The main performers in Scotland’s second-half cavalry charge did their best in the post-match media chat to raise spirits ahead of Saturday’s RBS 6 Nations final curtain – the trip to face England at Twickenham.

But the players themselves knew that for the bulk of today’s 22-46 defeat to Wales at Murrayfield, Scotland were simply not good enough – the millstone of missed tackles snuffing out whatever chance they may have had.

Nathan Hines – one of four second-half substitutes – whose ability to play the ball out of the tackle asked questions of the Welsh said: “We had no other choice going on in the second half – we HAD to make a difference.

“All the players were really appalled with the first-half performance and the second-half really isn’t any consolation – everyone’s just gutted.”

Having trailed 3-38 at half-time Scotland did score three tries in the second-half but by then the irretrievable damage had been done.

Chris Paterson, who crossed for his 17th try for Scotland from a swashbuckling counter-attack launched by Sean Lamont, noted: “We have six days to try to turn things around. We have to eradicate the negative feelings from this heavy defeat and look to replicate our second-half performance from today for a full 80 minutes against England.”

Debutant Rory Lamont could hold his head high. “I was perhaps a bit quiet in the first-half but defensively I feel I did my job OK,” he said.

“My try was small consolation because what’s more important are the number of missed tackles and the guys not lining up the opposition. The second-half seemed like a completely different game,” he added.

This article was posted on 13-Mar-2005, 22:05 by Hugh Barrow.