James Lawton: Peel brilliance fires up a game far from ruined by a red card

Peel's running is as acute as his beautifully weighted passing

It turned out that Wales only lost a match at Twickenham, nothing so fundamental as their regained nerve to play the rugby of their souls, and now the Scots can say pretty much the same a week after their descent from the unexpected glory against France.

Scotland's Scott Murray, normally a paragon of discipline, will no doubt have difficulty in sharing in such generous assessments, but it was still true that his dismissal from the field did not, as some claimed, invalidate all else on an afternoon of utterly compelling rugby. This was a game that was wounded but certainly not destroyed. Murray's discipline broke down, and he had to go, but to say it meant all value had been taken away from some ferocious action was another kind of over-reaction.

Wales produced such luminous rugby in their 28-18 win that the damage caused by Murray's catastrophe was less than terminal, and how you reacted to it did depend a lot on how you stood on the freedom of players to hack lumps out of each at moments of heightened emotion.

It is true that when Scotland's line-out phenomenon was sent off in the 23rd minute, his team and Wales were promising something to rank among the best examples of ferocious Celtic rivalry. However, too much agonising over that would surely be misplaced - even though Murray is no thug.

Indeed, against the French he provided a classic example of all that is best in second-row play, and when he apologised to his victim Ian Gough, no one was inclined to argue with his claim that he had not intended to kick the Welshman on the head.

But that's what he did, precisely, emphatically and bloodily, and, as the New Zealand referee Steve Walsh pointed out, the rules are quite specific on the subject. Gough went to the sin bin for his late tackle, and Murray became only the second Scotsman in Test history to take the walk.

The score was 7-3 for Wales at the time and the consensus was that a match had been ruined. So often rugby has a curious set of reactions at such moments.

A match hadn't been ruined, it had been controlled, been the subject of laws which are designed to separate it from outright barbarism. What had been spoiled was the possibility of an extremely well-balanced engagement, but then who could possibly say that was too high a price to pay in the enforcing of the rule of law. Murray, sadly, made the wrong reaction when Gough gave him the late shot; his retaliation was the kind that is endlessly bombarded with euphemisms in rugby. You know how it goes: "man's game", "inevitable explosions", "clearing away the tension", etc etc. This didn't clear the away the tension - just the sense of authentic competition. Walsh did what he had to, and, by way of rescuing the afternoon, so did the remaining players.

What was left was still remarkable. Wales produced an awesome reaction to their second-half ransacking at Twickenham with a riot of passing and then a siege of the Scottish line that ended with a penalty try in the sixth minute. It was the sixth scrum and third penalty. If this had been a heavyweight title fight Scotland might have been suspected of adopting a high-risk rope-a-dope policy. But then Wales, despite that mugging by England, some time ago graduated beyond that status.

Though Scotland's 14 men produced impressive levels of resistance, worked ferociously at the breakdown and seemed prepared to run for ever, Wales always seemed to have the means to inflict a more sophisticated ambition - an impression that easily survived the late and, from the Scottish perspective, cosmetic tries of Hugo Southwell and and Chris Paterson.

This was best expressed in the continued brilliance of the Welsh scrum-half Dwayne Peel. One of the few stars shining on the Lions tour in New Zealand, Peel has simply marched on to new levels of assurance - and bite. His assistance to Robert Sidoli and Gareth Thomas in second-half tries was superior to anything else we saw in some bouts of authentically ferociously rugby. Peel's running is as acute as his beautifully weighted passing and though Scotland have unearthed a potentially significant talent in Mike Blair the aura of the Welsh No 9 became utterly pervasive long before the end.

Gareth "Alfie" Thomas is also a man with an accelerating aura. His first try was a piece of delicately weighted precision which would have graced any conflict, his chip through and smooth collection shattering the Scottish belief that they might just survive the departure of their talismanic jumper.

Wales must now believe they have the means to rebuild that burgeoning place in the game which some feared had been completely consumed by events at Twickenham. Scotland, no doubt, were looking decidedly resilient, and potentially dangerous, when Murray had his crisis, one which most people agreed was the result of circumstances rather than a vicious nature.

But then Wales also showed a thrilling capacity to again play remarkable rugby, as they hinted they might at Twickenham when Peel conspired with Martyn Williams to produce the try of the game. That wit and that willingness to produce the boldest of running and passing was expressed again, and at times with some of the force that had welled up at Murrayfield last season.

Then, though, the Scots were feeble in their lack of resistance until long after the issued had been settled. Yesterday they were a team of much more formidable spirit and technique. Certainly they were diminished by the loss of their key forward, and profoundly so, but they showed enough will and talent to curb any English hubris when the new Six Nations favourites travel north in two weeks' time.

It is a rugby season caught in new and exciting tides, and only the particularly short-sighted will bemoan too seriously the competitive edge lost when Murray was dismissed. He's a big player but then it is also true he was caught in a big principle. He will survive the experience, no doubt.