Fifty minutes gone at Murrayfield and it was freewheelin’ time. Five Scottish tries in the bag, a 27-point lead on the board and Finn Russell directing his players around the pitch with the authority of the world’s greatest traffic cop.
Easy. Scotland were all width and class, pace and execution. They were a joy. Blair Kinghorn, Huw Jones, Darcy Graham, Tom Jordan – even big Duhan van der Merwe was coming off his wing and getting involved in the show.
An exhibition of what is best about this team. Devastating.
They made bits of Wales, who were vulnerable to the wide game and who were caught out when Scotland ran up their guts.
Their composure was so shot that they gave their hosts a free seven-points when Ben Thomas lost the plot in the lead-up to Scotland’s fourth try. They had a man in the bin and all hope in a skip.
But, hold on. This feeling of certainty and Scotland sit as well together as a hornets’ nest and a big stick. When you watch Scotland through the decades that precise feeling of comfort in a game is when you really should start to feel uncomfortable.
Same last year in Cardiff when the visitors led by 27 points early in the second half and were hanging on at the end. And same on Saturday. It wasn’t quite the smelling salts and stretchers of 2024, but it was close.
Nobody can be sure, but with Wales scoring 21 unanswered points from the 62nd minute (plus a try for Taulupe Faletau that was disallowed) many people would have bet the house on Wales winning had it gone on much longer.
In boxing parlance, Scotland were stuck on the ropes, almost defenceless, eyes rolling in the back of their head as Wales unloaded. The last bell saved them from possible mortification.
In the first half they’d built their lead which saw them home and fair play to them for that. They won, they got five points and now they’ll move on to Paris to try to stop what seems like the inevitable – a French title.
They’ll travel, of course, with all the good wishes of their friends across the water. Irish fans are suddenly Scotland fans.
Generous souls that they are they’ll wish Gregor Townsend and his players nothing but the best in Paris. A bit late to don the tartan, perhaps, but anyway.
‘This was Scotland in microcosm’
Saturday was Scotland in microcosm, their excellence and their weakness. It was a day that showed again why you can’t see them progressing to the status of contenders even if you buried your face in a vat of happy juice.
Everything really started to go wrong when Russell was taken off as an injury precaution and the bench started to appear. Not enough of them make a positive impact. Several of them added to the errors and the chaos.
Scotland’s hair caught fire when Teddy Williams drove over with 11 minutes left. Too easy, that. The home team had stopped working as hard it had been.
Faletau’s try didn’t stand but it left an impact. In the preamble, Blair Morgan was missed by Stafford McDowall and Kyle Rowe, then after the illegal hurdling, he did George Horne. The score was correctly ruled out, but Wales were on a roll.
That last try showed Scotland in their panicked state. Joe Roberts eluded Kinghorn, then slipped out of trouble when Rowe, Jordan and Matt Fagerson came to him. It was like he was slathered in butter.
A penalty, a lineout, a try for Max Llewellyn. Murrayfield silent, apart from the faint sound of sobbing.
The cameras turned to Russell who shook his head and looked like saying something beginning with F before the director cut away.
Scotland went to sleep, he said later. They switched off. The message all week, he stated, was to play for 80 minutes, but they didn’t. Again.
Fair play to Russell, not just for the elegance of his performance but for the honesty of his assessment.
This team has a well-developed and debilitating trend of falling asleep in games. They didn’t score in the last 33 minutes on Saturday.
A fortnight ago they went an hour without scoring against England, against Ireland they didn’t score for 41 minutes and then 26 minutes. Against Italy, they went 33 minutes without a point.
This is repeat behaviour from Scotland. Last season threw up similar numbers and so did the season before.
It didn’t cost them this time, but it remains a puzzler as to why this keeps happening. Are they always going to have the propensity for napping during games?
It’s why we can admire many of the things this team does, but it’s very hard to trust them. We can marvel at their creativity, but elan alone is not cutting it at the sharp end of the championship.
And so to Paris against the mighty French. Scotland at their very, very best are unpredictable enough, and mad enough, to make it a scary day for Fabien Galthie.
Scotland are not a conventional team. They have players that could hurt France. They have a mindset that could cut them open and give them much to think about.
They don’t have a hang-up about the French the way they do against the Irish. Psychology won’t be a problem.
France will surely win – and maybe very comfortably – because on top of the flair in the backline they have monsters up front. Many, many monsters.
They have eight starters and possibly another seven on the bench. To hell, Fabien, go 8-0 and be done with it. Bring out every brute, from Perpignan to Picardy.
France won a seismic victory in Dublin and will feel invincible now. Scotland won a shaky one in Edinburgh and Lord only knows how they’ll be feeling.
They won, though. That’s kinda the point. But does it always have to be so dramatic?
