The result means Scotland have yet to manage a win in this year’s tournament and travel to Rome next weekend needing to avoid defeat or face taking the dreaded wooden spoon for the first time since 2007.

At best the Scots can emerge from the Stadio Olimpico with a single victory this season to equal their dismal record in the competition for the last six years running.

And having shown signs of progress in their 23-17 defeat at home to France, Morrison was disappointed to see the side go backwards at the Aviva Stadium.

“I feel numb,” said Morrison. “We let them score a couple of soft tries and when you play against a team such as Ireland you are not going to come back from that.

“The second half was a step back. The feeling was night and day compared with France a fortnight ago, it was really flat.

“Their first-half tries were a kick in the stomach although we were still in it at half-time. We kept going downhill and none of us are proud of that.

“We can’t dwell on this. We are not a bad team overnight. We haven’t won a game but we are progressing and this is a hiccup on our road to something.”