Another Wales-Scotland match in Cardiff, another Wales win. This, the 10th such victory in a row, will resonate least of the recent run, sneaked in at an unfamiliar time of year, the selections compromised, the motives suspect. The really important matter lay beyond rugby. The match will be remembered for the inauguration of the Doddie Weir Cup, in tribute to the guest of honour, who is battling motor-neurone disease with all the dignity and good humour we have come to know so well.
Those who remember what happened on the field at all will attribute Wales’s win to superior power, particularly through the outside-centre channel, Huw Jones missing the crucial tackle for Wales’s two tries. George North went over for his 34th for Wales in the first half and in the second it was Jonathan Davies who sprung through the same gate.
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No arguing with the win, even if neither side hit the heights bar the odd surge here and there. Wales scored on those two occasions they threatened; Scotland did not, Alex Dunbar’s break through Hadleigh Parkes a highlight of their first half, and Peter Horne’s near miss that of the second. Neither side seemed entirely sure of themselves.
Still, Wales will be happy, what with their reputation as slow starters. This, extraordinarily, is the first time they have won their opening Test of the autumn since 2002 – and that was against Romania in a game otherwise memorable for the debut of Gethin Jenkins, who plays his last match on Sunday, for Cardiff Blues next door.
Since then, their opening autumn games have invariably been against one of the southern hemisphere’s big three, usually on an unauthorised weekend. Rugby is torn over these Tests outside the international window. The Welsh and Scottish unions managed to get this one past the welfare police by announcing it was in support of Weir. And then it transpired that no proceeds from the game would be donated to his cause. Cue rugby’s latest humiliating climbdown, the two unions shamed into promising a six-figure donation.
It lent the match an uncertain status, no one really knowing what to expect from a fixture whose long and exciting history has overwhelmingly been consigned to the first few months of the year. The sides felt their way in accordingly. Any players based outside their respective countries were unavailable, so new combinations were on show in key positions for both teams.
Scotland had promising youngsters in the No 10 and 15 shirts, Adam Hastings’s selection particularly anticipated. The son of Gavin got off to a nervy start, a couple of loose kicks from hand hardly inspiring confidence, but he has a swagger that bodes well and he kicked with assurance to land a penalty and conversion in the second quarter.
By the time he had made the first, Wales were 9-0 up without really doing anything. Thirteen penalties in the first half did not help the game’s flow, but it did give Leigh Halfpenny the chance to do his thing from the tee, before North registered his latest try on the half-hour. Scotland’s defence had been vigorous, but North exploded on to a pass from behind Jonathan Davies’s dummy run and Huw Jones was done for.
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Scotland responded swiftly to the 14-3 deficit that try established. Stuart McInally, captain in the absence of John Barclay and Greig Laidlaw, finished off a lineout and drive that Wales defended with rather less vigour. They continued their new dominance into the second half, but it was Wales who struck next.
Huw Jones was exposed again in defence, but this time it was more a case of his being isolated in a midfield bewitched by a sweet Wales move from a lineout. Gareth Anscombe, in such deadly attacking form of late, looped menacingly behind Parkes and released Jonathan Davies past the lonely Jones.
Wales’s defensive maul improved in the second half, but Jonny Gray was driven inches short on the hour, when he could not resist a double movement to bring one attack to an end. Otherwise, Scotland looked at a loss to find a way through or round the Welsh wall, until they worked one down the right. Blair Kinghorn, accomplished at full-back, combined with Tommy Seymour and George Horne to set Alex Dunbar at the line. Elliot Dee was coaxed into a yellow-card offence, and Scotland thought they had scored through the Horne brothers. George chipped in-goal, but Peter could not quite ground the ball. It was as close as either side would come in the final quarter. Scotland could not make their extra man tell.
Indeed, their full complement was driven off their own ball at a scrum from the next play. They never quite found their rhythm.
Wales were hardly scintillating either, but they move on to their autumn nemesis, Australia, next Saturday in better shape than usual at this time of year. A win there would be a seventh in a row. And next year is World Cup year.