Scotland were always up against it at the World Cup after a cruel draw put them in the same pool as Ireland and South Africa, and needed an upset victory that never materialised as their campaign ended meekly in Paris on Saturday.
Coach Gregor Townsend’s side were well beaten 36-14 by the irresistible Irish, having barely thrown a punch in an 18-3 loss earlier in the group stages to the Springboks.
There was a lot of talk of ambition and exceeding expectations ahead of the tournament, but they were unable to turn that into a performance on the pitch when it mattered.
"We’ve never beaten a team ranked above us in any World Cup we’ve played in, so you may have to go all the way back to 1987 to ask can we do better, and we certainly have to do better, and the responsibility is mine," Townsend said.
Despite that damning statistic, he hoped for better this time around and believed the work they had done in the previous four years had laid the platform for success.
"We believed we could get out of this pool. We still believed that after losing to South Africa," Townsend said. "The response the players showed in training gave us an opportunity which we didn’t take – Ireland took it – and they are a better team than us on performance.
"If we can get on the journey they have been over the last few years then great. It’s easy saying that, it’s another thing doing it. We’ve got to make sure that this defeat makes us a better team for the Six Nations and the next World Cup."
Townsend believes any Scotland improvement in the next World Cup cycle has to start at club level and bringing through players with the quality to compete in international rugby.
"The way Irish rugby is set up, they could dominate world rugby for the next five, 10 years," he said. "They’re the number one team in the world and they have pro rugby and age-group systems that are very strong.
"We've got to do better. This group of players has got to fifth in the world, which is the best we’ve been in terms of the Scotland national team.
"But we know we have to make sure that continues, not for the next couple of years, but for the next 10 years."