Scotland on Saturday overcame a stunning fightback by Wales to end their 22-year wait for a win in Cardiff with a 27-26 victory in their Six Nations opener, while England beat Italy 27-24 in Rome to end a long-standing opening day hoodoo.
In Wales, the visitors were 27-0 up early in the second half only for the home side to score 26 unanswered points of their own.
Their nail-biting win meant Scotland ended a run of 11 straight defeats in the Welsh capital, a sequence including nine Six Nations losses.
Photo: AFP
Scotland were in command after Duhan van der Merwe went over for the second of his two tries, and his side’s third in all after prop Pierre Schoeman crossed in the first half, but a new-look Wales, aided by a couple of Scotland yellow cards, hit back with four tries as James Botham, grandson of England cricket great Ian Botham, Rio Dyer, impressive No 8 Aaron Wainwright and replacement Alex Mann all crossed to the delight of a raucous home crowd.
Scotland, for whom captain Finn Russell kicked three conversions and two penalties, clung on to a one-point lead heading into the final 10 minutes, before regaining their composure to end the match by laying siege to the Wales line, with the television match official denying Van der Merwe a hat-trick.
“It’s brilliant to win down here after not winning in Cardiff for 22 years, but we will be a bit disappointed with that second-half performance,” Russell told S4C. “The second-half discipline wasn’t good enough, two yellow cards allowed Wales back into the game.”
In Rome, Elliot Daly and Alex Mitchell scored England’s two tries with George Ford kicking the rest of the points for Steve Borthwick’s men, who claimed their first round one win since 2019.
England are a point behind Ireland, who soundly beat France on Friday, after failing to earn a bonus point in a bitty display in the Italian capital in which the hosts scored three tries to the Red Rose’s two.
“Mixed bag performance, really pleased with some of the endeavor. There were a few growing pains out there but delighted with the character shown,” said England captain Jamie George, whose team started two debutants and brought three more off the bench for their first caps. “There were lots of new faces out there, but the thing that pleased me was the way we rallied round and showed a lot more of what we are about.”
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