Huw Jones was standing in a tunnel in Murrayfield on Saturday when the Ireland question came. “Ten defeats in a row, Huw. It’s time this stopped, isn’t it?”
Yes, replied the centre, full of bravado after scoring a hat-trick against Italy. “We’re winning this game and we mean it this time,” he said. He jabbed his finger in the air and spoke with passion about eight years' worth of angst about to be dumped on Irish heads at Murrayfield on Sunday. He looked straight down the camera lens: “Ireland,” he said. “Prepare for a world of pain.”
Actually, that wasn’t quite how it went down, although the thought of it might excite a few in Ireland who love the lazy trope about the uppity Scots. As an Irishman living in Scotland for 20 years, the truth is that these players and the ones that went before couldn’t be more grounded in their reality if they had concrete boots on.
Jones’ actual response to that question was a smile that said “this again!” This weary dance he’s danced before on so many occasions as part of losing Scotland teams against Ireland.
Scotland v Ireland: TV details, kick-off time and team news for Sunday’s Murrayfield clash
Ireland name team to play Scotland: Live updates as Peter O’Mahony is selected in starting lineup
More than any other nation in the world it’s Ireland that Scotland want to beat
‘We’re trying to be more clinical and accurate': Bundee Aki turns attention to Scotland
How to answer while displaying confidence in his own team’s ability to win on Sunday? How to get across how overwhelmingly sweet it would be to beat Ireland after so many failures without upsetting those delicate flowers across the water who seem to become Mr Spock this time of year, all ears waiting to pick up traces of this weird Irish invention of SCOTLAND TALKING THEMSELVES UP (STTU)
“This is the one we want,” said Jones. “I mean, they’ve had our number for years now. It’s time to front up and have a really special performance. I don’t know what more I can say about that.
“Look, we’ve wanted this one for a long time, and we never quite get it. It’s going to be a massive challenge. It’s a real cliche, but it’s the big match temperament, isn’t it? That’s what we need to find. I feel like I say the same thing every year.”
Does he feel closer to a breakthrough against Ireland now than he has done before? “I don’t know. Last year was one of our best performances (in Dublin). It was a close game, but, again, we didn’t quite take our chances. We defended for a very long time and when we did get out of our half, just a couple of errors and then we’re straight back into our 22 and defending again. So we were kind of our own worst enemy.”
Was he watching what he said in the preamble to Sunday? “Especially with Ireland,” he replied. “You never want to spill over. You obviously don’t want to say anything that is going to come back to bite you.”
There has been, to these ears, one example of a Scottish player getting ahead of himself before this fixture. It was Blair Kinghorn before the World Cup meeting in Paris in 2023. He was asked a bit of a leading question (I know because I asked it) about ending Ireland’s unbeaten run.
He bit. You could tell by the expression on his face that he regretted predicting a Scotland win the second the words had left his mouth. It all became pretty embarrassing on game day when the contest was as good as over at half time.
As far as Scotland talking themselves up goes, that’s it. That’s really all there is. Unless you count a succession of Scottish players saying that they believed they were good enough to beat Ireland – what the hell else would they say? – then there’s nothing more to support the view of the cocky Scots. It’s a myth and yet, bizarrely, it’s taken hold in certain quarters in Ireland.
What’s very real, however, is Scotland’s raging desire to beat Ireland. More than any other nation in the world it’s Ireland they want to beat. England? They’ve beaten them four times in a row. France? They’ve won four of the last 10. South Africa and New Zealand? No, not even close. It’s Ireland.
And, yes, there’s a bit of an edge between the nations from past games. And, yes again, we’ve knocked great craic out of that – Scotland not travelling in 1972, Nathan Hines trying to choke Ronan O’Gara (he didn’t), O’Gara accusing the Scots of being too mouthy (they weren’t), Glasgow’s Niko Matawalu biting Donncha O’Callaghan (not guilty), Glasgow targeting Conor Murray’s standing leg, red-carded Keith Earls accusing Fraser Brown of milking a tip tackle, Peter O’Mahony putting Stuart Hogg out of the Six Nations, Busgate, World Cup bidgate with one version of why Scotland voted for France over Ireland as host nation in 2023 coming out of the IRFU and an entirely different version coming out of the SRU.
Scotland have had eight years of this. Eight years and 10 Tests full of every emotion bar joy and relief. They’ve had enough.
Loads of aggro. Tremendous stuff. Ireland’s answer to this has been to beat Scotland every time they’ve played them in the last 10 meetings (with only one defeat in the last 15). They’ve won Grand Slams and championships, two of which were sealed against the Scots, one in Dublin last year and another in Edinburgh in 2015.
Scotland’s main problem is not with Ireland. Not really. Without wanting to get all Freudian on this, Scotland’s big problem is with Scotland.
They felt embarrassment after two World Cup non-performances in Yokohama in 2019 and Paris and 2023. They felt pained when butchering buckets of chances in Dublin in 2018, a game they could have won. There’s been a few of those.
They felt angry after gifting Conor Murray an easy score in 2019 when Paul O’Connell, as pundit, said Ireland were not the better team. There’s been more than a few of those.
There was the angst in Stuart Hogg dropping the ball over the Ireland line in a seven-point game in 2020, and the mortification in Hogg’s stupidity in going for the corner in Dublin in 2022 with his centre Sam Johnson free beside him. Hugo Keenan put him into touch. A converted try would have made it 14-12 to Ireland but the momentum would have been with Scotland. Instead their challenge went out like a light.
Scotland’s capacity for self-harm has taken many forms in this fixture – missed chances, physical batterings and, in 2023, psychological weakness in the face of an Ireland machine that knew exactly what to do when crisis hit.
Famously Ireland players were dropping like flies at Murrayfield that day. For the last half an hour they had Cian Healy at hooker and Josh van der Flier as lineout thrower and still won those minutes 14-0. That was a different level of torment for Scotland and yet more time spent in rugby therapy.
Last year was tight, a four-point game in which Scotland gave Ireland a free seven when they botched a lineout and Dan Sheehan went over. You could argue that Ireland are inflicting this hurt on Scotland – and you’d be right – but the way they see it is that in many cases they are inflicting this hurt on themselves – and they’re also right.
Scotland have had eight years of this. Eight years and 10 Tests full of every emotion bar joy and relief. They’ve had enough. If hunger won games they’d be hard to beat. On Gregor Townsend’s watch they won in Twickenham for the first time in 38 years and won in Paris and Cardiff for the first time in 22 years, but if they win on Sunday the celebrations might make those seismic days look like tea parties. If. Always if.
Tom English is chief sports writer and broadcaster at BBC Scotland
