SCOTLAND ended 2020 with a 15-point defeat against Ireland, having lost to the same opposition at the same venue in their first game of the calendar year by just seven points back in February.  

Meanwhile, their penultimate game of 2020 was a seven-point defeat at home to France just over a fortnight ago, having beaten that team by 11 points pre lockdown.  

Despite this, scrum-half Ali Price insists that the team is moving in the right direction, and can look forward to the start of the 2021 Six Nations in two months’ time in an optimistic frame of mind. 

“We are in a completely different place to when the team came back from Japan,” insisted Price. “It’s been a strange year for everyone. The fact that we’ve been able to finish off the Six Nations and get these Nations Cup games played has been good.  
“I think we’ve played nine tests this year, and bar this one, we’ve been within a score of every result – win or lose. So, I think that shows massive character because we’ve come up against two or three of the best teams in the world, who are in the northern hemisphere.  

“We’ve matched those teams and, on our day, that’s what we’re capable of. 

“I think the way we’ve finished, the second half just gone [against Ireland], yeah, it’s disappointing,” he conceded. “But I think if you look at the big picture, look at how we’ve gone through the course of these nine games to get to where we are, we’re definitely in a better place than we were this time last year.” 

Scotland have not won in Dublin since 2010, so a victory on Saturday would have sent a powerful message about the team’s trajectory – and it was on the cards when Gregor Townsend’s side led 3-9 with half an hour played, having dominated both possession and territory.  

The visitors looked more dangerous with the ball in hand than they had managed all Autumn, but the game swung away from them as soon as inside-centre Duncan Taylor was yellow-carded for a deliberate knock-on in front of his own posts as Ireland really threatened for the first time in the match. 

Ireland pressed home their numerical advantage to score a penalty and try during the next ten minutes and Scotland couldn’t find a way back into it during the remainder of the match – proving that whatever progress Scotland have made with their physicality, they still have some way to go to match the top teams in the world when they shift into top-gear. 

“All week we focused on being physical at the breakdown, speed to breakdown, because it was an area where we’d struggled in the February game, especially in attack,” said Price. 

“In the first half, we matched that. Our ball carriers were carrying hard, our speed to support the carrier was good – and we were able to play, force penalties, and build a score.  

“But Test matches are won and lost on swings in small time periods of games – that can win you or lose you the match.  

“Coming out for the second half, we had been the better team for the first period, but poor discipline allowed Ireland to get good field position for the first five or ten minutes of that second half and they came away with points, which is something you can’t afford to happen.   

“Before you know it, you’re 14 points down and that’s hard to chase.” 

The penalty count made ugly reading for the Scotland team, with 15 decisions going against them compared to 10 against Ireland – and the most frustrating thing was that at least half were totally gratuitous.  

“It’s a tough one,” said Price. “When you’re on the field, you feel these momentum swings. We’ve talked before about trying not to compound error on error, penalty upon penalty, but when we started the second half, we did exactly that.  

“They had the ball and they were suddenly winning all the collisions. We fronted up, still, but it’s just a matter of time, almost, when you’re under that amount of pressure.   

“Against a good side who are going to keep the ball, it’s inevitable that they’ll come away with points.” 

Scotland players will return to their clubs this week and focus will quickly turn towards the kick-off of this season’s Heineken Champions Cup campaign next weekend. There is absolutely no letting up in the campaign. 

For captain Stuart Hogg, second-rows Jonny Gray and Sam Skinner, and scrum-half Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, that will mean lining up opposite some of their team-mates from the last few months when Glasgow Warriors – including Price, Scott Cummings, Fraser Brown and Zander Fagerson – head down to Sandy Park to take on Exeter Chiefs on Sunday afternoon. 

Before that, Edinburgh host La Rochelle at Murrayfield on Saturday night.