Hard to fathom how easily Scotland get up Ireland’s noses

Us Scots have to admit that our positive talk has increasingly had a habit of straying into the realms of hubris, and it is slowly dawning on even the most patriotic of Scots that it has contributed to a critical weakness in the team’s psyche

Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend. Picture: INPHO/Billy Stickland

It wasn’t a surprise to hear Tadhg Beirne have a gentle dig at Scotland earlier this week.

“The Scots are the Scots,” he said. “We have our perception of them and I’m not going to verbalise it here because they’ve given us ammo in the past from what they’ve said in the media. And I would be surprised if it was any different this week.”