We didn't know it at the time, but Scotland's nerve-wracking late game against the Principality last weekend turned out to be just a warm-up routine for the incredible uncertainty of the final minutes at Murrayfield. “Rugby is hell,” the great Scotsman never said.
Time passed slowly during the last few minutes. The ball wasn't kicked, the ball wasn't passed, and the ball didn't hit the rack. The clock was red. The score was 20-16 for France. Every last person in the stadium had their eyes glued to the replay on the TV screen, not the players on the pitch.
Did Scotland score the winning try in the final play or not? Did Sam Skinner put the ball on the try line and steal it?
No, said referee Nick Berry. Perhaps, as TMO's Brian McNeese said: It was what felt like an end-of-the-game era that sometimes felt like an eternity. In the midst of the chaos, McNeese pulls out replay after replay for Berry to watch, and then–Eureka! – Looked like he was leading Berry towards a try.
Is that a French boot ball? yes. But is the ball touching the ground now? Yes, again. “Obviously,” said Gregor Townsend, who was celebrating with a jubilant stadium as McNeice returned to his original mindset and began his moonwalk, with Berry agreeing to the change of mind. Don't try. try. Don't try. game over.
forgiveness? Everyone was stunned. Now everyone was being told that what they were seeing was not what they were seeing. It seems like my mind is playing tricks on me. It wasn't actually the ball that was hanging on the line, but something else. Discarded scrum cap. Seagull. light trick. A product of a lot of imagination.
Berry left the stadium looking confused. Tens of thousands of confusing GIFs are being created. Many people have teased that this is what people tend to do when they are told that the top is bottom and the bottom is top.
Long before the uproar over his death, Nick Berry was making himself unloved by his home crowd. Nick Verrett, as someone called him.
The French were a dark shadow of the previous season, negative and cynical, only occasionally reinvigorating themselves. They were penalized seven times in the first half, perhaps twice that number. Scotland were in the lead but they too were feeling frustrated.
It was a test full of mistakes, a match characterized by French-style no-chase kick tennis, and, in Townsend's words, “a disaster of rugby”.
The second half was almost a complete misfire, a depressing experience that put Murrayfield into a slumber until the unpleasant awakening at the end. Scotland had enough ball and enough territory to build up a comfortable lead, but they were unable to do so. They lived with regret.
Scotland took a 7-0 lead after seven minutes with great tries from Duan van der Merwe, Harry Patterson, Huw Jones and Ben White, who ran all the way to the final line. Patterson, 22, made his unexpected debut after only eight senior games, one of which lasted just nine minutes.
Patterson, 15, arrived at the hospital after Kyle Stein's wife was informed at 9 a.m. that she was going into labor and at 10 p.m., she was told Stein was on her way to the maternity hospital. A rainy day, a vengeful France, a turbulent Murrayfield, and precious little experience. easy.
On a day of harsh weather, Patterson remained calm amidst the maelstrom. “One of the best Scottish debuts I've ever seen,” summed up the coach. I don't think there are many people who would disagree.
So Scotland were heading in with a seven-point lead, but their opponents were, quite frankly, completely useless. Midway through the first half, they had their lineout stolen for the first time, but not for the last time. Then they missed the touch with a penalty. Thomas Ramos fumbled in front. Then their discipline became unjust. They conceded back-to-back penalties, eventually leading Russell to 10-3 and then 13-3.
We had hoped that Damien Penault and Duan van der Merwe, two of the great attacking wingers of the modern game, would brighten things up, but they barely featured. Ferrari didn't get the ball because the dump trucks were too busy colliding with each other.
The great Gael Fickou scored, but there was nothing else from France. They checked Scotland's momentum with constant disruption at the breakdown and quickly became rugby's Wild West. The game needed a sheriff to solve everything. Berry didn't fit that criteria.
Scotland should have had a bigger buffer at the break, but it was to no avail. An ugly no-arm tackle on Wini Atonio in their own half, which was a microcosm of the whole day, earned the visiting team a yellow card, but the Scots were unable to score in his absence. It lacked tempo and cutting edge.
Still, it looked pretty comfortable for them. If this was France's reaction to what happened to them against Ireland in Marseille, it was more a popgun than a bazooka. Mathieu Jalibert knocks on, Jonathan Danti knocks on, Penault knocks on again. Russell made it 16-10 with the boot.
France didn't want to play. They just wanted to wait for Scotland's error. That kick tennis broke out and it was the visitors who instigated it, firing kick after kick onto the field with no runners after the kick. Townsend then called for a ban on that type of behavior.
With ten minutes remaining, a shot of opportunism exploiting space in the Scottish backfield gave them a lead they never deserved. In addition to all the first-rate deeds on the pitch, Louis Vier Bialley would have been pointlessly boring by then, but his try was classy.
The heist began as Ramos won 20-16 against France. Skinner turned in Scotland's favor but missed. He scored the winning try, but it didn't go. The ball was a ground ball, but apparently it wasn't.
For two weeks in a row nothing made sense. We look forward to your continued support during Gap Week. I need some rest.
