Racing 92 took to the field at the La Defense Arena for a Top14 game against Perpignan after Scotland had defeated Fiji.
Finn Russell didn't start on the bench. They went for the fly-half after trailing 14-13 at the break.
Racing scored a try shortly after he appeared. The "Russell transformation" is what various French rugby websites call it.
By the hour-mark, Russell had scored a try, converted two of them, and fired over three more conversions. The racing team won 44-20. The reporter said that Russell changed everything. He gave his teammates a new lease on life.
After talking about the fly-half in the wake of the game, all of this happened. He might have contacted Russell recently. He said no. The squad has been together since. No, that's right.
With Adam Hastings carted off injured and reporting a head and knee issue, would he now consider calling up Russell.
He said that he would be in the mix. Is it in the mix. Along with someone? He will be one of the ones we look at if we bring another 10 in. Did you mean one of them?
He has to file his way through the available Test match 10s before he can come up with a replacement for Hastings. It ran from Russell to Russell, right?
There are things between them. "Yes," said the man. He picked up the phone to Russell recently. He wanted to know if it was during an international camp. He gave the impression that it was a bit of a silly idea.
He went on to say that he was focused on the players he had in camp, rather than the ones outside the camp. Do you mean a phone call? Do you mean a text? Do you mean a messaging service? Do you mean any form of communication?
Just blank space. This is a dicey period for him as he has coached his team to a number of big Test victories.
The entire exchange was tense and without new details about why we've got to this point with Russell it showed how uncomfortable it is.
Some people thought that he was thinking about bringing Russell back in for the New Zealand. In the room, it didn't sound like that.
It was always a good bet that Russell was going to destroy it against Perpignan. He scored 18 points in a win over Montpellier and 23 points in a victory against Brive since the fly-half was let go.
He has played teams ranked 11th, 13th and 14th in that run, but he can only do what he knows how to do.
If "form" and "consistency" were the reason for not picking him in the Scotland squad, then it's not the case anymore.
If Hastings is out then Blair Kinghorn will start at 10 and Thompson will be on the bench. That is not a good idea. Thompson isn't prepared for a match of that intensity against a side who put 55 points on Wales.
If he wants to come in, he'd have to show some pride. For sure, there would be complex things. Russell wasn't a part of the summer tour and hasn't been a part of the fall tour. He wouldn't be up to speed on what's happened recently.
If Russell was to kick his heels in Paris in a Kinghorn-Thompson scenario against the Blacks then it would leave you with a sense that the rift is so deep that it may never heal.
Every story has at least one side to it. Both Russell and Townsend will have versions of the same thing. There is no question that the player can be high maintenance. There's no doubt about that. It's Townsend's problem that needs to be solved. Managers are paid to manage in this situation.
His backline doesn't possess the threat they are capable of posing. Not having Russell as an option is self-destructive. Russell had a bad Six Nations. Don't get upset. Don't worry, move on. There is something else going on. It is almost certain that there is something else going on.
Scotland beat a country. This was a snack when a feast was needed. The first 40 was terrible. They made 106 tackles to Fiji's 55 and had 34% of the territory of the island.
Scotland were so ragtag that it wasn't just that the visitors were dominating. The carriers belonged to the country. The back-row dominated Scotland in the first 40. Bill Mata got on ball in a way that other people did not.
Even though Fagerson was the best of the Scots, his carriers are not doing themselves justice in the opening games of the autumn.
Scotland was able to get it together in the end, but it was not very interesting. As the pressure grew on them, their discipline waned.
They played 27 minutes of the match with 14 men. They gave away 18 penalties, 13 of them in the second half.
Scotland's discipline was not as bad but it was still concerning. They have given up 26 penalties in two games. They failed to score on a few try- scoring chances. It is another fifty years for New Zealand on Sunday.
The players went for a walk about afterwards. It was just a gesture to thank the people who turned up. The day was like that.
It might be enough to shake a performance of defiance out of Scotland on Sunday. The hope of Murrayfield is that.
Is it in them? Is the team that won in Paris and London this year? Is they with us? Is there life in them or is it the end of the world? Are they able to do more or are we in the midst of a decline?
Questions are more important than answers. There are a lot of days for the team.
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