those moments stick with you. That feeling of delivering for your country, knowing people are bouncing into work on Monday morning. That’s what Scotland have the chance to do in Dublin this weekend.

They couldn’t have set themselves a better platform. I’ve been going to Murrayfield since I was five and as a fan, a player or a broadcaster, have never seen a performance so categorically dominant as the dismantling of France. Scotland are admired for how they attack but that style has not always paid dividends. It’s the opposite of how people see Steve Borthwick’s England, and Scotland have won the hard way, playing an incredible brand of rugby to perfection and producing one of the most momentous games of the championship.

FEEL THE BEATT 💥

Splendid @Scotlandteam offloading sets up a barnstorming @Johnnie_Beattie try against Ireland in 2010 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿#GuinnessSixNations pic.twitter.com/oJR9oowljU

— Guinness Men’s Six Nations (@SixNationsRugby) January 4, 2023

It was instructive to hear Shaun Edwards, France’s great defensive general, talking about the conditions on the day. He turned up, saw the sun shining and a crisp, dry pitch and, effectively thought ‘oh s**t’. France got nowhere near Scotland.

They generated super-quick ball through astonishingly efficient rucking, winning all 128 of the rucks they built. The ball in play time was over 41 minutes. That’s about six minutes higher than the average at the last Rugby World Cup, and a serious test of your anaerobic fitness. France had to attempt an astronomical 263 tackles and missed 55 of them. They have some bone-crunching specimens and Scotland got knocked back plenty in the middle chunk of the field, but that didn’t matter. The French were so out on their feet from chasing Scots and chasing the ball as it zipped from side to side, they didn’t have the gas to compete on the floor. Scotland were so fast and so diligent. They were chasing shadows. When has a Shaun Edwards defence missed 55 tackles? Or conceded 50 points? It’s never happened in his six years with the France squad.

The kick strategy was first class too. When France played into the sun, Finn Russell hoisted cross-field bombs on Thomas Ramos, who was squinting to follow the ball. Theo Attisogbe and Louis Bielle-Biarrey were assaulted in the air every time Ben White looked skywards. Kyle Steyn and Darcy Graham were phenomenal in applying pressure, in an aspect of play which is often seen as mundane. That was instrumental in starving France of possession. It meant the transition opportunities were all Scotland’s. Blue jerseys on scene before white ones. France on the back foot time and again. Man for man, Scotland outshone France tenfold. A 10-point final margin flattered the visitors.

I don’t think a Scottish team can play better than they did against France. I don’t think a different coach gets any more from these players than Townsend did at the weekend.

You look at this France team and you marvel at its jaw-dropping flair, but you also ask: would South Africa ever come to Murrayfield and allow that to happen? Would the Springboks unravel so spectacularly? Absolutely not. France have just shown their psychological frailties away from home and it will not be lost on the Scotland coaches the teams could meet again at the knockout phase of next year’s World Cup. Few would have given Scotland a prayer of dumping the French out. Now? The perception will change markedly.

Gregor Townsend had one of his most validating days as head coach. It felt like the prevailing opinion after the November collapses and the farce in Rome was for Townsend to be sacked and Franco Smith take charge. Had this championship panned out like most in recent years, the case for change would have been hard to resist. Even after beating England and Wales, plenty fans remained unconvinced. Had Scotland lost to France, even with a credible performance, he’d still have been under pressure.

Everything on Saturday was a box ticked for Townsend and his methodology. He needed that. Massively. He’s taken Scotland to within reach of a championship, playing the rugby he believes in. I don’t think a Scottish team can play better than they did against France. I don’t think a different coach gets any more from these players than Townsend did at the weekend. Gregor is going nowhere.

Ireland ripped Scotland apart to dump them out of a second straight Rugby World Cup at the pool stage in 2023 (Photo Christian Liewig – Corbis/Getty Images)

The failure to beat Ireland in nine years and 11 attempts as coach is probably the biggest stain on his record, particularly when two of those defeats were by huge scores and killed our 2019 and 2023 World Cup hopes at the pool stage.

Ireland have had our number for an age. The most frustrating element is how predictable the games have become, and how predisposed Ireland have been under Joe Schmidt and now Andy Farrell to neutering Gregor’s gameplan. All the facets – kick-chase and compete, set-piece, collision dominance, breakdown – have been won by the men in green. When we’ve had multi-phase possession, they impose themselves physically, get us on the deck early and compete extremely well. France did none of that.

Ireland are missing some key players, but remain number three in the world rankings. It’s whether the psychological bounce for Scotland will be enough to break that ominous gulf we have seen between the sides. And it has been a gulf, let’s be clear. Beating Ireland for the first time since 2017, and the first time on Irish soil since 2010, would be the anomaly.

You’re fighting the ingrained history of the fixture, and the security that gives Ireland in the final 20 minutes. “We know how to beat Scotland. We always beat Scotland.”

I don’t think an Irish side has the same mental swings as France. They don’t plumb the same depths when things go wrong. As much as they were put to the sword in Paris first up, Farrell fired into them, and their psychological and cultural preparation, and their level of tactical detail, mitigates strongly against that kind of display.

So their heads won’t go if Scotland build a lead. You won’t get the same weather conditions, nor the same defensive leniency. You won’t get the same time, space and energy on the ball. You won’t generate the same breakneck ruck speed. And you’re fighting the ingrained history of the fixture, and the security that gives Ireland in the final 20 minutes. “We know how to beat Scotland. We always beat Scotland.”

Scotland have to be so clinical because they won’t get many chances. This is not going to be another 90-point game. There will be fewer line breaks and opportunities to score. Previously, Ireland have squeezed Scotland and Scotland have panicked and overplayed, allowing the Irish to feast on their mistakes and suffocate the life out of them. If you’re firing shots and going forward, great. If you’re not, White and Russell have to control things. The flow will not be the same as it was against France. The half-backs will need to mix up their play and kick more frequently, and the physicality from the pack has to go up a notch again.

Stylistically, the teams which suit Scotland best are England and France. England have an often aimless kicking game and give the ball back to you, and a poor backline defensive structure. They’re almost porous. Scotland traditionally fight French fire with fire and have just blown them off the field. Ireland are the extreme opposite. More of an arm-wrestle contest. More accuracy and structure in how they play. This will be a harder game than France at home.

A whole load of unwanted tags have been shed since Gregor Townsend became coach. First win in Wales for 18 years. First win at Twickenham for 38. First win in Paris for 21. Home and away victories against Australia. But since the Five Nations became Six, Ireland and Wales have won the title six times each. Not only have Scotland never lifted the trophy, until now, they have never gone into ‘Super Saturday’ with an arithmetical chance. Nor have they won a Triple Crown since the last Grand Slam in 1990. They’re a game from doing that, playing rugby from the gods.

Nobody backed us 16 years ago. This was the team of Paul O’Connell and Brian O’Driscoll and Rob Kearney. These were the Grand Slam champions from the season before. Had it been a race, they’d have been a sleek thoroughbred and we’d have been the tired old Clydesdale who pulled our drunken carcasses up the road later that night. But we found a way, and this Scotland side is markedly better than we were.

I spoke to a few of the Scottish boys on Saturday evening. There were clearly no histrionics. A quiet beer, and back to their pursuit of history. Certainly no horse-and-cart rides over the cobbles of the Old Town.

Win, and the barbs which have dogged them for months will vanish. Nobody will question their mettle anymore. Nobody will care about what happened against New Zealand or Argentina, or what Gregor is or isn’t doing for Red Bull. They will have delivered something no Scotland team has for decades. I’ll drink to that.