DO you ever get a sense of history repeating itself?

Someone once said ‘History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce’.

Last month we felt the pain as, once again, Scotland failed to qualify for a major football championship.

Gordon Strachan’s men were on the verge of their own piece of history before that unexpected defeat by Georgia. Losing to Germany three days later meant they had to beat Poland.

But as always seems to happen, their hopes of reaching Euro 2016 ended as Robert Lewandowski managed to scramble the ball over the line with practically the last kick of the match to earn a draw. Tragedy.

And how many of you were on the edge of your seats on Sunday watching the Rugby World Cup quarter final against Australia?

Most people – and me included – didn’t give Vern Cotter’s team any chance against one of the tournament favourites. I kept waiting for the floodgates to open, the tries from the men in Green and Gold to flow. But they never did.

Instead we saw a battling, passionate and determined display which came within two minutes of putting Scotland into the semi-finals for the first time in 24 years.

But a penalty awarded for offside saw Australia snatch victory by a point.

Farce followed when it became clear the referee had made a mistake and even his bosses in World Rugby took the unprecedented decision to issue a statement confirming the error – effectively admitting Scotland should probably have gone through.

It would be easy to sit back and say ‘Oh, well. We are talking about Scotland and this is what to expect’.

But this time it is different.

For once any knee-jerk reaction to replace Gordon Strachan was quelled.

Instead the Scottish Football Association is keeping faith with their manager, giving him a further two years on his contract – the goal, Russia 2018.

In rugby, Vern Cotter has come in and taken a side that lost all five of their Six Nations matches and developed them into a team that could – and almost certainly should – have made the semi-finals of rugby’s ultimate competition.

Who knows? In four years’ time Scotland could be among the favourites to lift the Webb Ellis trophy.

Both are examples of believing in yourself and having the courage, perseverance and dedication to succeed – despite what history and the fates throw at you.

I think that is a view we can all aspire to in Inverclyde.