Once more a nation turns its eyes to Mark Renton to make sense of it all.
After Ireland's handy defeat of Scotland in the 2014 Six Nations, Balls stood in the Beggars Bush pub canvassing the views of the kilted ones after another horror show in Lansdowne Road.
Three Scottish lads, all wearing kilts and all claiming to be from Edinburgh, but possessing suspiciously English sounding accents, spent the evening buttering up their hosts.
Ireland is an amazing sporting country compared to Scotland, you're miles ahead at rugby, better at football..
Before adding...
And you're absolutely amazing at Gaelic Games.
Balls chimed in at that point, saying that not only are we amazing at Gaelic Games, we are comfortably the best in the world, and what's more, there appears to be no end in sight to our dominance.
By contrast, the Scottish chaps spent the entire evening tearing into their own country's sporting pedigree. Scottish kids can't, they said, play sport because they're all dosed up on fried Mars bars and the like. It was rather odd to see Scotsmen gleefully joining in with the stereotyping of their own country but there you are.
When the people of other nations start running their country down, we might feel inclined to let them at it. But it pained us to see the Scots do so.
Balls tried to point to Andy Murray and Chris Hoy, Scotland's great tradition of footballers back in the 1970s and 1980s (admittedly, that well appears to have dried up in the past quarter of a century), Jim Clark, arguably the greatest Formula 1 driver of the 20th century and so on...
But they weren't having it. As far as they were concerned, Scotland was an inferior sporting race.
Even their record of qualifying for six out of seven World Cups between 1974 and 1998 (they only missed USA) is ignored or is only brought up in the context of their admittedly annoying failure to progress beyond the First Round. Still, for a country of that size to be so consistent is impressive, even if the Scots are not so proud of the record.
For most of the Euro 2016 campaign, it seemed that Scotland would be claiming, at worst, a playoff spot and that we were doomed to 4th place. They had beaten us deservedly in Glasgow and had taken a point in Dublin.
Out of the two games, it was only during the first half in Dublin that Ireland played the better and more attacking football.
They appeared rejuvenated under Gordon Strachan. They were at last liberated from the dreary, clueless defeatism of Craig Levein.
But after this week, they are back in the mire. At the weekend, they could only draw at home to Lithuania, and needed a late goal to do even that.
Tonight, they were spanked 3-0 in Slovakia. The Slovaks were on a dismal run themselves having lost at home to England and away in Slovenia.
SEE ALSO: Watch: Scotland Fuming As Slovakia Score Seconds After Body-Check On Steven Fletcher
Strachan's job is in jeopardy. His selection decisions have caused some consternation, particularly the omission of Leigh Griffiths but the reaction from most fans didn't centre around such minutia. They were altogether cosmically fatalist in tone.
At least Scotland had the decency this time to end the non qualifying World Cup campaign in a few days, rather than drag it out.
— Irvine Welsh (@IrvineWelsh) October 11, 2016
Proud of Scotland for boycotting Putin's World Cup. #SVKSCO
— Andrew Learmonth (@andrewlearmonth) October 11, 2016
This Slovakian team is bang-average and thoroughly unremarkable...which makes plain where Gordon Strachan and Scotland are right now.
— Graham Spiers (@GrahamSpiers) October 11, 2016
Shout out to everyone in Scotland sticking the England game on...
— Kevin Bridges (@kevinbridges86) October 11, 2016
Delight for Scotland fans as they realise they don't have to watch the rest of Scotland's qualifying campaign
— Oldfirmfacts (@Oldfirmfacts1) October 11, 2016
"We haven't scored in 7 games"
"No worries, it's Scotland next"
— Oldfirmfacts (@Oldfirmfacts1) October 11, 2016
This is the worst Scotland performance I've seen in...... 3 days #svksco
— Dave Wilson (@deedub76) October 11, 2016
Strachan's tongue is still as sharp as ever, at least. Though, he'd boast a more adoring audience if he didn't just lose 3-0 in Slovakia.
Fair play to a defeated Gordon Strachan for this:
Reporter: "Is there any way back for this team?"
Strachan: "Aye son, aeroplane”#SLOSCO— James Melville (@JamesMelville) October 11, 2016
We are Alba saw fit to tweet out this classic. Once more, Mark Renton sums up the national mood.
When you draw against Lithuania and get pumped by Slovakia...#SVKSCO #StrachanOut #Scotland pic.twitter.com/n0OV5j7Bme
— We Are Alba (@wearealba) October 11, 2016
