Scotland rugby fans are not, as a rule, the kind of folk who fling Mars bars at directors’ boxes or strike up furious chants demanding a change of leadership. It takes something hugely infuriating to prompt them out of their beery reverie and happily soused sense of match-day bonhomie, a state of mind where every stranger is regarded as just a friend they haven’t met, and where the pain of loss is tempered by the knowledge that their new best pals are enjoying victory. The actions of one poor demented soul at Murrayfield on Saturday evening offered a brief and revelatory glimpse, then, of how deeply the national mood has darkened at the end of an emotionally exhausting Six Nations Championship, a campaign that moved from promising to properly poor without bothering to shift through the gears. Scotland's dismal Six Nations campaign ended with a 40-10 thrashing by Ireland at Murrayfield . Scotland's huge loss on Saturday was their fifth in the tournament and they finished bottom of the table . Scotland's Finn Russell is tackled by Conor Murray and Rory Best during their Six Nations rugby match . Storming up the steps at the back of the main stand with about five minutes to go, Angry from Maryculter whistled sharply for the attention of Vern Cotter and his coaching team, safely ensconced behind reinforced glass in their secure box. Satisfied that he had caught their eye, the furious fan — a sensible enough looking chap — pointed and roared about the ‘disgrace’ and ‘joke’ of a performance he had been watching all afternoon. Give that man a hand. Or a blog on the BBC website, at least. None of the home fans among the 67,000 sell-out enjoyed seeing their team reduced to mere fodder — an absolute irrelevance — by an Ireland side involved in a run chase, a mathematical exercise in points accumulation. Considering the paucity of the Scotland performance, devoid of spark and littered with the kind of basic errors that would move a mini-rugby coach to break down in tears, the sound of patience snapping all over the stadium could hardly have come as a surprise to anyone. Still, at least the Irish had a right good day out, with head coach Joe Schmidt making a point of mentioning how welcoming the home crowd had been to his boys. Fortress Murrayfield, eh? Available for conferences, weddings, bar mitzvahs and even title celebrations — complete with fireworks — by anyone but the regular residents. Sean O'Brien of Ireland scores the second try in the Six Nations match between Scotland and Ireland . Ireland players celebrate at the end of the match at Murrayfield before being crowned Six Nations champions . Ireland's O'Brien and Devin Toner escape Scotland's Gray during the Six Nations match at Murrayfield . If everyone involved in the Scotland set-up, from the kit man to self-styled comedy guru and full-time director of rugby Scott Johnson, didn’t feel at least a little uncomfortable watching the Irish party on Saturday night, something is very wrong. Our home ground certainly lacks the intimidation factor that comes with a winning team, the best we can offer being a Billy Connolly lookalike wandering on to the field with a claymore and a monkey, with a microphone, yelling at people to support the team — or even giggling to himself as he makes his one joke about Geoff Cross’ beard again and again and again. Given the situation, Ireland — ranked third in the world and chasing a second successive Six Nations title — were never going to flinch from the task in hand. They ran in four tries, forced Scotland to concede a dirty dozen penalties, won every contest that mattered … and genuinely seemed capable of taking the ball back from Scotland any time they damn well pleased. The visitors won a dozen turnovers and, if some of those were the result of excellent work in the breakdown, most were about the Scots simply dropping the ball, knocking it on, losing it when hanging on might, just might, have given them a chance of avoiding a 30-point demolition. Sure, Finn Russell scored a nice enough try for the home team, finishing with a bit of cheek for good measure. But dear oh dear, the majority of the fare served up was miserably thin. Vern Cotter (centre) has his position as Scotland head coach under scrutiny after a winless Six Nations . Russell (right) touches down for a Scotland try in the defeat against Ireland on Saturday . Scotland were outclassed by Ireland at Murrayfield as the visitors secured the Six Nations title . Take the passage of play leading up to Ireland’s third try as perhaps the ideal snapshot of the entire afternoon. It all started with a brilliant Tommy Seymour take on a high ball plummeting to earth inside the Irish half, the Scotland winger collecting and driving forward. When Greig Laidlaw’s low pass in front of Jonny Gray was knocked on by the stooping big man, though, it handed Ireland a scrum on halfway. A scrum that they converted into a penalty by simply pulverising the Scottish eight. A kick to touch, a line-out cleanly taken, an efficient working of the ball through the phases — and bang, Jared Payne scores under the posts. Absolutely maddening. Errors like that, of which there were far too many to document on Saturday, have left Cotter banging on about the same problems that confronted him on day one of his reign. He still talks with some degree of animation, by his standards, about possession, grabbing hold of teams and shaking them until they hurt, treating every second in every game as a moment of truth. Already he is looking forward to a long training camp ahead of the World Cup, promising that working and drilling them, going back to basics and forcing them to confront their own shortcomings will bear dividends. Improvement should be possible. Important players, leaders, will return from injury. We will duly skelp Japan and beat the USA in our opening two World Cup games, raising hopes just in time for the crucial group fixtures against South Africa and Samoa. If that is the limit of our ambitions, grand. If we are content to be bumping along the bottom of the Six Nations table, occasionally rousing ourselves for the odd Autumn test against undercooked southern hemisphere opposition, carry on. Cotter obviously hopes to achieve more than that in his time as Scotland head coach. But he can’t do it alone. Given the lack of strength in depth, even his most promising players must, absolutely must, take personal responsibility for carrying themselves and their team-mates to at least the middle ground of international respectability. Russell, celebrating his very first professional try a year into his career, said: ‘Vern keeps talking about detail. We need to improve as individuals, as well as improving as a team. Russell backed coach Cotter to inspire Scotland to turn their form around with the World Cup coming . Conor Murray (second right) makes a break for Ireland during the Six Nations game against Scotland . Jonny Gray (centre) of Scotland wins a line out ball during the Six Nations match against Ireland . ‘It’s up to individual players to go away to their clubs and work on these things. Then we should come back for pre-season, hopefully, with all the players tweaking things and returning as better rugby players. ‘Because we do know that we need to step up again for the World Cup. Personally, as a playmaker, I have to take a lot out of this campaign and look at what I can do better. It will come. We will go to the World Cup as a better team.’ As promises go, it’s not quite up there with a dazed David Denton seemingly suggesting that Scotland might contend for the Webb Ellis Trophy half a year down the line. Right now, we would settle for performances that keep the fans at bar’s length from open revolt — and the Mars bars tucked firmly in place between the hip flask and the tartan tammy.
Scotland were thrashed 40-10 by Six Nations winners Ireland on Saturday . Vern Cotter's side lost all their Six Nations games and finished last . Scotland's World Cup campaign starts in September against Japan .