In sporting vernacular Scotland have long looked on Dublin as a “hard place to go”. Roughly an hour’s flight time from Edinburgh, they get to stay in a decent hotel, play in a relatively modern stadium with good facilities, against modestly resourced opponents, and in conditions they could never describe as alien. Despite this comforting familiarity, ever since Dan Parks nailed a touchline penalty at Croke Park in 2010 to scuttle Ireland’s triple crown voyage the Scots have associated this fixture with trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube wearing oven gloves.
On it goes. Faced with the losing run in the fixture hitting a dozen, Scotland did their best to change the narrative. There was no consolation prize in this triple crown decider, but perhaps a sliver of satisfaction at having played a huge part in an enthralling game of rugby where the outcome revealed itself only with 12 minutes left.
