Stuart McInally felt this was one that got away as Scotland fell to defeat at home to Grand Slam-chasing Wales in Round Four of the Guinness Six Nations.
The hooker, who took on the captaincy this week, was left to wonder what might have been as Scotland went down 18-11.
While Wales dominated the first half, on their way to a 15-6 lead, Scotland responded by having much the better of the second half.
They crossed for one try through Darcy Graham, a lovely backs move putting the winger over.
But aside from that moment, the Welsh defence held firm, with Scotland throwing everything at them but to no avail.
McInally said: “I felt there were definitely chances to win that game, especially that second half while we threw everything at them, we just weren’t accurate enough. We had a few chances to score and just didn’t look after the ball.
“The first half probably cost us as well, we had a few tries that we potentially could have stopped if we had sorted our defence out a little, but in terms of where we were last time we took the pitch, there was a big step forward and although we’re disappointed to lose at home, a lot of effort went into that performance and there was a lot to be proud of.
“We asked a lot of the boys before the game to be physical, work really hard, and that was there in abundance and I’m proud of the effort we put in.”
Scotland’s chances were not helped by a number of injuries, notably in the back three where Blair Kinghorn, Tommy Seymour and Graham were all forced off during the game.
Prior to that, Graham had been excellent, and well worth his try, with McInally delighted to see his young teammate rewarded on his first Test start.
He added: “The try we scored was brilliant and great to see Darcy get on the end of it, he worked so hard – I thought he was fantastic today – there were a number of guys who stepped up and put the third best team in the world under incredible amounts of pressure.
“It’s never easy losing players early on, but I thought the guys who came on did well, it’s stuff you’ve just got to deal with it. We’ve done it all campaign and you just need to get your head down, everyone knows what is expected when you pull on a Scotland jersey at home and you’ve just got to work the opposition hard and I felt at times we did today.”
