With 67 minutes on the clock and the cruise in Scotland, it was easy to let the mind walk in what could have been in a parallel universe.
Another victory on the point of bonus on the country of Wales apparently guaranteed with little difficulty, the thoughts returned to Twickenham a fortnight earlier and the end of the end of the TEE of Finn Russell who made his team slide to a distressing defeat.
If this conversion had sailed between messages – or one of its two previous efforts – then Scotland would now go to Paris next weekend for a winner’s shot – all shooting against France. The irony that Russell made the five kicks here in Murrayfield was not lost either. On such thin margins, the championships can be won or lost.
However, all the thoughts at the time of the sliding doors of Scotland were quickly parked during a last frantic quarter here while the Wales threatened to make a magnificent return.
Instead of Twickenham two weeks ago, Cardiff last year then came to mind, a match in which Scotland had completely dominated in the first half to collapse spectacularly after reversal.
They almost lost this one and, when Taulupe Falestau seemed to have run in the fourth test of Wales here to reduce the seven-point deficit with four minutes to play, it seemed that Scotland was in danger of rejecting it.
Kinghorn famous after having marked his second try, putting Scotland in a dominant advance
Tom Jordan stands out to guarantee the bonus point for Scotland in the second half
There was a real relief exhalation around Murrayfield when this test was shifted by the TMO for Blair Murray jumping a tackle earlier in the movement, putting a stay in Scotland. And when Jarrod Evans converted the end of Max Llewellyn’s test to obtain two bonus points for Wales, it was the last act of a contest upside down. Scotland had done enough to win but it was flat.
It was not a new phenomenon either. It is a team that has taken a bad habit of going halfway through the matches, often to their detriment. They did the same against Italy in their opening match of the championship this year and again in this narrow – and now expensive – loss against England.
He is exasperating and confusing to an equal measure. They had streets in front of the first half here, running in four tests for the solitary effort of Wales. The back seemed to be able to cross the Welsh defense with each attack, with Russell, Darcy Graham, Tom Jordan and Blair Kinghorn, in particular, all dangerous.
When Kinghorn marked his second try after 48 minutes, Scotland led 35-8. Everything was there for them to continue and win with a record margin. One of the Kinghorn or Jordan had a certainty of continuing and claiming a hat -trick.
Instead, Scotland failed to add a single point to their count in the 32 -minute remaining. Not one. It was Wales who finished stronger, their growth in growing when they felt a chance to end a sequence of 15 consecutive defeats spectacularly.
As Ben Thomas, barely disturbed when he headed for the line, then seven minutes later, Teddy Williams also scored. Scotland fogled up, their first half dynamism now a memory that fades. Another warning that has not been held and Wales continued to push with the red clock to be marked again through Llewellyn. Two losing bonus points were a well -deserved reward for their perseverance.
It could have been so different, if Faletau had not been discouraged after seeing his test excluded
From the point of view of Scotland, it was a way of transforming an atmosphere of celebration into wake, the crowd ending as if it had witnessed a defeat rather than a victory in a five -speed bonus.
Why happened – and continues to happen – is difficult to understand. Perhaps complacency slips when it passes into such a dominant lead, incapable or does not want to maintain this intensity. Perhaps the large number of replacements that appear on the bench today can kill the momentum of a team. Or maybe with this Scottish side, something is missing in their mental makeup, an inability to be relentless and keep their boots on the throat of the opposition when they are at their mercy.
“This year, we were good at the start of the games, then we turned off,” admitted Russell thereafter. “The message we had before the match was to try to have an 80 -minute performance.
“I think it’s probably the mental side. We must find this ruthless advantage of simply storing the teams. Four tries to make one in the first half, then we only marked one test in the second period. I’m not sure what it’s. It is also something similar to the game in England. We had a brilliant shiny half and perhaps we were not so good in the second half.
Co-captain Russell admits that Scotland must find a more “ruthless” side in the games
Scotland fled with this break in the second half against Italy and again here, but the margin of error will be much smaller next weekend in the Stade de France against a local team that will seek to exploit each weakness and punish them as much as possible.
The Townsend team will probably not have the luxury of a considerable advance to defend itself in this one, but, if they put the nose in front, another edition of the game midfielder will probably be fatal to their prospects.