Bad choices

Sometimes in life we make bad choices and they hurt us. Lured once again by an unrealistic and almost unnatural optimism for Scotland's 6 Nations chances, I committed to the three home fixtures as well as the England match at Twickenham. Fortunately, that meant only missing one Valley match and that was yesterday's.

After the glorious three-try scoring defeat in Paris, the omens were good. The Welsh were coming with their tails firmly between their legs and we had the opportunity to inflict a second defeat upon them and put us firmly back in contention. Whilst I went to great effort and expense to be at the match, the Scottish players didn't really bother. They were there at kick-off, of course, but went into hiding almost immediately. I had to sit and endure the Welsh rack up 16 points without really trying. It was a pathetic Scottish showing and one which didn't improve after half-time. Oh yes, we huffed and puffed but our forwards under-performed again and the backs were chronically short on width and ambition. An error-strewn performance was summed up near the end when Dan Parks slipped as he took a penalty and the ball skidded embarrassingly along the turf.

Two games gone then and Scotland will attempt to avoid the Wooden Spoon and a spanking at Twickers. Frankly, I can wait.

I managed to forget my mobile yesterday so avoided any news of Charlton until I got back to my hotel room at Midnight. The League Show or whatever it's called was on, and I managed to stay awake for another hour to see the Valley action unfold. I am glad I was wrong about the score in this one too, although it sounded like another half-showing. If Powell can get us up to a 90 minute performance, we could be a serious threat.