They must be sick of this. Not losing to England necessarily – this is the first time they have done that since 2020, after all – but sick of running rings around opponents for large stretches of a match and failing to come away with the win. Of promising that this might be their time at last and failing to follow through with anything tangible.

Anyone who loves rugby loves this Scotland team. And yet what does that consolation serve than to make the pain of another championship gone all the more acute.

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If only rugby were just about pace, skill, invention and ambition. Alas, it includes other more elemental virtues, like power. The story here was classic England against Scotland, the brilliance of the latter pitted against the more slow-burning presence of the former.

The truth remains that, had Finn Russell landed any one of the three conversions he took, Scotland would have won – and God knows no one could have complained, not even the English. They tore their hosts apart time and again.

Ultimately, though, they were bullied out of it. England won penalty after penalty at the scrum. Their heavy carriers coaxed further penalties. And that was enough.

If a player captures Scotland’s dilemma it is Jamie Ritchie. Captain the last time England won here two years ago, he was magnificent again. He is hard as nails, richly skilled and absolutely relentless. Every pack needs a Jamie Ritchie.

But they also need players who bring to the fight what Eddie Jones might describe as weapons. Scotland’s weapons are lethal in the wide outside, where the cavalry ride, but it is in the nitty gritty of trench warfare they lack them.

But what weapons they are out there. A three-point lead at half-time felt light for all the possession Scotland had enjoyed. Or, rather, for all they did with that possession, forcing England to make nearly twice the number of tackles. Scotland carried twice as many metres and beat nearly four times the number of defenders.

They are a joy to watch. England seemed to think so too, and duly obliged by kicking the ball repeatedly to the most deadly of Scotland’s departments, the back three. It is not as if Duhan van der Merwe, for example, is unknown to England. Every time the tall, imperious Blair Kinghorn plucked a ball out of the sky he seemed to work those long levers of his to put away another Scotland runner.

His counter paved the way for Scotland’s first try, an absolute gem. Van der Merwe’s break from midfield developed the move, and Huw Jones, another thorn in English sides in that four-match losing streak against this lot, put Tom Jordan, a new threat, away down the left. His inside ball to Ben White for the try was perfection.

That was pretty much the first meaningful attack of the match. England developed some rare pressure themselves in immediate response. Scotland might well have protested over the grounding of the ball, if indeed there was one, by Tommy Freeman for his try, but they came again and scored another beauty at the end of the first quarter.

This time all three of that deadly department featured. Kyle Rowe came in off the blindside of a lineout; Kinghorn magic set Van der Merwe away; Jones needed no invitation to finish for his umpteenth try against these defenders.

Little did we know at that point, those would be the last points Scotland would score for an hour and a half of real time. Meagre return for all their attacking brio in that first half.

Not that it ended there. Russell was away again in the third quarter, looping beautifully round Ritchie and dummying inside Henry Slade. Just a flick to the supporting Van der Merwe would have notched try No 3, but Russell could not get the ball away as he fell to the ground through Slade’s despairing arms.

From there until the denouement, the story was of Scottish indiscipline and English power. Scotland could scarcely turn this way or that without incurring the disapproval of the referee. Three of those penalties by England’s two Smiths were converted to take them into the lead at last, with a little over 10 minutes to go – and beyond when Fin sent his over from just short of halfway with fewer than 10.

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How crucial was every one of the six points England took as a buffer into the final five. When Scotland’s third try came, less than two minutes shy of time, it was classical. Stafford MacDowall, on for Jordan, scythed beautifully through England’s midfield and then fairly crashed through the rest of them to the five-metre line. Russell to Van der Merwe, try. How many times have we heard that before?

Alas, Scotland’s Finn could not oblige with the more prosaic of his duties, here or on either of the two earlier occasions. His conversion, from the left touchline, drifted wide – and with it went Scotland’s latest tilt at something more tangible than everyone’s affections.