Clive Woodward, as is his habit, was on the first plane out of Scotland yesterday, with rugby's oldest trophy in the bag and a new diplomatic storm brewing in his wake.
Barely had the sun risen over Edinburgh Castle before he was accusing his hosts of dirty off-field tricks, overblown pre-match entertainment and, somewhat bizarrely, messing with the feng shui in the visiting dressing-room, completely eclipsing England's predictable Calcutta Cup success on Saturday night.
Woodward would not be silenced, however, and called for stricter Six Nations guidelines to curb excessive nationalistic stunts in the build-up to games. He also criticised Scottish Rugby Union (SRU) officials for perceived slights before and during a pre-match show involving 300 pipers and highland dancers.
Among the coach's grievances were: that the SRU and BBC prevented the referee, Ireland's David McHugh, from sending the Scotland side on to the field after England had already gone out; the installation of an intrusive Tannoy in his team's dressing-room, and repeated hammering on the door by Scottish officials.
He also complained yesterday about the design of the visitors' dressing-room, suggesting a large pillar had been deliberately positioned in the centre of it to "screw up" the feel of the room. As England ultimately scored more points at Murrayfield than ever before, it cannot have been too serious a distraction.
The England Rugby Union, however, will cringe when they read this morning's headlines, wondering why Woodward does not allow his team's achievements to do the talking.
England's failure to collect their championship trophy from Britain's Princess Royal here four years ago has not been forgotten in these parts, and last season's red carpet dispute involving Martin Johnson and President Mary McAleese also failed to impress many in Dublin.
Woodward is adamant the English are more sinned against than sinners and does not care if Celtic feathers are ruffled if it leads to less host-nation mischief.
"The worst places to come are Murrayfield and Lansdowne Road . . . they seem to delight in it," he insisted, adding he would be making the RFU's chief executive, Francis Baron, "fully aware" of his concerns.
"It took 15 minutes from us leaving the dressing-room to the game starting. I think that's wrong. We should come out together, have two national anthems and then off we go . . . This has got to stop."
Woodward also claimed the Scots had deliberately delayed revealing their intentions after winning the pre-match toss and, by doing so, had played into English hands: "You know that teams spend half their time trying to wind us up but it actually has the opposite effect."
By the time England ran out to join the kilted hordes there were more pipes on the field than on a North Sea oil platform and the silver foil confetti settled in such clumps that the home lock Scott Murray started throwing it over the touchline.
Had Woodward kept his counsel he would have ensured more recognition for Danny Grewcock, who rampaged over for England's fourth and final try to cap a fine personal display, and enabled more credit to be paid to Scotland's spirit in a losing cause.
The Scots never looked like winning, but England's first three tries by Ben Cohen, Iain Balshaw and Josh Lewsey owed something to a fortunate bounce of the ball.
"Danny's was the only one which involved carrying the ball over the line," acknowledged Lewsey, the outstanding backline performer on a day when England's attacking play was hampered by wayward passing.
Their defence, however, was outstanding, barring the second-half error by Balshaw which presented a try to his Bath colleague Simon Danielli.
"They earned a better scoreline than that," claimed Scotland coach Matt Williams.
Woodward's men have no more serious injury worries to concern them prior to their next game at home to Ireland, with Joe Worsley and Chris Jones, who made a promising first full start, vying for one back-row position on Saturday week. By then the RFU will doubtless have stocked the visitors' team bath with piranha fish and booked every Morris dancer in the kingdom.
SCOTLAND: Hinshelwood (Henderson, h-t); Danielli (Parks, 75), Philip, Laney, Webster; Paterson (capt), Cusiter (Blair, 52); Smith, Bulloch (Russell, 65), Douglas (Kerr, 46), Murray, Grimes (Hines, 55), White, Mather (Hogg, 19), Taylor.
England: Balshaw; Lewsey, Greenwood (Paul, 75), Robinson, Cohen; Grayson, Gomarsall (Dawson, 56); Woodman, Thompson, Vickery, Grewcock, Kay (Shaw, 58), Jones, Hill, Dallaglio (capt).
Referee: D McHugh (Ireland)
