WELL that's that then.
All bets are off. The RBS 6 Nations Championship is done and dusted and we can now salute the winners. England, glorious England.
Hang on, I hear you say. Don't we still have another four rounds to play? Well yes, I was thinking that too, but we are all obviously behind the curve on this one. For as far as our media friends south of the border are concerned, England's 21-16 victory over Wales in Cardiff on Friday has rendered the rest of the tournament all but meaningless.
They might as well start engraving the trophy now. Dammit, why not just add the names of the sons of St George to the World Cup as well? And give Stuart Lancaster his knighthood while they're at it?
Some of the more excitable commentators would have you believe that it is all sewn up already. They've got England marching to glory, the team touring London on an open-top bus and Chris Robshaw's gob on the commemorative stamps. And as for the pesky business of all the other games they will have to win to ensure the silverware really is heading for Twickenham? Detail, mere detail.
Which is, of course, where the proverbial devil tends to lurk. Call me a cynic - I generally wear the tag as a badge of honour - but I rather suspect that England might hit a few bumps on the road over the next few weeks. Granted, the bump that is Italy, their next opponents, will likely look like roadkill in their wake, but who's going to bet the ranch on them beating Ireland at the Aviva Stadium in the next round of matches?
Fact is, not one of the winning teams on the Six Nations' opening weekend claimed victory in the grand style. Ireland took time to dispense with Italy, only pulling away on the scoreboard in the final quarter. France stuttered and spluttered against Scotland in Paris. And as commendable as England's come-from-behind victory in the Millennium Stadium might have been, the disastrously weak performance by the opposition forwards does raise the question how they were ever behind in the first place.
In other words, the Championship got underway in absolutely typical fashion. It was colourful and compelling, and its three games provided cameos of wonderful individual brilliance. Frankly, those who do not block out its four remaining weekends in their diaries probably need their heads examined.
But not half as much as those who believe that anything was settled in Cardiff or Paris or Rome. The tournament has thrown up a few themes, but the narrative has twists and turns to come. Scotland's performance in the Stade de France showed commendable courage and spirit, and as those qualities were not exactly obvious in Wales' second-half display against England there is an understandable excitement about the prospect of some dragon-slaying at Murrayfield on Sunday. But there should be caution, too, as chastened Wales are perfectly capable of producing a stinging backlash.
Home advantage, and a pitch that is vastly better than the pudding-like surface they had to put up with last year, should give Scotland confidence. So, too, should the fact that so many of the players, especially those based at Glasgow, are perfectly familiar with the experience of beating Welsh sides on a routine basis.
Yet the Welsh players have consistently shown themselves to be far better on the Test stage than on club duty (interestingly, exactly the opposite applied 20 years ago). There was a time when
Scotland would expect to beat Wales as a matter of course, but the last time it happened was in 2007. There have been some humdinger matches since, but most of the humdinging has been done by the Wales backs. And all that humming and dinging reached its zenith last year when they thrashed the hapless Scots 51-3.
But there has also been a feeling that Wales have been flattered by their achievements over the past few seasons. The pattern of recent years has been that Wales either win the title or they finish fourth or fifth in the table. They have produced a generation of backs who could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the legends of the 1970s, but how many of their recent forwards will come to be counted amongst the immortals? You'll be doing well to get past two.
So Scotland have a real chance to get their campaign off the mark on Sunday. But the mistakes and - especially - the moments of indiscipline will have to be banished from their game. But on the evidence of last weekend, there's no question in my mind that they can do it.
AND ANOTHER THING . . .
You had to look closely to see it, but Greig Laidlaw paid tribute to one of the great characters of Borders rugby in Paris by sporting an armband in honour of Charlie Bird, the Jed-Forest stalwart who died last week. Charlie - farmer, publican and racehorse owner - was a hard player, but a gentle man who could light up a room with his personality. Amid the tumult of a Six Nations match, and with so many other duties to attend to, the Scotland captain's gesture was a lovely touch.
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