FOR the last couple of years the plaintive cry coming from the Welsh fans has been "where will the tries come from?". They still haven't heard a satisfactory answer and in the minds of the red-shirted flowing away from BT Murrayfield at the weekend, that is the main reason they lost.

For those of an older generation, who remember the golden days of Welsh swashbuckling rugby, it feels a bit strange to talk about pitting the power of the Welsh pack against the flair and imagination of the Scots backs. That is real role reversal, considering that back in the day the Welsh used to tell us they would rather lose with style than grind out victories, but nobody in red was quarrelling with that assessment.

It is not as though Wales were struggling to create chances; it has been the finishing power that has been missing since long before the 2015 World Cup. Apart from the two chances that got on the wrong end of the verdict from the television replays, they were a number of other near-misses, as Sam Warburton, the former captain reflected. The second half break from Jonathan Davies and the 13-man line out that went wrong were the most obvious examples.

"Our accuracy in the Scottish 22 let us down on a few occasions," he said. "There were a few moments when we had line outs, or a line break and did not get anything from it. That let them off the hook a bit; we needed to come away from there with points but didn't. That was the downfall for us.

"At half time I felt we were doing pretty well. The contact area in attack felt pretty good but we let that slip away from us. The things we had been on about all week, sticking close to our ball carriers and things like that, we went away from that in the second half and slipped a couple of vital penalty turnovers as a result.

"You have got to give a lot of credit to Scotland. They were playing a side they had not beaten for quite a while but showed a lot of character. They kept playing and kept pressing. In the second half they were definitely the better team."

The figures back that up. Though Scotland won the possession battle by 58 percent to 42, they dominated the handling statistics with almost 150 passes while Wales only just scraped over 100.

More significantly, white both scrum halves, Ali Price for Scotland and Rhys Webb for Wales, made 60 passes, Dan Biggar only shipped it on 12 times, less than half the number of occasions when Finn Russell fed the Scots outside him.

The Scots were also considerably more effective in taking their chances when they did get into the opposition 22, partly because they were using the entire width of the field, while Wales insisted on attacking up the middle. George North, one of the most feared individual runners in European rugby, might as well not have been there – getting the ball only three times in the entire game and not making a single pass.

Liam Williams, on the other wing, did lead the carrying figures for Wales with 12 carries making 66 metres and earning one try, but only because he was more willing to come into midfield to run off Webb's and Biggar's shoulders. Add the 10 turnovers Wales conceded and they were onto a loser.

Afterwards Alun Wyn Jones, the Wales captain, said he thought the forced change Scotland made to bring on Hamish Watson had been a big factor in helping turn the breakdown battle in the home side's favour.

"We were not accurate enough in the breakdown when Watson came on and did a pretty good job," he said. "We knew they were going to be holding on the ruck, that is part of the game, all teams do it. We dealt with it in the majority of the first half but not as they grew into the game and made changes. Watson was pretty influential in that second half."

It means that though Scotland head for Twickenham still harbouring ambitions of a first Six Nations title and a Triple Crown, Wales are having to come to terms with the idea that the rest of the competition is about pride and a finishing position, with silverware out of the question.

"It is really disappointing, you can't win the [RBS Six Nations] Championship after losing two games, you just can't," Warburton conceded. "We know that has pretty much gone, so now we are playing for pride.

"There were so many Welsh fans who had made the trip to Scotland, we noticed that on the bus in into the stadium, and appreciate that. To put in a good performance at home in two weeks is what they deserve from us."