'Ireland live rent free in Scotland's heads - again'

Jack Dempsey and Scotland suffered a bruising 32-18 defeat by Ireland

As they strive to find new ways to raise revenues at Murrayfield, Scottish Rugby could do worse than having a giant Peter O'Mahony pinata hanging from the lower reaches of the east stand.

They'd be queuing round the block to give Scotland's great bogey man some stick. A fortune could be made.

On Sunday, O'Mahony wasn't as influential or as objectionable, to Scottish eyes, as he normally is, but the mere fact that the veteran forward was there had a psychological relevance.

This was another day when Ireland lived rent free in Scottish heads - and then proceeded to wreck the joint.

Gregor Townsend has taken Scotland a long way, but the head coach is running to stand still against Ireland. Eleven games, 11 defeats, too many of them decided too early, as was the case again on Sunday.

It was the roaring predictability of it all that hit Scotland the hardest. Nothing about this latest defeat was surprising.

It took Ireland eight minutes to score at Murrayfield, the nerveless Sam Prendergast enjoying time and space and a penalty advantage to throw a long left-to-right pass to Calvin Nash, all on his lonesome.

In Scotland's grim history in this contest, it was an entirely familiar occurrence, one you could have set your watch by. Dan Sheehan, James Lowe, Robbie Henshaw, Johnny Sexton, James Ryan and Conor Murray have all scored early against Scotland in recent years.

Lowe took two minutes to strike at the World Cup in Paris in 2019. Ryan took seven minutes four years earlier in Yokohama. Henshaw took eight minutes at Murrayfield in 2021.

None of those scores came later than the 13th minute and all of them, of course, set Ireland on their way to victory.

So, when Nash touched down in the corner on Sunday, those with a half-decent memory and a fatalistic bent started to lose all hope for Townsend's team. Injuries to Finn Russell and Darcy Graham added to the darkness of the day.

This was more of the same. Not quite as awful as Yokohama or Paris, but close enough.

To be 17-0 down after 31 minutes at home was mortifying, but the reality was that it could and should have been more. Ireland were denied a pretty clear penalty try and were held up over the Scotland line twice.

They didn't just quieten the home crowd, they stunned them into silence.

Ireland went direct with menace. Not many airs, not many graces. No need. Just venomous carries from their big units and gainline, gainline, gainline.

The physical power of this Ireland team is matched by the intelligence and game awareness of its leaders. They are a coherent and efficient force, brilliantly organised. Attritional and relentless.

For 11 games in a row now, Scotland have been salmon leaping and Ireland have been the grizzlies waiting at falls-edge to gobble them up.

Townsend's team worship at the altar of width. They rely on fast ball and Hollywood moments from their wonderful attackers to break down defences, but that rarely happens against Ireland.

There is no other way for them under Townsend. It's Hollywood or bust.

Ireland get ahead and they stay ahead. That's what they do.

More than any other team that Scotland play, they have a capacity to shut the Scots down, to render their dangermen largely irrelevant amid the suffocating intensity of their game.

Consider this: under Townsend, Scotland have scored an average of 13 points in their games against South Africa with an average of 18 against Wales, 20 against France and New Zealand, 23 against England and 27 against Australia.

Against Ireland, the average is 12 as opposed to Ireland's 26. The gap on Sunday was 14, which is bang on the 11-game norm.

Scotland visit England next in the Six Nations

Townsend will get heat for this latest loss, not just because they were beaten - most people predicted an away win - but because they were beaten playing the same brand of rugby that always sees them beaten by Ireland.

On Townsend's watch, Scotland have won five out of seven against England, with one draw. They've beaten France five times and have beaten Wales twice in a row - with historic away victories against both.

They are four wins from five against the Wallabies and, in two Tests against the All Blacks, they were there until the end, losing one by five and the other by eight. But Ireland? It's a recurring nightmare.

There was a list of things that Scotland had to do, and could not do, that was as long as the Corstorphine Road and they barely ticked a box. Stifled, again. Unable to handle Ireland's pressure, again. Error-ridden, again.

Blair Kinghorn might play for the greatest club in the world, but he had no great protectors here as he does at Toulouse. The full-back had one of his worst days in a Scotland jersey. A talented athlete, the green shirt is his kryptonite and he is not alone in that.

Scotland needed more aggression, more belligerence, more directness, but they cannot live with Ireland in those areas. They don't have enough heavies. There is only a certain level of nasty in this team - and that's part of the problem.

Scotland can win, or at least be competitive, against most nations these days because their backs can have a devastating impact, but against the unrelenting Ireland machine, it's a different story.

Townsend badly missed captain Sione Tuipulotu's dominant presence in the midfield and you sense that, if some of his other second rows were not injured right now, he would not have started with the two he started with.

When they are back on their feet, the present, and future, in the second row are Scott Cummings and Max Williamson along with Gregor Brown and Cameron Henderson.

Scotland need more thunder, more brutes. To get to another level, they need monsters to meet the likes of Ireland on the gainline and hammer them backwards.

They don't have anything like the carries or the force from their locks when it is Grant Gilchrist and Jonny Gray, fine players though they are.

You can add Andy Onyeama-Christie into the mix of sadly absent warriors. Whether from the start or off the bench, the back row is part of the solution.

In Dublin last year, in a game that went to the wire with only four points between them at the end, the Saracens forward had a fantastic edge to him and made 31 tackles. So, there is a cavalry, but it's stricken right now.

We won't see them this Six Nations, which is painful, because it's England away next and the odds are against Scotland making it five in a row.

England are not Ireland, though. So the psychology is different and the hope is real.

Scotland will not be beaten before the first whistle at Twickenham. That was the suspicion on Sunday.

Outplayed, yes. Overpowered, undoubtedly. But you got a sense, too - and not for the first time - that it was over almost before it began.