Scotland pulled off a dramatic comeback win against Wales to back up their impressive Calcutta Cup success the previous week. Hosts Wales had the lead until the 74th minute thanks to a spark lit by wing Josh Adams, leaving the visitors feeling lucky to come away with five points, which sent them to the top of the Six Nations table.
This was just the third time Scotland have won the match directly after a victory over rivals England in the Six Nations, and their second-half resurgence came at the hands of fly-half Finn Russell. He was largely quiet in the first 40 minutes, such was Wales’s impressive start, but two fast-paced tries either scored or created by Russell set Scotland on the comeback path.
Although in years to come the history books will just tell the story of a Scotland win, nothing can take away from Wales’s revitalised performance. In the first two rounds they were convincingly beaten by England and France, but here they had a chance to win right up until the last minute. Wales also contended with injuries to Sam Costelow and Taine Plumtree; head coach Steve Tandy said both “don’t look great”.
Wales captain Dewi Lake added that the loss is gut-wrenching: “It’s a tough feeling because you know the performance is there. The things we spoke about working on in the week I think we delivered. In that first half we were dominant, we applied pressure, we attacked them. We have spoken a lot about staying in moments and we probably didn’t do that for the full 80, which is why the scoreboard has gone against us. I think we did enough to win that game which is what makes it so tough.”
Cardiff on a Six Nations day is a special place to be, no matter the form of the home side. The city was buzzing with anticipation for some quality rugby, and there was a bright note before kick-off with a healthy attendance of 70,649, a huge improvement from last week’s lowest Wales Six Nations crowd at home.
Wales did win their first point of this year’s competition and will have the fallow week to lick their wounds before they play Ireland in round four. Scotland will hope that their winning momentum can continue against France to give them a chance at claiming a Six Nations for the first time.
