I was talking to a Scottish friend after Saturday’s Calcutta Cup win for Scotland against England. He was in a daze over how well they had played.
He had to be convinced. Scotland was world-class in rugby intelligence and deserved to win.
Both teams performed well, but Scotland was a great team. They played under pressure, in the wrong places and without the ball.
I have never met an England fan who believed differently after a match. England were totally outplayed.
There are many reasons to be optimistic, but England is not as good as Scotland.
‘Taking Smith off was not logical’
It was a stupid thing to do, however, to take Marcus Smith, the England fly-half, off the field for the final 20 minutes.
Smith’s lack of international experience, at 22 years old, had caused some hesitation.
Smith has proven that he is the right man to represent England at number 10 after his performance in Murrayfield.
There is no way anyone can say that he does not need experienced players around. It is true that this will always be beneficial, but we saw that it wasn’t necessary.
We saw that Smith was replaced by George Ford. England couldn’t win the game with George Ford, even though he’s in good form.
Smith seemed confident and comfortable.
Although he will be tired, his stats won’t be as good as they were at the start of the game. However, he was in control of England’s performance.
I don’t believe it was necessary for another fly-half to be in the game with a 7-point lead.
‘England made poor decisions’
England fans can still be encouraged despite the loss.
England was a good possession team and had attacking intent. Their problem was a lack of rugby expertise.
With so much possession, it was easy to see what they were trying to do at the training park: go through several phases, then kick the ball in front of Scotland.
England had many opportunities to attack by using their hands instead of kicking.
The reason they kicked was because they thought they were playing far away from home and that the conditions were going be wet and slippery.
While it is a good idea to keep that as your go to, there were times when you had to take action and try something new.
England pushed it up a little in the second half and switched tactics – the first 20 minutes were great.
England was truly betrayed by Luke Cowan-Dickie’s penalty attempt after he had batted the ball into contact.
They still had control of the game at 17-17, but they pursued it instead, and Scotland took the lead.
England was in a good position at 17-10, but they were inexperienced in their team. They made poor decisions when that pressure came on.
These things are not possible to practice in training. Professional athletes need to be able to see the bigger picture and do the right thing.
Cowan-Dickie left and Joe Marler took the line-out. They surely had enough experience to know that they shouldn’t do that. This was strange.
England will be disappointed by it, but they will learn.
“England are not out the race”
It’s still early days for the Six Nations, so you can’t write anyone off yet.
Next England goes to Italy. They can get back on the horse, and learn how to win games. Next, they will be at home against Wales. England are certainly not out of the race.
They will likely be defeated by France and Ireland but England can bounce back.
I don’t think there will be a Grand Slam in this year’s tournament so each team will lose one game. England is still in the running.
Ireland was brutal in its approach to their 29-7 29-7 victory against Wales. They have returned to the same precision as they did four or five years back, but with a little more imagination and intent.
Is Scotland able to compete with France? They can offer as much to Ireland as France can.
Scotland may be able to win the tournament if they make a few right decisions and the ball bounces well when they travel to Dublin for the final round.
Matt Dawson spoke to Becky Grey, BBC Sport.