Wales Start Six Nations Defence With Solid Victory Over Scotland

Wales kicked off the defence of their Six Nations crown with a solid 26-13 victory over Scotland at Murrayfield on Sunday.

For 65 minutes it was an impressive and professional performance from a Welsh side that many have tipped to complete a historic second consecutive Six Nations Grand Slam. They sucked in the Scottish defence and spread the ball out wide at will, creating problems for the opposing players that they struggled to deal with.

In the last 15 minutes, however, Scotland offered glimpses to suggest to the vocal home fans that they could go on to make an impact in the reminder of the tournament.

“It was potentially a huge banana skin for us today, so we are just glad to get off the mark with a win,” said Welsh captain Martyn Williams, who had taken the armband from the injured Ryan Jones. “Scotland are never going to lie down and let you walk all over them. The good thing is there are a lot of things for us to work on, and a lot of things to improve.”

The final scoreline—massaged by a rare poor kicking performance from Stephen Jones—was arguably a fair reflection of a match that Wales started explosively, before fading away and allowing their opponents to ask some awkward questions.

If Chris Patterson had managed to apply some downward pressure to the ball behind the Welsh line late on, it could have set up a tense finish for all concerned.

As it was, Patterson was adjudged to have knocked the ball on—and Wales proceeded to do enough to see the game out.

“To be honest, the game was ours to lose, and we said that before the game,” said Wales coach Warren Gatland. "I think we lost a little bit of momentum around the 60 minute mark when we tried to make a few changes, perhaps we were a little over-confident.”

Rank outsiders at the beginning of the match, the Scottish starters had obviously been told to be very physical in the tackle while defending, and try to spread the ball out wide while attacking. Unfortunately, neither tactic quite worked.

Errant tackles from winger Montgomery and prop Geoff Cross—one that resulted in the debutant also being awarded a yellow card—ended up each time with them lying unconscious on the pitch. Cross did not return after his time in the sin bin, and Montgomery never fully recovered from the effects of his tackle and was eventually substituted.

In attack, the Scots' attempts to get the ball wide frequently put them under pressure, and it was little surprise when centre Tom Shanklin crossed for the game’s first try.

Alun Wyn Jones and wingers Leigh Halfpenny and Shane Williams added further tries, before Max Evans provided a consolation for Scotland. The home side went on to dominate the last period of a play—thanks in part due to Martyn Williams’ sin bin for a deliberate knock-on.

Intriguingly, the last 20 minutes of the games should have a positive effect on both teams ahead of next weekend’s fixtures.

Scotland will go into their match in Paris against France with a bit more confidence, knowing that they did a great job restricting arguably the best side in the tournament—and even caused them a few headaches in the process. With the French being infamous for their inconsistency, the Scots might even harbour hopes of coming away with a surprise victory.

Wales on the other hand, might just have been reminded that there are no free passes in this tournament. England might not be in great form—a fact only reinforced by their labouring performance against Italy on Saturday—but they will still capitalise on any errors their opponents make.

Wales should still have enough in their locker to win—especially with home advantage at the Millennium Stadium—but the slightly panicked finish to the game at Murrayfield should at least keep them honest.

Judging by their words in the post-match press conference, both Gatland and Williams know exactly what they need to improve before next week. They seem to have learned something about their side from the weekend's performance—something that England coach Martin Johnson might be hard pressed to claim.

All in all though, with Ireland performing so well against France on Saturday, many spectators might already be circling the 21st March clash between Wales and Ireland at the Millennium Stadium, anticipating that encounter to be the deciding game of the 2009 competition.

With Ireland having not won the competition since 1985, and Wales going after back-to-back Grand Slams, it could yet be a historic clash.

Scotland (3) 13
Tries: Evans    Con: Paterson    Pens: Paterson (2)

Wales (16) 26
Tries: Shanklin, AW Jones, Halfpenny, Williams    Pens: S Jones (2)