About the only consolation Ireland could derive from Saturday's humiliation was that our Celtic cousins can't have felt much better. When you're down in the pits it's a small comfort to have some company, but, who knows, it might give Ireland a leg up in a fortnight.

It had better do, if the new millennium is to provide a ray of light in the post-World Cup gloom, for it's hard to see how Ireland can salvage much from this campaign if the Scots stretch their unbeaten run in the fixture to 13 years.

Ireland haven't won at home since 1996, while Scotland's defeat in Rome (very much a historic, one-off affair) is liable to make them play better. And with that 12-year run and status as champions, the Scots are entitled to start marginal favourites.

Defeat then and Ireland will be staring down the barrel of a home game against that other nemesis, Italy.

That 22-18 win over Scotland in 1988 also remains the last time Ireland won their opening championship fixture, and once more they are on the back foot after the first series. Of course, Scotland will be thinking along similar lines. So this is now a real dogfight. And there ain't much meat on that bone either.

What Saturday reinforced is that, whereas France are England's real test, as Clive Woodward admitted, Scotland and Italy are Ireland's. Those fixtures will provide a more accurate barometer of where this Irish team and this management stand. For the time being, Warren Gatland has stated his intention to carry on in a manner which almost suggested it wasn't a real issue at the moment. Nor is it, at least not this week.

For sure Gatland is now under severe pressure: Saturday wasn't a vintage day for the coach and management any more than it was for the players. The statement of faith in selecting the likes of Dion O'Cuinneagain, Tom Tierney and Conor O'Shea looked like misguided loyalty by their performances.

Tactically, England seemed to surprise Ireland by the breadth and vision of their approach from the off, as opposed to the more tunnelled gameplan of Lansdowne Road last season. Set against England's off-the-cuff, quick-tap-penalty game, a ponderous Ireland were akin to a tank taking on a convertible. And as things stand Gatland cannot offer a real case to have his contract renewed at the end of the season.

The team are under pressure to produce a win of any hue, and quickly, but the psychological scars from the latest unwanted entry into the Irish record books will be hard to heal.

As with any team which concedes 50 points, there's bound to be some dissension in the dispirited ranks, and this was reflected in some of the post-match utterances.

Calling it as he saw it, Trevor Brennan bemoaned that watching the game from the stand "they (England) just offloaded in the tackle with ease. I think we should have tried to wrap man and ball up. We weren't 100 per cent committed in the tackle and when you're not 100 per cent committed in the tackle it just makes it easier for the man to offload.

"What fellas said, the commitment they'd give, during the week, and even in the dressingroom before, it just didn't seem to be carried out onto the pitch, which was disappointing really," added Brennan, who was clearly frustrated at the pace, or lack of it, at which Ireland played the game.

"I felt ourselves that when we're 30 points behind and we get a penalty or a free-kick, 20-30 metres out, we decided to go for touch or go for three points, that's very disheartening as well.

"Whereas if we'd just tapped and put it through hands and put them under the same pressure that they put us under in the first-half, I think that's the way forward really, not to slow things down. I can't see any point in going for three points when you're 30-40 down with 20 minutes to go."

Changes in personnel seem inevitable, though this depends in part on the availability of players such as Ronan O'Gara and Jeremy Davidson, who are expected to have recovered from their knee and elbow injuries in time to play for their clubs this weekend. If fit, they are likely to come into the team.

Accordingly, the management will probably name a squad of 24 or 25 later this week and pare it down on Sunday or Monday before finalising the team to play Scotland. Given the strong showing of the A back row, one or two changes also seem likely there, as well as at scrumhalf, where Peter Stringer or Guy Easterby will surely replace Tierney (whose game lacks confidence and match hardness from being on the Munster bench), and at full back.

Perhaps, too, it's time to gamble on Dennis Hickie again, flawed though his defensive performance was on Friday night.

Shane Horgan injured a knee on Friday night which could rule him out of the equation.