Stat attack

Ireland's victory over Scotland at Lansdowne Road last Saturday week brought their grand total of victories to 143 in the Five/Six Nations Championship. Only France of the former Five Nations countries has less wins (134) and that may be attributed to the fact that they have played fewer matches than Ireland (102) by virtue of the fact that they didn't join the tournament until 1910. Ireland are very much the poor relations in terms of success and are the only country to have suffered more than 200 defeats. It is against this backdrop that the expectations of a nation should be tweaked.