There are times when Finn Russell views Murrayfield as his own personal playground. So often the master of all he surveys, Russell’s wizardry has cast a spell over much of Scotland’s finest work in the Six Nations over recent years.
Yet, early in the second half of this needlessly nervy victory over Italy, Russell’s powers had deserted him. Like a magician losing their sense of illusion, his sleight of hand had betrayed him.
Instead of pulling a rabbit out of the hat, as he has done so often in the past, Russell had thrown a cat among the pigeons with a moment of extreme carelessness.
Running up a dead end as the Italian defensive line closed in around him, Russell hesitated for too long before throwing the ball straight into the hands of Juan Ignacio Brex.
In that moment, as Brex raced clear to score under the posts, Murrayfield fell silent. A sense of horror enveloped the crowd. Having offered precious little in attack, Italy, somehow, were level at 19-19.
A troubling sense of déjà vu began to spread around the stadium. Memories of Scotland’s collapse in Rome last year were suddenly fresh in the mind.
Russell was careless with his passing, with one throw intercepted which led to an Italy try
Try as he might, the Bath star failed to spark in attack for Scotland against Italy
It couldn’t happen again, could it? Scotland blew a 12-point lead at the Stadio Olimpico. They led 14-0 after 10 minutes yesterday but were pegged back to all-square early in the second half.
Russell did not have a particularly good game. Scotland won this match in spite of their fly-half, not because of him.
He and his team-mates will have to be better – miles better – when they take on Ireland here next Sunday in round two.
‘It was good to battle at the end for the win, but we’ll need to be a lot better if we want to do anything in this tournament,’ said Russell.
‘For me personally, my mistake was frustrating. The mistakes, the looseness we had, there were probably individual errors which will be easier to fix.
‘We’ll come back Monday or Tuesday and sort a few things out. There were probably four of five tries we left out there today.
‘Huw [Jones] was outstanding. I thought Stafford [McDowall] was really good at 12 as well. The backs worked really well together, created a lot of chances.
‘If we’re going to do anything in this tournament, we have to try and finish those off.’
Even from the tee, Russell struggled, successfully kicking three out of five conversions
Scotland won with a bit to spare in the end. They outscored Italy by five tries to one and, particularly in the first half, they looked rampant.
They played with speed and accuracy, shredding the Italian defence at times. But there were also elements of the performance which were deeply unconvincing.
Italy were largely non-existent in attack. They offered nothing, unable to get their jet-heeled wingers Ange Capuozzo and Monty Ioane into the game.
Yet they still took 19 points off Gregor Townsend’s men, all of which came directly from Scottish errors and indiscipline.
Thanks to Brex’s try and the boot of Tommaso Allan, Italy made life deeply uncomfortable for the home side. They created jeopardy when there really shouldn’t have been any.
It was the same story for Scotland in the opening game against Wales in Cardiff last year, when they came perilously close to blowing a 27-point lead.
Then came the capitulation in Rome just a few weeks later. They flirted with doing the very same thing once again yesterday.
This team still suffer brainfade moments. Whether or not it’s mental fragility, they have an unerring ability to summon dark clouds from clear blue skies.
The 32-year-old often struggled for space but when he did, he did nothing with the ball in hand
It’s happening too often for it to be a coincidence. If they knock-off midway through the game next week, Ireland will switch the lights out.
Quite simply, they won’t get away with such a patchy and disjointed performance. Not against an Ireland team who have dominated them so often under Townsend.
‘You’re going to have moments of momentum for both teams and I think they certainly had it through penalties and obviously an intercept try,’ said Rory Darge, Scotland co-captain alongside Russell.
‘So, it was just about going back to what we were doing well in the first half. We responded well to going 19-19. It was a bit of a test of how you respond to that. But I felt we responded really well.
‘With a game like that, there’s still a lot of stuff we can do better. There was stuff we did well, but there’s stuff we can do better.
‘So, I’m delighted to get the five points, but the fact that there are things we can do better means we come in on Monday, look at the footage and it’ll keep us grounded to come in and train hard on Monday and prepare for Ireland.
‘Discipline is a bit of a buzzword for teams at the moment, and obviously we’ve not watched the game back yet, but how they got their first nine points was just through kicking penalties.
‘So, there are little bits in that. Obviously, in the scrum, they got a bit of joy too. But I think overall the standard was really good and we’ve had a good performance.
‘But there’ll be bits within it that we can view and get better at. We know we will need to be better next week.’
Without really doing much in attack, Italy threatened what would have been a third successive victory in the Six Nations for the first time in their history.
They stayed in the fight and remained relevant and competitive. You suspect they will continue to cause problems for other teams throughout the championship, especially a battered and beleaguered Wales in Rome next weekend.
For Scotland, it’s now all about Ireland. A significant improvement will be required if they are to dent the green machine.
