Pressure mounts after a dark day for Irish rugby

Scotland 12 Ireland 8

You know something has gone badly wrong when the winning side cannot believe their good fortune. The grins on Scottish faces after this charmed victory over a badly misfiring Ireland side told everything.

The match statistics tell you that Ireland enjoyed a staggering 71 per cent of possession and 77 per cent of the territory and yet still managed to slump to a second defeat in a row in the Six Nations for the first time in Declan Kidney’s reign.