While Ireland outscored the visitors two tries to one they were mercilessly punished by the accuracy of Dan Park’s boot with the fly-half finishing with an 18-point haul.

Many of those points came from penalties given away by Ireland at the breakdown and O’Connell, who captained the Lions against South Africa, maintains his team got exactly what they deserved against a tenacious Scottish outfit who dominated the set piece.

He said: “Their try came off our mistakes and most of the penalties we conceded were in kicking range and you just can't do that in international rugby.

“We gave away clumsy penalties that we just didn't need to give away and then Parks put them over and it put us under pressure. On days when you are not playing well you can't gift the team points. We should have been disciplined.

“They defended very well in the line-out and we made a few mistakes which were compounded by some very good defence by them.

“We have an excellent line-out but some days we have bad days at the office and you can't compound it with penalties being given away.

“We struggled with retaining the ball and giving away penalties. It was very disappointing for everyone and we didn't want to finish on a game like this."