If a Japanese typhoon punctures our national rugby team’s World Cup chances, it will surely go down as one of the most Scottish of our eliminations from international tournaments.
As a nation we’ve turned glorious failure into an art and after five decades of football and rugby World Cup competition we’ve got more than a few battle scars to show for it.
Of course, there’s every chance that the Japan v Scotland match will go ahead on Sunday and we’ll be beaten by an inspired team, one that’s playing in front of a home crowd and is on a high after a fine win over Ireland.
But if the match is called off and a scoreless draw is awarded, Scotland will be heading home in extremely dubious circumstances.
In that scenario, world rugby would have some serious questions to answer about sporting integrity and it would be marked down as downright unfair, rather than just another unfortunate elimination.
As far as unlucky exits go, we have enough to rival any nation.
Here’s a look at three memorable ones.
Australia 35-34 Scotland, 2015 Rugby World Cup
In the last rugby World Cup Scotland were moments away from a huge upset win over Australia before a controversial call from referee Craig Joubert handed the Aussies a last-minute penalty, three points and a 35-34 win.
Mark Bennett’s interception try with seven minutes left looked like it had sealed a famous Scottish victory.
But with seconds remaining the ref called a deliberate offside, despite replays indicating the ball had come off a Wallaby player.
Bernard Foley stroked over the three points and at the final whistle Joubert raced down the tunnel to a deafening chorus of boos, Scotland’s players and vast support shattered by the cruel ending.
Scotland 1-0 Switzerland, 1996 European football Championships
Scotland’s Euro 96 hopes were hanging by a thread when it came down to the final group game.
A dour 0-0 draw with Holland was followed by a 2-0 defeat to England, meant that only a handsome victory against Switzerland would do.
We also needed a favour from England too, a seemingly unlikely scenario with our nearest neighbours needing only a point to guarantee their progress.
But with only 12 minutes to play, it was miraculously all going to plan.
An Ally McCoist screamer had the Scots 1-0 up and England were 4-0 up and cruising, giving us the five-goal swing needed to advance.
However, Patrick Kluivert notched a late consolation goal and the sucker punch was enough to see Scotland eliminated from the tournament on goals scored.
Scotland 1-1 Yugoslavia, 1974 football World Cup
We’ve saved the best for last with this one.
The first nation to be eliminated from a World Cup without losing a game. What an honour.
We hadn’t even lost a goal in the tournament until the 81st minute of our final match when Stanislav Karasi fired Yugoslavia in front in Frankfurt.
Joe Jordan equalised for the Scots but it wasn’t enough ultimately, as we exited the tournament on goal difference.
A comfortable 2-0 win over Zaire seemed like a decent enough start but when Yugoslavia thrashed the Africans 9-0 it put us in a sticky situation.
A 3-0 win for Brazil over Zaire in the final game as we drew 1-1 with Yugoslavia sealed our fate.
Similar commiserations must be offered to two other nations who have since joined this illustrious club.
Switzerland were dumped out of the 2006 World Cup without conceding a goal – they beat Togo 2-0, South Korea 2-0 and drew 0-0 with France before losing a penalty shootout to Ukraine in the round of 16 after a 0-0 draw.
New Zealand drew all three matches of the 2010 World Cup and were eliminated, finishing the tournament as the only undefeated team (champions Spain lost their opening group game).
