CHAMPIONS WALES KICK-OFF WITH VICTORY OVER SCOTLAND
Warren Gatland's Wales began their defence of the RBS Six Nations Championship with a comfortable 13-26 victory over a battling Scotland side in Edinburgh.
The visitors may have been without centre Gavin Henson due to a calf complaint and blindside flanker and captain Ryan Jones, who also suffered with a similar problem just 90 minutes before kick-off, but last year's grand slam winners comfortably managed without them.
The match got off to a quiet start and the game was 10 minutes old before its first real moment of drama when Scotland winger Simon Webster knocked himself unconscious after tackling Wales' stand-in skipper, Martyn Williams.
He flew at the Welsh captain and forced him to knock on after a chest-high collision but he hit Williams so hard he momentarily did himself more damage. Yet it was a superb indicator of the level of commitment being displayed by Scotland in defence.
A straightforward Stephen Jones penalty soon after finally got Wales on the scoreboard before Scotland were once again involved in a self-inflicted injury crisis when debutant prop Geoff Cross repeated Webster's trick and also knocked himself out following an appalling late tackle on full-back Lee Byrne.
Cross caught the Wales No15 in mid-air and clattered into Byrne's knee and not only was he stretchered off the field he also rightly received a yellow card for his troubles.
Wales immediately took advantage of their extra player as centre Tom Shanklin managed to collect a simple Byrne pass just five metres out to finally get Wales the try they deserved.
It went from bad for worse for Scotland close to the half-hour mark as lock Alun-Wyn Jones then crashed over from just one metre out after an impressive scrummaging effort put Scotland on the defensive.
The Welsh pack completely overwhelmed the opposing pack just inside Scotland's 22, Stephen Jones took the resulting ball forward and almost scored himself before the ball was passed out to Jones who could not fail to score, although Stephen Jones was less successful with his conversion, missing his second of the match.
Webster's replacement Chris Paterson kicked a penalty for the home side as half-time approached and it ignited the Scotland side as they repeatedly went close to scoring.
However they could not quite get past some awesome Welsh defending and their failure to score was made to hurt even more when Jones slotted a penalty on the whistle to extend Wales' lead to 16-3.
That lead became 21-3 just 47 seconds into the second half when young winger Leigh Halfpenny managed to stretch over the Scottish tryline in the right hand corner. But a further penalty from Paterson soon after ensured Scotland were not entirely finished.
However, they continued to offer very little in attack and allowed Wales to completely dominate them, a point underlined when IRB Player of the Year Shane Williams finished off 14 phases of play by crossing for 45th international try with 20 minutes to go.
Williams was then sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on and Scotland used his absence to their advantage as substitute Max Evans jinked through the Welsh defence to finally give Murrayfield something to cheer.
Paterson easily kicked the conversion to close the gap to 26-13 but a dramatic comeback was not to be as Wales managed to close the game out without further loss.
Scotland: Southwell, Webster (Paterson 21mins), Cairns (M Evans 52), Morrison, Lamont, Godman, Blair (Cusiter 62), Jackson, Ford (Hall 62) , Cross, White (Dickinson 27), Hamilton, Hogg (Brown 74), Taylor, Barclay (Gray 56)
Scorers: Tries: Evans Pen: Paterson 2 Con: Paterson
Wales: Byrne, Halfpenny, Roberts (Bishop 62mins), Shanklin, S. Williams (Davies 71), S. Jones (Hook 62), Phillips (Peel 60), Jenkins (Yapp 62), Rees (Bennett 62), A. Jones, Gough (Charteris 62), A. Jones, D. Jones, M. Williams, Powell.
Scorers: Tries: Shanklin, A Jones, Halfpenny, S Williams Pen: S Jones 2
Referee: A Rolland (Ireland)
Warren Gatland's Wales began their defence of the RBS Six Nations Championship with a comfortable 13-26 victory over a battling Scotland side in Edinburgh.
The visitors may have been without centre Gavin Henson due to a calf complaint and blindside flanker and captain Ryan Jones, who also suffered with a similar problem just 90 minutes before kick-off, but last year's grand slam winners comfortably managed without them.
The match got off to a quiet start and the game was 10 minutes old before its first real moment of drama when Scotland winger Simon Webster knocked himself unconscious after tackling Wales' stand-in skipper, Martyn Williams.
He flew at the Welsh captain and forced him to knock on after a chest-high collision but he hit Williams so hard he momentarily did himself more damage. Yet it was a superb indicator of the level of commitment being displayed by Scotland in defence.
A straightforward Stephen Jones penalty soon after finally got Wales on the scoreboard before Scotland were once again involved in a self-inflicted injury crisis when debutant prop Geoff Cross repeated Webster's trick and also knocked himself out following an appalling late tackle on full-back Lee Byrne.
Cross caught the Wales No15 in mid-air and clattered into Byrne's knee and not only was he stretchered off the field he also rightly received a yellow card for his troubles.
Wales immediately took advantage of their extra player as centre Tom Shanklin managed to collect a simple Byrne pass just five metres out to finally get Wales the try they deserved.
It went from bad for worse for Scotland close to the half-hour mark as lock Alun-Wyn Jones then crashed over from just one metre out after an impressive scrummaging effort put Scotland on the defensive.
The Welsh pack completely overwhelmed the opposing pack just inside Scotland's 22, Stephen Jones took the resulting ball forward and almost scored himself before the ball was passed out to Jones who could not fail to score, although Stephen Jones was less successful with his conversion, missing his second of the match.
Webster's replacement Chris Paterson kicked a penalty for the home side as half-time approached and it ignited the Scotland side as they repeatedly went close to scoring.
However they could not quite get past some awesome Welsh defending and their failure to score was made to hurt even more when Jones slotted a penalty on the whistle to extend Wales' lead to 16-3.
That lead became 21-3 just 47 seconds into the second half when young winger Leigh Halfpenny managed to stretch over the Scottish tryline in the right hand corner. But a further penalty from Paterson soon after ensured Scotland were not entirely finished.
However, they continued to offer very little in attack and allowed Wales to completely dominate them, a point underlined when IRB Player of the Year Shane Williams finished off 14 phases of play by crossing for 45th international try with 20 minutes to go.
Williams was then sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on and Scotland used his absence to their advantage as substitute Max Evans jinked through the Welsh defence to finally give Murrayfield something to cheer.
Paterson easily kicked the conversion to close the gap to 26-13 but a dramatic comeback was not to be as Wales managed to close the game out without further loss.
Scotland: Southwell, Webster (Paterson 21mins), Cairns (M Evans 52), Morrison, Lamont, Godman, Blair (Cusiter 62), Jackson, Ford (Hall 62) , Cross, White (Dickinson 27), Hamilton, Hogg (Brown 74), Taylor, Barclay (Gray 56)
Scorers: Tries: Evans Pen: Paterson 2 Con: Paterson
Wales: Byrne, Halfpenny, Roberts (Bishop 62mins), Shanklin, S. Williams (Davies 71), S. Jones (Hook 62), Phillips (Peel 60), Jenkins (Yapp 62), Rees (Bennett 62), A. Jones, Gough (Charteris 62), A. Jones, D. Jones, M. Williams, Powell.
Scorers: Tries: Shanklin, A Jones, Halfpenny, S Williams Pen: S Jones 2
Referee: A Rolland (Ireland)
Labels: RBS 6 Nations, Scotland, Wales, Warren Gatland
