Forget his domination over England, Gregor Townsend’s tenure as Scotland head coach will ceaselessly be outlined by his failure to beat the Irish

A few months ago, the one and only Bill Murray was in Dublin to promote a golf documentary he is making for the BBC.

Although golf is very much his main love, the legendary Hollywood actor has also dabbled in rugby on his trips to Ireland.

The series followed Murray and some friends on a road trip around the country, playing some of its top courses. Naturally, there were moments of typically wicked humour and self-deprecation.

‘I started out caddying, and golf was the best education I ever received. Ireland feels like the right place to put all that to work,’ said Murray.

Yet,when it comes to the great man’s back catalogue, it wasn’t Caddyshack that sprung to mind on Saturday. Groundhog Day felt far more appropriate.

As hordes of Scotland fans left The Aviva and made their way back into the city centre, the feeling that they had just watched the same movie for the 100th time was impossible to avoid.

They were swept aside as little more than an irrelevance by an Ireland team who won the Triple Crown, but were denied the Six Nations title courtesy of the late, late drama in Paris.

By that stage in the evening, Scotland were on the outside pawing at the glass as Dublin threatened to erupt into the mother of all parties.

On social media, Gerry Adams wrote: ‘Come on England!’ Nothing summed up the absurdity of the situation more than that. Ireland prayed for an England win and very nearly got it.

Indeed, they almost certainly *would* have got it had it not been for a moment of madness from England’s Henry Pollock, who, with only 60 seconds left against France, lost possession after going for an offload that was never on.

When a penalty from Thomas Ramos then sailed between the posts for a 48-66 triumph, the greatest Six Nations championship of the modern era had the thrilling climax it so richly deserved.

Watching the game back at their hotel, the Scotland players must have felt an almighty sense of regret. A day of what might have been, a day of deflation, a day of anti-climax, a day of being Ireland’s punchbag once more.

The final standings will show that Scotland finished in third place with three wins. Given the darkness and depths of despair post-Rome, that’s a huge turnaround.

The thrilling highs they produced against France, the reassertion of their dominance over England, the gutsy comeback win in Cardiff. Progress? Yes, but progress with a major asterisk. One that denotes we are still no closer to beating Ireland.

Gregor Townsend’s winless run in this fixture now extends to 12 matches. Scotland’s inability to beat the Irish will define his tenure just as much as their dominance in the Calcutta Cup against England.

They are no closer to getting over the line. Townsend spoke on Saturday night about this being a ‘lesson’ for the players.

How many more lessons against Ireland do they need? This was not a day for a learning experience. It was a day to win major silverware and Scotland fell a long way short.

The majority of their big players – Finn Russell, Sione Tuipulotu, Huw Jones, Zander Fagerson to name but a few – just didn’t turn up. Especially in the first half, they were miles off it.

This was probably Russell’s poorest game of the championship on a day when Scotland needed him to be at the peak of his powers.

The Scots flirted with the idea of mounting a comeback in the second half, twice clawing their way back to within five points of Ireland.

But it never felt like the visitors were properly in the game. They were clinging on. Ireland always had things in control. It was like watching a heavyweight boxer spar with a middleweight.

Scotland’s error count was through the roof. They squandered good field position on multiple occasions and failed to put Ireland under any kind of genuine pressure on the scoreboard.

The game just passed them by. Then came the usual platitudes about how Scotland will be stronger for this experience in the long run.

That felt like a bit of a cop-out. Scotland had a chance of winning a trophy on Saturday and at no point did they convince anyone that they might actually do it.

The promise of jam tomorrow remains as strong as ever with Townsend and this group of players. The head coach is now secure in his position until the World Cup in 18 months’ time, of that there is no question.

But, with Townsend in charge, Scotland will never beat Ireland. There’s a mental block. There is too much scar tissue now, too many wounds, too much psychological damage.

Too many repeated failures have made it impossible to believe in a scenario whereby Townsend finds a way to overcome this great green nemesis.

Ireland thoroughly deserved their victory on Saturday. In Tadhg Beirne, they had the outstanding player on the field, although Stu McCloskey wasn’t far behind him.

It was McCloskey who absolutely smashed Russell during the first half, knocking the ball out of the fly-half’s hands and thwarting a Scotland attack in Irish territory.

Beirne has taken the mantle from Peter O’Mahony in terms of being a total dog of a forward who sets the tone for Ireland against Scotland with his physicality.

Perhaps what surprised everyone was the pace and accuracy with which the Irish attacked. Their execution was excellent and they carved Scotland open at times.

Let’s bear in mind, this was supposed to be an Ireland team in transition and with issues at fly-half. But Andy Farrell’s side were mightily impressive.

Earlier in the week, Scotland winger Darcy Graham had claimed that the home side ‘were there for the taking’. He was wrong. Very wrong, indeed.

Ireland remain a cut above Scotland. They have too much power, they have too much class, and they have too much experience of winning these big matches.

Along with France, they will once again be the team to beat next year. But, whatever these six teams can serve up in 2027, it will be a tall order to beat the drama witnessed over these past few weeks.

The 2026 Six Nations saw a record number of tries scored [111], surpassing the previous record of 108 set last year.

The final round of matches on Super Saturday also brought the most tries [29] scored in a single day. On so many levels, it has been a brilliant championship.

For Scotland, however, it ended with yet another gut punch in Dublin. It is difficult to see how this team can ever hope to win a championship with Townsend at the helm.

Why? Because Ireland will invariably stand in his way at some point. As the stale smell of regret wafted through the air in Dublin, the notion of Scotland finally cracking the green code felt as far away as ever.