Six Nations/Wales 28 Scotland 18: The referee Steve Walsh's insistence that he had no option but to send off the Scotland lock Scott Murray 22 minutes into a match that, with 74,128 in attendance, was shaping up to be one of the best in living memory between the sides has dangerous overtones for the sport.
Rugby union has, unlike football, allowed referees discretion when it comes to the ultimate sanction but by deferring to, in his own words, the letter of the law and showing Murray a red card for petulantly kicking out at Ian Gough, Walsh was responsible for not only the most significant act of the afternoon but a potentially revolutionary shift in the way the game is controlled.
Murray's action, which came after a tackle by Gough that was so late that it was posthumous, involved a momentary loss of control but, kicking out from a supine position and connecting with Gough's face, it was not dangerous. Early in the second half Gough won a lineout and, at the point when he was 12 feet in the air, he was tipped by an opponent and landed on the ground on his neck and shoulder. Walsh did not blow for the incident but Gough, unlike after the Murray incident, required prolonged treatment.
Murray, whose disciplinary hearing will be held this week, is experienced enough not to waste time pondering his contrasting fortune but, if his red card is upheld and a ban imposed, it will send union along football's road where an action is measured not in terms of intent or outcome but in its actuality, which has inherent dangers of inviting simulation.
Walsh, having insisted that he had to apply the letter of the law, awarded two penalties against Scotland in the second half, even though they were under pressure which at times bordered on the severe, while Gough's yellow card for his late tackle was risible.
Wales were 28-6 ahead going into the final quarter but it was the 14-man Scotland who finished the stronger and their two tries in the dying minutes were a just reward for their endeavour and enterprise.
It had started badly for them with Walsh rightly awarding Wales a penalty try after six minutes after a third consecutive Scottish scrum collapsed, and there were times in the opening period when the Welsh looked as if they would overwhelm them in the manner of Murrayfield last year, running the ball from everywhere and never wasting an opportunity to raise the pace of the game.
Had Wales been more effective at the breakdown, where Scotland slowed down ball, and more incisive in midfield, they would have gone to Dublin at the end of the month with a positive points difference. They had two tries disallowed in the first half and were denied two more after the break by despairing tackles but this was not the Wales of a year ago.
They might have atoned for their defeat at Twickenham but at the end of a week when there had been more manoeuvring behind the scenes in the Welsh camp, their captain Gareth Thomas, who has become the most influential person in the set-up, fittingly ended Scotland's resistance.
Thomas scored two tries yesterday to extend his national record to 36, having gone 23 months without a touchdown, breaking his duck against Scotland in the process: he afterwards decried television's insistence on making man-of-the-match awards, insisting that the team was everything, and when the coach Mike Ruddock said that Gavin Henson, who returns from suspension this week, would get back into the squad only if his form and fitness merited it, he sounded his captain's voice.
Thomas is known to be sceptical about Henson's willingness to conform to the squad ethos and, though victory will have reduced the pressure on Ruddock to consider the centre for Lansdowne Road, Wales's performance was not convincing enough to suggest they are on course for their first victory in Dublin since 2000.
At times they looked sharp: their final try, scored by Thomas, was started by Shane Williams in his own 22, and Lee Byrne's disallowed score on 31 minutes, shortly after he had come on as a blood replacement, showed the ease with which they were able to move the ball wide.
Scotland resembled Wales two years ago: deficient in the set pieces. The selection of the hooker Scott Lawson did not work, with the Scots struggling on their own lineout throw, but they were willing to move the ball and fitter than they had been for a while, which helped them keep Wales scoreless in the final 20 minutes when the home team should have made their one-man advantage tell. A team that a year ago was on its death bed is now alive and, as it were, kicking again.
WALES: G Thomas (capt); M Jones, H Luscombe, M Watkins, S Williams; S Jones, D Peel; D Jones, R Thomas, A Jones; I Gough, R Sidoli; C Charvis, M Williams, M Owen. Replacements: G Delve for Charvis (69 mins), G Jenkins for A Jones (71 mins), L Byrne for S Williams, M Phillips for Peel (both 73 mins), J Robinson for Watkins, M Davies for R Thomas (both 80 mins). Sinbinned: Gough, 22.
SCOTLAND: H Southwell; C Paterson, MacDougall, A Henderson, S Lamont; D Parks, M Blair; G Kerr, S Lawson, B Douglas; A Kellock, S Murray; J White, A Hogg, S Taylor. Replacements: C Smith for Kerr, R Ford for Lawson (both 55 mins), G Ross for Parks, C Cusiter for Blair (both 62 mins), S Webster for MacDougall, S MacLeod for Kellock, J Petrie for Hogg (all 69 mins). Sent off: Murray, 22.
Referee: S Walsh (New Zealand).
