The home side had the better of an attritional opening 40 minutes but led by only three points at the break.

And they were unable to live with Ireland’s intensity after the restart, going down 22-15 at Murrayfield as their opponents moved to within one victory of a first Grand Slam since 1948.

“I thought we should have been out of sight at half-time,” head coach Hadden said. “We had opportunities in the first half to close out the game.

“After half-time, it was a tale of elementary errors as far as we’re concerned. The thing about Ireland is that they are remarkably error-free.”

He added: “I thought the attitude of the players was outstanding, the way in which they approached the game today.

“In the first half, it looked as if we were on the verge of a special kind of result. In the second half, the attitude was there but the ball wasn’t in our control.

“We rarely had any joy pushing out of our half. We made one or two more immature decisions than we should have done.

“But, then again, credit to Ireland for putting us under that kind of pressure.”

Hadden believes Scotland lost key line-outs in the second half and lock Jason White accepted his share of the blame for that and errors he made at kick-offs.

White said: “Kick-offs, I put my hand up. I made two many basic mistakes. Nobody’s fault apart from myself.”