In trying to sum up Scotland’s women’s overall performance in the Guinness Six Nations, several phrases came to mind. So near and yet so far, a glorious failure and a moral victory all figured in my mind briefly, but here’s what I finally concluded…

It was so near and yet so far against Ireland, but as I shall show that was the fault of over-ambitious Scots. I can’t remember who said it but the person who stated show me a moral victor and I’ll show you a loser and the other wit who said show me a glorious failure and I’ll show you who came second both got it right.

In professional sports, losing is always failure. Oh sure, you can dress it up any way you like, and the best managers and coaches always manage to do so, but to lose is to fail, and while that might seem a harsh judgement on our women players who gave so much for the cause, nevertheless it’s a fact of life that the record books don’t lie and Scotland’s women could not beat a team ranked at the time some four places lower than themselves.

So near and yet so far…I sat screaming at the telly as some frankly naïve play took place late on. Kicking penalties to touch in the hope of a try from a rolling maul at........

© Herald Scotland