Scotland captain Finn Russell praised his side’s resilience after they did just enough to end a 22-year wait for a win in Cardiff with a tense 27-26 victory over Wales in their thrilling Six Nations opener. The Scots were in complete command at 27-0 up early in the second half at the Principality Stadium on Saturday after Duhan van der Merwe sprinted through for the second of his two tries and the visitors’ third in all.
But Wales, aided by second-half yellow cards for the Scotland duo of George Turner and Sione Tuipulotu, then scored 26 unanswered points of their own as they ran in four tries through James Botham, Rio Dyer, Aaron Wainwright and Alex Mann.
But Scotland, with fly-half Russell kicking 12 points courtesy of three conversions and two penalties, withstood the onslaught to end a run of 11 straight defeats in the Welsh capital. I’ve been in games like that with Scotland that we’ve lost,” said Russell.
“That was the most pleasing thing, that we found a way to win with the crowd on our backs. It shows how far we’ve come, to be able to fight and win those games. It is a bit of a monkey off our backs.”
Next up for Scotland are France, a side the 31-year-old Russell knows well from his time playing for Paris-based Racing 92 before joining English Premiership side Bath this season.
‘Les Bleus’ will arrive at Murrayfield on the back of a 38-17 loss to defending champions Ireland in Marseille, with Russell saying: “We’ve got France next, but there’s a lot to work on, which is a positive place to be.” Scotland’s composure deserted them for large parts of a second half where a new-look Wales were roared on by a capacity crowd, with the noise heightened as a result of the Principality Stadium’s retractable roof being closed.
But they held out to record a first win in Cardiff since a 27-22 success in 2002 when now head coach Gregor Townsend was their fly-half.
“It shows what the atmosphere and crowd here can do, but we got back to how we can play and we managed to dig it out in the end,” said Russell. Credit to Wales, it’s what we expected, but it’s something we’ll have to be better at.
“I’m disappointed with that second half but it’s a great start to the tournament, our first win here for 22 years.” Wales’ inexperience was exemplified by the fact that 21-year-old captain Dafydd Jenkins was their youngest skipper since scrum-half great Gareth Edwards led the side against Scotland aged just 20 back in 1968.
“I was incredibly proud of the boys in the second half,” said Exeter lock Jenkins. “Obviously we were not as accurate in the first half. We showed them too much respect.
Source: Supersport
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