From the coverage in the papers yesterday and today it would appear that I am alone in thinking that Scotland played superbly at the weekend, and that Wales are in deep trouble. Until Murray got sent off for a soft infringement but one that was predictable under the new zero-tolerance rule, I was growing more and more confident that we would win. Our line-out was beginning to come together, the early Welsh scrummaging advantage was on the wane, and we were consistently doing in the loose what they could not: crossing the gain-line.
Too many rugby writers either don't play the game, or haven't played recently enough to know the result of playing five-eighths of the game a man down. As soon as Murray went off, the game was over. Even New Zealand would have lost that match. That Scotland came within ten points at the end was astonishing. I have played in quite a few 15 vs 14 games in my time, and I have only once seen the under-strength side win (and that was because we were about three divisions above the opposition).
In the medium-term, I think that, despite losing 28-18, this will be a very bad result for Wales and a pretty good one for Scotland. The Scottish players will know how dominant they would have been with even teams. The Welsh, on the other hand, rather than wringing their hands and wondering what was wrong with their much-vaunted running game that they couldn't score with consistent 4-on-3 overlaps on one wing, seem delighted with the result, with coach Ruddock stating that their season is back on track now. My thought is that they're lucky they're playing the Italians in Cardiff, because the Welsh were a shambles in the second half, and would certainly have lost to any other team in the Six Nations that were playing with even numbers.
In my own game, a mid-day friendly on Saturday, we won by a wide margin. My own most-enjoyable moment was a bit of a flashback: I tapped a quick penalty on halfway when the opposition turned their backs, ran the fifty metres for the line, drew in all three nearby tacklers, drove on a bit to tie them in, placed the ball behind me and watched Cakes pick up and fall the last metre for the score. Me running forty-to-fifty metres then Cakes doing the last one for the glory was very much a recurring theme when he played regularly.
In rather a change from tradition, Alan Davidson didn't get injured. Inconceivable!