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Sun 26 Feb 2017 | 08:46
Scotland end 10 year drought with famous win over Wales

12
Comments

Scotland secured their second win in two games in the 6 Nations, and their first over Wales since 2007 after a stunning 29-13 victory at Murrayfield. Five penalties from man-of-the-match Finn Russell ultimately settled a real dogfight contest after spectacular tries from wingers Tommy Seymour and Tim Visser after half-time.

Wales led 13-9 at the break courtesy of two Leigh Halfpenny penalties and a clinical try from Liam Williams. But Rob Howley's men were unable to add to their tally in a scoreless second period.

Championship-wise, it is all but over now for Wales, while Scotland remain in contention for the overall title.

A game of attrition and sheer power at times, it was often dictated by whichever side gave away the fewer penalties. In between this was ingenuity and silky work from two of the most potent backlines in the Northern Hemisphere.

Williams' try on 23 minutes was the master plan of scrum-half Rhys Webb, whose quick tap caught the Scots off guard and opened the space for Halfpenny to brilliantly draw Stuart Hogg for the opening score.

Scotland's response after a difficult first half was superb. Seymour and Visser combined beautifully on the same wing for the former's try before Hogg's perfectly timed pass put the Dutchman in for the match-deciding try 12 minutes from the end.

Wales had golden opportunities to win the match themselves; Rhys Webb agonisingly knocked the ball on after Jonathan Davies smashed through the Scottish defence.

Webb was then denied after darting up the touchline in typical sniping fashion after putting a foot in touch due to a crucial Visser tackle.

These fine margins were what decided the match ultimately. For Wales, the end of title aspirations. For Scotland, they haven't felt this optimistic since their last championship-winning team of 1999.

Scotland captain John Barclay said post-match: “We felt like we made it very hard for them in the second half. We tightened things up, our discipline was better in the second half as well. So these things helped us get the win today.”

Wales' interim head coach Rob Howley: "The areas that mattered the most, I think Scotland edged it. We had chances - Jonathan and Rhys were pretty close - but international rugby is about keeping the ball."

*now updated with extended highlights

Posted By: Stephen Brunsdon

12 Comments

  • s_conner
    1:39 PM 28/02/2017

    I find the constant moaning and shouting at the ref from the Welsh players tiresome. Biggar, AWJ, Warburton and chief twat Webb were all at it every breakdown.

    There are times when you can't help call for decisions, e.g. when there's a forward pass it's instinctive to shout 'forward!' but the Welsh take it way too far. Glad they lost.

  • jimmy23
    10:51 AM 28/02/2017

    Yeah Rhys Webb shaking his head was a bit of a head scratcher.

    Anytime a Welsh fan brings up Mike Brown's behaviour, I instantly counteract that with mentioning Dan Biggar's petulance. I really don't like him. Even more so after that game in the world cup :P

  • drg
    10:32 PM 27/02/2017

    Certainly not arbitrary, 3 points is a nice number for a penalty kick, so it's a nice quick deduction.. It is however based on my new introduction of these laws. If this continues in the next round of 6N (my second round!) then the points deduction will be increased by a factor of 1.5 - this increase will continue to increase by the same factor each game with continuing petulance (it will also decrease depending if lessons are learnt and petulance is left in the changing rooms!)

  • misterdavid
    6:24 PM 27/02/2017

    I vote Itoje. He's the captain of my heart.

  • 45678
    10:37 AM 27/02/2017

    the petulance shown by the welsh at times was horrible

    I think AWJ has lost any chance of being lions captain after Saturday, which leaves Best, Hartley or Farrell as an outside bet

  • im1
    7:16 AM 27/02/2017

    Only 2 points for previous offences......?

  • stroudos
    6:17 AM 27/02/2017

    Brilliant DrG, I'd definitely support that scoring system - points deducted for acts of twattery, excellent idea. I particularly like the arbitrary way you've calculated the number of points to take off. Especially Biggar's additional two for prior offences...

  • drg
    9:14 PM 26/02/2017

    Thought the game was immense, got a few things to take away from it though....

    The final score 29-13.... I'm starting to think that a new score technique should be brought in. Whistle goes at the end of the match and it states that it is whatever tries and kicks scored, then the score is assessed.. In this game out of things I noticed, 3 point deduction against Rhys Webb for his shaking of his head when his "try" was disallowed.... I'm sorry mate, it was shown on the big screen you were out, did you not watch the replay as the referee was requesting it? (is that possible?)

    So that takes Wales down to 10 points, then Dan Biggars constant arguing and petulant gesticulating, especially around that Scottish "try", the one which had exactly the same 'crossing' as the Welsh the other week, that's another 3 point deduction, with an additional 2 points being removed for prior offences by that prick.... So Wales are on 5 points..

    Then I've since read that Alun Wyn-Jones stated that the team should take the points but the kickers said they wanted to go for the corner, so disobeying your captain, AND having a captain who is too weak to take charge is another 6 point deduction, so at the end of the match it looks like Wales scored negative 1 point...

    Didn't pay too much attention to Scotlands indiscretions, I was too busy watching Biggar flip his shit!

    Back onto the AWJ comment I made though, I'm sorry but I now don't rate the guy based on his comments... How can you have a bloke like him picked as captain due to his immense experience (Johnny Wilkinson said at some over the weekend that experience is immense), and have the bloke not get final say over a decision to take points or not.... HE WAS PICKED FOR HIS EXPERIENCE, then 2 young guys - Biggar or penny decide against his experience....

    THIS IS NOT A DEMOCRACY...

  • 7:22 PM 26/02/2017

    Rhys Webb seems to be a very model scrumhalf: a total twat. If I were a Wales fan, I'd love him for it.

  • 7:21 PM 26/02/2017

    It's bound to happen on occasion when a player dives into the tryzone, no?

    Seems the Stuart Hogg attempted tackle on Liam Williams was the same, the only difference being Hogg didn't make good contact.

  • ajv1beta
    12:13 PM 26/02/2017

    For Seymour's try at 1:49, why are people not talking more about Scott Williams trying to take his head off? Surely even if the try wasn't given it's a penalty try under the posts for a high tackle? Felt weird how the commentators barely mentioned it and no real fuss was made of it - I guess given the try was OK anyway means it's kinda irrelevant, but it still seemed a pretty ropey tackle to me.

  • chuckdick
    11:33 AM 26/02/2017

    Fantastic! Well done Scotland

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