Russell looked like he expected beach sevens. It was inexplicable

Townsend will be feeling the heat and he needs to make changes against meaty France

This was worse than Twickenham last year. Sure, the score in Cardiff wasn’t quite as bad as it was against England, but at least then there were extenuating circumstances: Scotland were missing really important players, lost key leaders to injury during the match, had a player yellow-carded and were playing the side that would win the Championship.

There can be no excuses for the manner of Saturday’s defeat. This is an ordinary Wales side, yet they outfought and outthought us, and were the superior side in almost every aspect. Put simply, Wales played with more passion and intensity than Scotland.

There were so many negatives to Scotland’s performance that it is difficult to know where to start, so I will focus on the one that surprised me the most: Finn Russell. I am one of Finn’s biggest fans, and on so many occasions he has been the best thing about Scotland, but in Cardiff he was out of sorts. Clive Woodward criticised him for laughing during Flower of Scotland, and he did look like he was more mentally ready for a game of beach sevens than a Six Nations opener in one of world rugby’s most gladiatorial arenas.

Finn has just got a big-money move to France and he has had acres of positive press, and I just wonder whether he subconsciously thought that all Scotland had to do was turn up and play with width and ambition. He certainly struggled to summon up sufficient urgency, and the speed at which he ran back long kicks out of defence by Wales had me almost crying with frustration.

Gregor Townsend, Scotland’s coach, also needs to impress upon Finn that, no matter the pre-match game plan, it is the standoff ’s job to manage the game and to vary the tactics depending on how the game is going. Finn needs to make sure he gets a grip and imposes some shape on the game. This match cried out for him to vary the point of attack rather than persisting with a wide game which was meat and drink to the Welsh back row.

Scotland’s failure to tie in Wales’