Wales 26 Scotland 27: Furious Welsh comeback falls short as Scots edge all-time Six Nations classic
WALES fell agonisingly short of pulling off the greatest comeback in rugby history, after an astonishing second half onslaught.
The Dragons were staring at a record hammering when they trailed 27-0 two minutes into the second half – but stormed back with 26 unanswered points to charge to the brink of an incredible victory.
PAScotland made the perfect start to the Six Nations[/caption]
GettyThe Scots survived a Welsh fightback in a thrilling clash[/caption]
AFPDuhan van der Merwe crossed the try line twice[/caption]
But they could not find the killer score in the final 12 minutes, with the shell-shocked Scots somehow holding out for their first win in Cardiff for 22 years.
It was a victory achieved by the skin of their teeth – after they had threatened to swat this new-look Welsh team aside early on.
Man of the match Aaron Wainwright – one of four Welsh try scorers in the second half, along with James Botham, Rio Dyer and Alex Mann – admitted his team was heartbroken
He said: “We probably wanted the game to go on for another five minutes. As the scoreboard kept ticking down the belief grew, but first-half inaccuracies cost us.
“We left ourselves too much to do, and were probably not accurate enough in the first half. A lot of their ball came from our errors.”
And skipper Dafydd Jenkins added: “It’s an extremely disappointing result but I’m incredibly proud of the boys in the second half. We could have given up but we showed real fight.”
There was no hint of the drama to come as Scotland’s stunning start saw them power into a ten point lead after as many minutes.
Russell set the ball rolling by knocking over a routine penalty and relentless Scottish pressure ended with prop Pierre Schoemman barreling his way over for the opening try.
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Russell converted, and Wales did not help their cause with a childish reaction to a brilliant 50-22 from the mercurial fly half, with Josh Adams throwing the ball into the crowd.
Russell made it 13-0 from the resulting penalty, and then ran a sublime loop to send Duhan van der Merwe racing across for the second try.
That meant Wales were 20-0 inside half an hour, and their supporters were pleading with them to make a fight of it.
But even when they got within striking range, they were let down by novice mistakes – an overthrown lineout and a couple of careless knock-ons
The Dragons would probably have been booed off at half time if the crowd had not been stunned into silence.
It became even harder to watch for the home fans as Russell and van der Merwe linked up to devastating effect again two minutes into the second half,.
The Scottish captain’s pop pass put van der Merwe into space, and the big winger galloped around replacement scrum half Tomos Williams for his second try.
Russell again added the extras, and at 27-0 Wales were looking at total humiliation.
But suddenly, the transformation happened, and the no-contest turned into a Six Nations classic.
Wales finally got it right in the ‘Scotland red zone’ with a fearsome rolling maul that steamrollered the home defence Scotland.
It ended with Botham touching down for the try – and Scotland were reduced to 14 men as hooker George Turner was shown a yellow card for trying to collapse the maul.
And as Wales ramped up the pressure, the Scots began to panic, conceding 14 penalties in quick succession, and missing tackles for the first time in the game.
Gatland had also emptied his bench, and the changes seemed to breathe new life – and a lot more fire – into the Dragons.
They took advantage of the extra man to send Rio Dyer over for a second try.
And as soon as Turner came back from the sin bin his team were down to 14 men again with centre Sione Tiopulotu pinged for deliberate offside.
The Welsh maul was irresistible by now, and Wainwright and replacement back rower Mann both crashed over for tries.
Ioan Lloyd, who had replaced Sam Costleow after 32 minutes when the starting fly half failed a HIA, fired over a hat-trick of conversions – and incredibly the deficit was down to just a single point, with 12 minutes remaining..
But despite throwing the kitchen sink at the Scots, the home team could not find another way through.
Not surprisingly, they looked utterly dejected when the final whistle sounded.
