He can be ruthlessly severe and he can be brutally candid, but Jim Telfer's achievements give him every right to be. When it comes to placing European rugby coaches of the last two decades into some kind of pecking order, the gruff Scot is peerless, albeit sometimes in tandem with Ian McGeechan.

Players coached by him have cursed the day they ever set sight on such a merciless martinet, yet would also herald him for having guided them to some of their greatest memories on a rugby pitch. Hence, opposing teams have had just as much cause to curse him, not least Irish sides.

As even the dogs in O'Connell Street now know, following the build-up to today's Six Nations encounter at Lansdowne Road, Ireland haven't beaten the Scots since 1988, 11 defeats and one draw ago. When it comes to apportioning blame for the hex, fingers can be pointed at Telfer.

"Well I wasn't involved in all of them," he says modestly. "To be quite honest, we've been lucky. Two years ago, we were very lucky. Ireland had the game wrapped up, then we made a substitution and it changed the game. To be fair, I think Brian Ashton was the coach at time, he could not believe that he finished on the wrong side of the score-line."

Nor, a tad ominously given the excessive pressure now being placed on Warren Gatland regarding one result, could Ashton take being Irish coach much longer. That last fixture with the Scots at Lansdowne Road prompted Ashton to resign shortly afterwards.

Telfer adds: "I think there have been some very tight matches. I think the Irish have had good spells in games and then tended to panic." When analysing the underlying factors behind Scotland's unremitting success in these Celtic clashes, Telfer has a couple of interesting theories.

"We tend to be able to play the conditions a little bit better than the Irish. I think it's usually a little bit windy in Ireland and you have to take that into consideration in your deliberations about how you're going to play the game. Ireland have never taken too much to rucking, although they have got a lot of wet weather just like us.

"We've sort of made a fetish out of it and made it very important to our game, so we probably play a bit tighter than the Irish have done in the past."

This in turn raises the oft-held belief that Scotland have an inherent advantage in that Telfer helped to orchestrate a uniform style of play from the bottom up in Scottish rugby.

"We've been able to out-gun them (Ireland) - tactics (wise) - up to a point. Over the years the Scottish game has copied what the national team has done. We have tried to filter it down through a cascade system, through the coaching system, so if you see a schools' side - which isn't that good usually, Ireland are a lot better - you'll still see them play a rucking game.

"Most of the coaches have taken that as the way they want to play. Also, most of the coaches in the national teams have come through the system, under-18, 19, -21 and A." When you think of what Gatland deals with - the different styles that are to be found in the Irish "system" - it is a damning indictment of Ireland's lack of structure and uniformity of style. Now 60 and an office-based director of rugby in the Scottish RFU, Telfer was capped 25 times by Scotland, and eight times by the Lions. He coached Melrose to the Scottish club title four times and, in 1984, took Scotland to their first Grand Slam in 59 years. He was also McGeechan's forwards coach when Scotland won the Grand Slam in 1990 and was coach last year when the Scots won the title again.

Yet Telfer's greatest achievement was in orchestrating the Lions' Test series win in South Africa in the summer of 1997. "Without what happened that day in Durban, I would always have felt that I had failed as a Lions coach."

Ironically, of the four Irish forwards who made various contributions to that tour, three of them were omitted from Ireland's 25-man squad at the beginning of the week.

"I have been very disappointed in Jerry Davidson. He had a brilliant Lions tour, everything on the up for him, and then he got that injury and he was out for a year. He hasn't done anything in France. He told me last year that he was absolutely knackered and was obviously playing too much rugby.

"Miller has had a funny career. He was at Leicester and then he went back to Ireland," the implication being not with much success.

"Paul Wallace has played too much rugby, he's saturated. I'm very disappointed for them, because they're great guys. You've got to remember that Jerry and Wally were first-choice for the Lions and that was no mean achievement. That was a very good side."

Not that Telfer is without criticism in his homeland as he is seen as the architect of the kilted Kiwi programme. However, since then, Scotland's results aren't discernibly much better than Ireland's. Their four wins in the ensuing eight games have come at the expense of Romania, Uruguay, Spain and Samoa. Coupled with defeats to South Africa and New Zealand - in which their irreverent second-half comeback has been largely forgotten - the Scots became the first home union side to lose at home to Argentina and, most recently, away to Italy.

Results dictate everything and expediency rules. Thus, much has been made of the fact that the majority of the 15-man starting line-up which lost last Saturday week in Rome were non-natives, with only one player both born and based in Scotland.

"I can't understand what happened in Italy," admits Telfer. "There was an article on the non-Scots, on the Leslies and Pountneys of this world, but I can say they put their heart and soul into the cause. You couldn't fault them in the past and I'm amazed how Scottish they are. Nine of the side on Saturday were born in Scotland and played all their rugby there, until they went to France or England."

Yet perhaps the most telling aspect of Scotland's untypically limp defeat in Italy is that it won't be repeated. It's something of a tradition that Scottish international teams bounce back with a very good display next time out.

"It will be the same as every other game when I come to Dublin. The trend is going to be broken. We've been so lucky in the past and one of these years Ireland are going to win. I remember in 1986 against France, we had five or six news caps, amongst them the Hastings brothers, David Sole and Finlay Calder, and they went on to great things.

"It might happen to Ireland's five new caps, they're very good footballers. It's going to be a very even game. If we get on top early then we'll win. If Ireland really spark - they're mostly Munster players - they could win quite easily."

All the more so with Telfer theoretically out of the way.