Scotland wing Sean Maitland insists the Dark Blues will not change their free-flowing brand of attack despite seeing another set of self-inflicted mistakes cost them dearly in Dublin.
Gregor Townsend’s team had arrived at the Aviva Stadium hoping to blow the Six Nations title race wide open with a win.
However, Ireland were able to keep their Grand Slam charge on track after Peter Horne gifted Jacob Stockdale the opening score.
To compound matters, the Scots wasted three golden chances to score as Huw Jones, Stuart Hogg and the luckless Horne all messed up gilt-edged openings, allowing Joe Schmidt’s team to run up a 28-8 victory.
It was the second time in this campaign that an intercepted try derailed the Scots. The wheels came off in Cardiff when Ali Price handed Gareth Davies an easy run-in for Wales.
Maitland had sympathy for his unfortunate team-mate but says there is no reason to rip-up Townsend’s flamboyant gameplan.
“This is how we want to play,” said the Saracens flier. “Peter will be gutted. We did talk about their winger, who loves to come up looking for those intercepts.
“But we want to chuck the ball about among ourselves and have fun.
“Obviously that try was early in the game and after that we had a pretty obvious opportunity when Huw broke through and things could have been a lot different.
“Are the mistakes we made easily fixed? Yes, big time. Obviously, it sucks to lose but if we’re judging ourselves on the Wales game, the effort wasn’t there, we didn’t work hard, we didn’t play for each other.
“This time we might have lost by 20 but the effort was there, the energy, too. It’s just a few little tweaks we need to fix.”
Much was expected of the Dark Blues this term following their impressive autumn exploits.
They recovered well from that false start at the Principality Stadium with wins against France and England – their first Calcutta Cup triumph in 10 years – but suffered another heavy defeat as they failed to match Ireland’s ruthlessness.
Scotland’s 22-year wait to record three straight wins goes on but Maitland feels his side will go into the match with Italy in Rome believing they have made major strides in recent months. He added: “We’re not that far from competing for titles) The Six Nations is obviously a really tough competition and it never gets any easier, especially playing three away games against quality teams.
“But we’re not far away. We’re working hard every week and it’s just the small things we need to fix. Hopefully we can sort that out come Italy.”
Maitland believes there is consolation for Scotland in the performance of Blair Kinghorn.
The Edinburgh wing marked his first international start with a try and could have had a couple more had Hogg and Horne’s passing skills not betrayed them.
“I thought he was quality,” said Maitland. “He could have had a hat-trick if things had gone our way.
“He’s a really exciting one for the future. He’s a big boy and he’s rapid – a big horse.
“If Tommy Seymour is back from injury there’s going to be some selection headaches but that’s good to have.”
Townsend, meanwhile, admits Scotland remain a work in progress as they aspire to reach the levels of Grand Slam-chasing Ireland.
The Dark Blues contributed to their own downfall in Dublin as their hopes of mounting a late bid for the Six Nations title crumbled.
While Ireland showed no mercy as they ran in the scores, Townsend’s players were guilty of blowing three golden opportunities to claw themselves back into the match.
The frustration of those missed chances stung the Scotland head coach and he urged his men to learn the lessons in the same way their conquerors did following Joe Schmidt’s 2013 appointment as the Ireland coach.
“We’re very proud of how the team played but there is a realisation that we have more work to do,” Townsend said.
“We are three or four years behind Ireland in terms of what they’ve done and achieved in there experiences over the last few years.
“We need to make sure that when we have these experiences that are tough, it goes into our work to improve.
“We play again Ireland next year in the Six Nations and we will play them again in 18 months in the World Cup.
“We need to make sure we are a better team when we play them.”