Six Nations: Ireland v Scotland: Best hopes Ireland will learn from mistakes

Joe Schmidt’s side could even secure the NatWest 6 Nations title this weekend, if they beat Scotland and end Saturday six points ahead of England.

England must match Ireland’s result against Scotland in their clash with France in Paris to keep the championship alive until the final weekend, when Eddie Jones’s men will host Schmidt’s outfit at Twickenham.

Ireland blamed the bus arriving at Murrayfield 15 minutes late on their 27-22 loss to Scotland last year – and captain Best insisted his side have learned the hard way how to clear unforeseen hurdles.

“We must make sure we don’t let any distractions catch us,” said Best, ahead of Ireland hosting Scotland at the Aviva Stadium today.

“Little things, from a dropped ball in the warm-up to the bus breaking down; anything left-field. Last year we got caught cold. Getting to the stadium that close to kick-off was something really new to us.

“If we find something unfamiliar tomorrow we’ve got to go back to our process, trust our gameplan. Something always goes wrong, and that’s the beauty of sport: you’ve got to be bigger and stronger than that.”

Beat Scotland and Ireland will face England at Twickenham on March 17 gunning for just a third-ever Grand Slam.

Best has insisted Ireland have precious few problems avoiding any such thoughts however, given the threat of a Gregor Townsend-coached Scotland side that toppled back-to-back champions England last time out.

The 109-cap front-rower conceded blaming their late arrival for last year’s Scotland defeat was merely an excuse, and admitted that had proved a steep learning curve.

“You get into this environment and everything is put on perfectly; you get a police escort to the game so you don’t expect traffic to be an issue,” added Best.

“And by and large you forget what it’s actually like going to and from a stadium, how busy it is and how much there is going on. For us it was a big learning curve. And that is an excuse, because we fought our way back into that game, and took the lead with 15 minutes to go.

“Then we just breathed a sigh of relief, and – at this level – if you breathe a sigh of relief and go ‘okay, we’re in control’, bang, just like that, you can quickly lose control again.”