Pulverised by brute force and tactical intelligence

Those of us with an emotional investment in Scottish rugby have a complex relationship with the concept of hope. A long history of false dawns, of taking one step forward and two back, means a confusing cocktail of emotions – excitement shaken with a big dollop of dread – takes hold whenever the team shows a bit of promise going into a big tournament.

The most obvious recent example of this was at the start of the 2018 Six Nations when Gregor Townsend’s team travelled down to Cardiff off the back of an uplifting November schedule in which they had pushed New Zealand all the way and hammered Australia.