A BRUISING battle against the French in Paris had seen Scotland lose not only the match (22-17) but also captain Greig Laidlaw and No 8 Josh Strauss for the rest of the tournament because of injury. The fear before this game back at Murrayfield a fortnight later was that the team would take some time to adapt to the loss of their leader and scrum-half - but Scotland, as they had done against Ireland, adapted to being under the cosh for long stretches of the game to come out on top.
Wales had the better of the first half, with a Liam Williams try and a conversion plus two penalties from Leigh Halfpenny giving them the edge. But Finn Russell was on target with three penalties, the last of which made the half-time score 13-9 to the visitors. That was a narrow lead given the pressure and possession the Welsh had had, and it gave Scotland fresh hope as they went in at the break.
When they came out again for the second half they wasted no time in seizing the initiative, as scores from Tommy Seymour and Tim Visser put them firmly in front. Visser was just as impressive in defence, putting in a try-saving tackle on Rhys Webb in what was the last serious scoring attempt the Welsh were able to muster.
Russell, who had scored his third penalty in between the tries, added two more late in the game to emphasise Scotland’s superiority. They had scored 20 unanswered points in the second half, and the victory meant they would travel to Twickenham with a chance of winning a Triple Crown.
“I was really happy for a number of reasons,” head coach Vern Cotter said after the match. “We set out to win the game and at half-time we weren’t particularly well positioned to do that.
“The players adjusted well in the second half, we scored a couple of nice tries and transferred pressure back onto the Welsh team. It was a good second-half performance, so I’m very happy.
“We had to tweak a couple of things in the way we approached the game [at half-time]. The boys realised that we were probably watching them playing rather than playing ourselves. It’s fair to say that we could influence the outcome if we did a few things - and that wasn’t just me talking, it was everybody.
“I’m very proud of that response. It’s been a while since we could sit here and talk about a win over Wales.”
Scotland: S Hogg; T Seymour, H Jones, A Dunbar, T Visser; F Russell, A Price (H Pyrgos 55); G Reid (A Dell 52), F Brown (R Ford 71), Z Fagerson, R Gray, J Gray, J Barclay, J Hardie (H Watson 25), R Wilson. Unused substitutes: S Berghan, T Swinson, D Weir, M Bennett.
Scorers: Tries: Seymour, Visser. Cons: Russell 2. Pens: Russell 5.
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