Why Does It Always Rain On Us?

Management - she of the cupboard for nothing other than her shoe collection; the woman who shops for Scotland; well, even she got caught-up in Sunday afternoon's little bun fight at Twickenham.

She was in tears at the end, asking me: "Why do you put yourself through that every week"? If the occasion could get to her, well, it was special.

And, in the end we were left singing Scottish Rugby's theme song: 'Why Does It Always Rain On Us?' - again.

Now closer to 70 than 60, I have suffered more "Disasters for Scotland" than most. In football, I can recall - 7-0 to Uruguay, 7-2, 9-3 and 5-1 at Wembley, Argentine in 1978, winning at Wembley but failing to qualify in 1999.

In Rugby - the try that wasn't given at Twickenham in 1955, Hancock's try, same venue, Gavin Hastings' missed penalty, 'the hand of Andrew'; these still hurt. Craig Joubert now joins the likes of George Clancy and Glenn Jackson on my list of referees the SRU should immediately tell World Rugby: "No offence chaps, but, if he's appointed to officiate at one of our matches, we will not be playing".

But, even after all that, the stark fact, which we have to acknowledge, sooner or later, is - in the final analysis, we weren't good enough.

The late Jock Stein always maintained, it was a good idea to take the referee out of the equation - by NOT giving him the chance to make poor decisions against you. This we didn't do yesterday.

I do not blame the players, I have no idea of the particular mental pressure they are under in such big games, but, (and here I have my usual 20:20 hindsight) whoever called that last line-out long, boobed; when under pressure, don't call the risky play, play it short and safe, is always good advice.

That error having been made, it was compounded by a combination of a misjudged throw/jump/lift, or combination thereof. These factors we could have controlled, rather more than Joubert missing the two knock-ons (one each side) as the ball bobbled around prior to his fateful penalty call.

If, as we should have, we had got our kick reception problems solved before the semi-final, we could have lessened some of the pressures we were under prior to some of the Aussie tries.

Yes, Joubert was probably the worst man on the park, but, collectively, we probably made more mistakes than he did on his own, and, some of our mistakes allowed him to make his. So, in a way we were the architects of our own downfall.

Still, let's be positive - I fancy our chances in the Six Nations. I reckon we have come out of the World Cup in a better place than we went into it. We are well-placed to be the best in the Northern Hemisphere, so, onward and upward.

After the World Cup quarter-finals, we can look forward to two excellent semi-finals. Clashes between the All Blacks and the Springboks are always worth watching. The "Nigels" are in for a shock, I don't think they will ever have seen the sort of intensity at Twickenham that the two Southern Hemisphere giants will bring to their clash.

And, given the level at which Argentine played in beating the Irish, I don't see the second semi-final being any less hard-fought.

I can see the final coming down to yet another New Zealand v Australia battle, before the future Sir Richie McCaw collects "Bill" - the Webb Ellis Trophy - for the second World Cup in succession.