Scotland score first win over Wales in 10 years.
It has indeed been 10 years since Scotland last beat Wales in the RBS Six Nations, so, yes, it was a long wait, but Saturday’s match proved it was a wait worth enduring, as Scotland saw off the visiting side to BT Murrayfield for the second time this season.
Although down at half time, Scotland rallied in the second half to add two tries to the post-finding boot of Finn Russell to take their comprehensive victory.
It looked good at the start as a couple of penalties early on first, gave Scotland territorial advantage and second, gave Russell an easy three-pointer in front of the posts for the lead after six minutes of play.
The opposition fans didn’t have the lead for too long, however, as Wales roared back into the game, stand-off, Dan Biggar, finding touch inside the home 22 from a penalty, before foul play handed the visitors another penalty, which, full back, Lee Halfpenny sent over for the equaliser. So 12 minutes in it was 3-3 with both sides still finding their feet and sussing out the opposition.
And it was Wales who seemed to get their ‘sussing’ completed first.
A couple of penalties either way gave neither side much of an advantage – the visitors probably had the territorial superiority, to be fair – but as the clock passed the first quarter, Wales won a scrum on Scotland’s 22.
A free kick from the scrum was taken quickly by scrum-half, Rhys Webb, who quickly shipped the ball on to Biggar. The Welsh 10 scooted across the defence and, seeing that there was space on the outside, fired the ball on to wing, Liam Williams. Williams then stepped outside the flailing Stuart Hogg and sprinted the five, ever so short, metres in to dive over in the corner, leaving Hogg to tackle the flag! Halfpenny then added the extras to give Wales a 10-3 lead with 25 minutes of the match played.
The home side were almost another five points behind a couple of minutes later when Williams ‘scored’ from a much longer run in.
The move had started with a kick over the top from Russell which Scotland’s 14, Tommy Seymour just failed to gather. From the resultant line-out, the visitors broke clear and ‘made progress. The ‘non-try’ was not scored by Williams following a gallop up the line, from which, he proceeded to turn Hogg inside out before crossing the line for the touch down. However, the referee, John Lacey’s, attention had been brought to an off-the-ball incident involving Webb. The replay then showed Webb pulling back one defender, before obstructing another, thereby giving his winger every chance to make ground. The ref’s finger was wagged, penalty to Scotland and, a few minutes later, a second for a – very – high tackle on Scotland’s Ali Price, gave Russell the opportunity to close the gap to 10-6 just before the half hour.
Just after the half hour, another successful penalty kick from Halfpenny opened the gap back up to seven points for 13-6 to the away side.
Wales came back from the restart, but as the match approached half time, the home side started to push forward, putting pressure on the away defence and winning a penalty in the 42nd minute which Russell saw over for 13-9 at half time.
It was a ‘different Scotland side who took to the field for the second half and they immediately pressed home what advantage they had gained from the penalty and, with less than four minutes of the half played, they scored their first try of the match.
The pack battered their way up the centre of the pitch, ending up with lock, Richie Gray, pulling in, at least, three defenders. This gave the Scots’ backs a bit of room down the right and some slick passing – the final ball coming from a Tim Visser off-load – saw Seymour over the line in the corner for the try. Russell then continued his successful kicking spree with the touch-line conversion to put the home side into a 16-13 lead.
Scotland now had their tails up and began to dominate proceedings inside the Welsh half, forcing the visitors into kicking clear.
The next score came just after the 50 minute mark from, yet, another Russell penalty which opened the gap to 19-13 in favour of the Scots.
Wales then had another brief moment of hope snatched away as an excellent win against the head from a scrum, saw Webb grab the ball and catapult himself down the blindside and over in the corner. Fortunately – if you’re a Scottish supporter – he was just tackled before the line and the TMO result was ‘a foot in touch’. You could feel the air pressure inside the stadium increase as the many thousands of home supporters released their collective breath at the same time following that crucial decision.
Then it was back to the day-job for Scotland as they returned the match the opposition half where many thought it belonged in the first place.
However, Scotland were not for losing this one and, managing to avoid a couple of potential banana skin errors, the next score was a Tim Visser try.
With just over 15 minutes to go, Scotland were, once again, encamped deep in the Welsh 22. Pressure was beginning to build on the defenders through a series of rucks before Captain, John Barclay had a dart at the line. He was pulled up short, but space had been created and, a long pass out to Hogg was then popped out to Visser, giving the winger a short, tackle-bursting run in for the try. Russell’s impeccable boot then rounded off the score with another conversion to take the score out to 26-13 with just over 10 minutes left on the clock.
The final score came by way of a penalty created by Liam Williams running the ball into his own player and giving Russell another kick at goal, which the stand-off belted over for a final tally of 29 points to 13 in favour of Scotland and that elusive, 10 years in the making, win.
And, just to round up the weekend’s Internationals, Scotland’s U20 went down 65-34 at Broadwood in trying conditions. The young Scots side were never really at the races as the 27-0 lead just before half time told. Two quick tries before the break meant it was 27-12 at half time, but the second half was put to bed as Wales went on to rack up their total of 65, Scotland, to their credit, not surrendering and adding 22 points of their own before the end.
Images from the main match will appear here over the next few days.
