Meek Scotland simply can’t afford any more feckless performances

For the incurably optimistic, Scotland must be torture to watch.

In truth it’s not as if we hadn’t been warned that this might happen. Under Gregor Townsend the Scots have been caught in the headlights and frozen before, in fact in a series of away games during his tenure.

This wasn’t strictly an away game, but with the Irish outnumbering the Scots quite comfortably among the 64,000 in the sprawling bowl of the Yokohama Stadium, it felt more alien to the men in blue than to those in green.

The coaching team seem to be at a loss to explain it. Time and again we’re told that preparation has been detailed and thorough, primed to help the team hit the ground running at tournament speed. Too often they’re so off the pace that the game is already gone before they’ve had a chance to regroup.

This is on Townsend. It’s his preparation plan, carefully compiled for months beforehand and executed on the training camps to the letter, and it’s his attention to detail that everyone is so impressed by. If it’s in any way off the mark it’s his responsibility.

Capitulating meekly in Nice, in the first of the four warm-up games, was easily explicable. In fact it was a negative that would become a positive, in that it was the kick up the backside that was needed.

Even allowing for this accommodating assessment, this first game of the tournament was therefore downright unforgivable.

There was plenty evidence that Scotland got it tactically way wrong. They attempted to force an open game long before the Irish defence were ever on the back foot, if they ever were. Irish defenders were primed to fly up and get in the face of Finn Russell and Stuart Hogg, and with considerable success.

The old cliché that you have to earn the right to go wide probably applies, although Townsend demurred, suggesting that you can go wide if there’s space to do so. But he conceded that space wasn’t there when the Scots tried to attack in the first half, too often leading to a loose pass and a chase back to their own territory.

Scotland can play a more physical game, but they didn’t even attempt to.

A wild miss-pass attempt by Duncan Taylor set up Ireland with an attacking lineout from where they built their first try.

Stuart Hogg was snared in possession on the run, a penalty ensued, and Ireland had their platform for Rory Best’s score.

An inside flick by Russell to Tommy Seymour off mediocre attacking ball in Ireland’s 22 went to ground, Garry Ringrose hacked ahead and a few moments later Tadhg Furlong was over for the third score.

Perhaps they were in a hurry for points with the rain set to come. But even after the calamity of losing two tries in 12 minutes, they should have been building gradually to get back in the game, not risking everything with over-intricate moves with an hour still to play.

Scotland can’t afford any more of these feckless performances if they are to achieve the bottom line, which is to make the last eight, where they now are slated to meet New Zealand. Some reward for that.

But if they can’t even manage that, other questions will be asked. Including, since every other Six Nations team is changing their management team at the end of this World Cup, why don’t we do it too?

There was plenty evidence that Scotland got it tactically way wrong

Gregor Townsend should be held responsible for Scotland display.