Scotland flew high in the autumn but suffered a fall here. Their pre-tournament optimism was shredded by a team who beat them at their own handling game. On the 10th anniversary weekend of Warren Gatland’s first match as the Wales coach, the New Zealander showed again he has few peers by shrugging off the loss of 10 players to mastermind the most emphatic of victories.
Wales derailed Scotland with two tries in the opening 11 minutes. If the first, an interception by the scrum-half Gareth Davies, was down to quick thinking after he detected the Scotland fly-half Finn Russell was on the floor and that the first receiver, Jon Welsh, was standing too far away from the ruck, the second showcased Wales’s relish for movement.
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It came from a scrum. The fly-half Rhys Patchell broke the defence and when Wales switched direction to the right, the second-row forward Cory Hill’s first thought was not to stick his head down and charge – as he would not that long ago have been encouraged to do – but pass directly behind him to Scott Williams who, spotting that the defence was narrow, passed long to Leigh Halfpenny to cross in the corner for the full-back’s first international try since 2013.
Patchell was playing only because of injuries to Dan Biggar and Rhys Priestland, starting an international in his favoured fly-half position five years after winning his first cap. He had the calm assurance of a veteran, never panicked into a decision, a scarlet weaver whose precision contrasted with his more celebrated opposite number, Russell, who had an erratic match, his ridiculous moments heavily outnumbering the sublime.
Scotland had talked during the week about basing their attack on chaos but the noun applied to their defence. Wales did not set out to stop Scotland playing but the opposite. They kept the ball in play, the length of Patchell’s clearance kicks allowing the defensive wall to align and restrict Stuart Hogg’s counterattacking options, and were as devastating off turnover possession as Scotland had been expected to be.
One move, in between Wales’s opening two tries, would have been an early contender for try of the tournament, Barbarian in its conception. Aaron Shingler started it, breaking from deep before linking with the prop Rob Evans, who in turn found Hill. Wales had signalled from the outset their desire to keep the ball alive, widening the point of attack by passing rather than taking contact, and as Hill approached the Scotland 22 with the defence scrambling desperately, he found his captain Alun Wyn Jones in support.
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Jones, who led by example throughout, was in sight of the line when he was eventually tackled. As he fell to ground, he passed inside to Steff Evans but was off balance. The ball was slightly behind the eager wing and was knocked on. It gave Scotland a taste of what was to come and what was notable about a performance from Wales that never deviated in its clarity or effectiveness was the contribution made by players who were on the field only because others were unavailable.
Patchell was far from the lone example. Scott Williams, dropped from the squad in the autumn and restored because of injury to Jonathan Davies, was immovable in defence. Even when Scotland, who struggled to get clean ball from the lineout, were able to use runners from deep to achieve width, Williams read the plays and snuffed them out.
In the Welsh back row, Josh Navidi was a replacement for the Lions’ captain, Sam Warburton. His strength over the ball earned his side penalties and turnovers and he made more tackles than any other player – but he was as influential in attack, adding continuity to moves along with Shingler, a player, like Patchell, who has been on the fringes for years but is now profiting from Wales playing a more varied game that suits him: the hosts made 13 offloads to their opponents’ seven.
Gatland predicted to the Welsh Rugby Union chief executive, Martyn Phillips, the day before the game that Wales would win by 20 points but it should have been by more. They had taken an early 14-0 lead against South Africa in their previous game, in December but failed to build on it. Scotland had 60% of the territory in the opening half, but when they did threaten the Wales line, as in Jonny Gray’s early break when he handed off Gareth Davies and was tackled by Patchell at the moment he was a ready to reach out for the line, they were either turned over or made an unforced error.
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They lacked ball-carriers and there was none of the polish they had shown in friendly matches in the autumn. The expected reaction after the interval was so muted it was if they had remained on the field in a trance. Two Halfpenny penalties, both conceded by the Scotland captain, John Barclay, at the breakdown in a mixture of desperation and frustration, in the opening eight minutes of the second-half, effectively settled the match.
Wales finished off their opponents by going direct, driving a lineout before moving the ball quickly right where Steff Evans’s flick freed Halfpenny – another example of how a team who used to take comfort in contact had moved on, and the bonus point was secured after Navidi and Shingler indulged in an orgy of offloading for the impressive Hadleigh Parkes to free his regional colleague and ensure Scarlets players supplied all of Wales’s points.