STTSsport-18-02-22-massie-SCOT

For most of my lifetime, a 20-17 defeat in Cardiff would have left one feeling not so bad.

We have seldom expected to win in Wales and the low expectation has usually been justified by the result. Many of the matches were close, defeat coming by a single score, but victories came only in 1962, 1982,1984, 1990, 1996 and 2002. More often that not, we were sent home to think again. If last Saturday’s result was even more disappointing than most, it was because we had more reason than usual to think not only that we might win, but that we would.

It is still difficult to see why we didn’t, or rather why a talented team that had played with such composure and intelligence against England should have been so ragged, making mistakes and poor decisions, and giving away thoughtless penalties. Wales, it should be said, played a limited game with determination, and, sadly, with better concentration than we displayed. So a game that should have been won slipped away and it’s fair to say that only two or three Scottish players came out of the match without damage to their reputation.

So we let this match slip, and are still due to face France and Ireland who last week played a brilliant match in Paris, some way above any other so fa seen in this year’s tournament. Uphill work ahead when France come to Murrayfield next week, uphill work but also a chance for redemption.

Equally dismaying this week has been the talk of South Africa applying for membership of the Six Nations which, if they are admitted, would be Seven. This can’t happen till 2025 because South Africa is contractually bound to the southern hemisphere’s Rugby Championship for its next three seasons, can’t happen till that contract is fulfilled, and shouldn’t happen at all.