Pool B / France 51 Scotland 9 Scottish heads twitched at the start, in a bizarre and rather juvenile tribute to their banned flanker Martin Leslie, but were hanging in shame, metaphorically at least, after a record defeat in which they looked devoid of inspiration.
Suddenly, failure against Fiji this Saturday is not out of the question, and it would now bear a high price: a first exit before the knockout stages in five World Cups.
As the television camera panned along the line of Scotland players as Flower Of Scotland was sung, most of them shook their heads to one side as if they had acquired a collective tic.
"Before the game there was some talk about everyone twitching when the camera came on them," explained their newly arrived number seven Cameron Mather. "It was quite fitting and the crowd enjoyed it." Scott Murray added: "A lot of the boys just wanted to go out and play their guts out for him."
If the Telstra twitch was hardly a fitting beginning to a Test match, what followed was not a worthy tribute to Leslie, whose appeal against his 12-week ban for dangerous play will not be heard until tomorrow at the earliest.
After holding their opponents for half an hour, briefly arousing minor signs of irritation, Scotland crumbled after the French back row combined gloriously for their first try. Olivier Magne broke through Bryan Redpath, with Imanol Harinordoquy in support, and Serge Betsen finishing.
By the hour the rout was complete when Fabien Galthie chose the perfect diagonal line through the Scots cover after France's scrum proved their physical dominance by shoving their opposite numbers off their own ball, bringing up the fourth try and the bonus point. Galthie's half-back partner Frederic Michalak put in another assured performance, totting up 28 points to take his tally to 78 in three games, this time including a try and drop goal.
Scotland tackled their hearts out, but kicked mindlessly, and offered nothing going forwards, with the ball barely making it to the wings once. With the bulk of the 80,000 crowd screaming them on, they failed to break the France gain line, and rarely entered their 22, while the opposing tryline might as well have been on the moon.
Yesterday, two of the side publicly apologised for the poor showing.
"If people have come halfway round the world to support us and we lose by as many points as we did, you've got to apologise," said Mather, whose fine all-round showing was the only plus for the Scots.
He was echoed by the wing Chris Paterson: "We do apologise. If there were no line-breaks, we'll have to make sure there are more than enough next week."
In the next few days, the final task of Ian McGeechan's lengthy and distinguished coaching career, before he moves aside for Matt Williams, will be to turn the Scots back into the side that twice shook South Africa in the summer. He yesterday had to call up the Edinburgh prop Allan Jacobsen, to replace Gavin Kerr, who injured his neck on Saturday.
Having played both sides, Michalak was asked to compare the Scots and the South Sea Islanders and he believed Fiji presented the greater challenge: "They were more difficult to play. They are stronger, they run a lot more, individually they are very good. Physically, the Fiji game was a lot harder than today."
The France coach Bernard Laporte said: "We've achieved our objective, which was three wins and 15 points; now we have a 'rest match' against the US."
Laporte will rest several senior players when his side meet the USA (who play Japan in Gosford today) on Friday, probably leaving out Galthie, who has a twisted ankle, and Tony Marsh, who has a small achilles tear.
He may include the wing David Bory, who travelled out yesterday to replace the full-back Xavier Garbajosa, who is bound for home with an eroded cartilage in his knee.
While the France camp believe they are approaching a peak similar to the one that took them to the final last time round, Scotland may not even make it to base camp. "It's our World Cup final next week," is how Scott Murray put it. If his team do not improve, it will be final indeed.
FRANCE: N Brusque; A Rougerie, T Marsh (D Traille, 72), Y Jauzion, C Dominici; F Michalak, F Galthie (capt; G Merceron, 76); J-J Crenca, R Ibanez (Y Bru, 65), S Marconnet (O Milloud, 65), F Pelous, D Thion, S Betsen, O Magne (P Tabacco, 66), I Harinordoquy (O Brouzet, 78).
SCOTLAND: G Metcalfe; C Paterson, A Craig, S Henderson (J McLaren, 66), K Logan; G Townsend, B Redpath (capt); T Smith, G Bulloch (R Russell, 72), G Kerr (B Douglas, 40), S Murray (N Hines, 60), S Grimes, J White, C Mather, S Taylor (J Petrie, 67).
Referee: D McHugh (Ireland).
