Six Nations 2024: Wales 26-27 Scotland - Scots survive stunning comeback

Scotland withheld a stunning Wales comeback to hang on for a nail-biting first victory in Cardiff in 22 years.

Gregor Townsend's side raced into a 27-0 lead in 43 minutes with two Duhan van der Merwe tries, a Pierre Schoeman score and 12 Finn Russell points.

Wales responded with tries from James Botham, Rio Dyer, Aaron Wainwright and Alex Mann in a stunning second-half performance.

But Scotland held out the final 12 minutes to wrap up the one-point win.

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It was a Six Nations spectacular that was transformed after Wales made a number of changes at half-time.

Head coach Warren Gatland turned to youth with their barnstorming performance in the second half, as the hosts were unrecognisable to the timid first-half display when Scotland were in total control.

Player-of-the-match Aaron Wainwright was outstanding, while replacement scrum-half Tomos Williams inspired his side and flanker Tommy Reffell was outstanding throughout.

Scotland's discipline disintegrated as they conceded 14 successive penalties and yellow cards for George Turner and Sione Tuipulotu.

Wales fell just short of completing the biggest comeback in Six Nations history, having to be content with two losing bonus points, but the changing of the guard was in evidence.

The reality is Scotland have halted the 11-game losing sequence in Cardiff since the 2002 triumph, which head coach Gregor Townsend played in at a time when new Wales captain Dafydd Jenkins was not born.

In that time, Scotland have won at Twickenham, in Dublin, Paris, Rome and Sydney and this win in the Welsh capital has consigned the previous losing streak to history.

Scotland have won their opening Six Nations match for a fourth successive year, while in contrast, this was an eighth defeat in the last nine games in the tournament for Wales.

It also represents a fifth successive loss at home in the competition, which is Wales' worst run since the tournament expanded in 2000.

These statistics do not mirror the positivity of the second-half display but they will rue the first-half performance.

Wales in transition

An inexperienced Welsh side was selected, with a major turnover from the squad that reached the World Cup quarter-finals in the autumn.

This time last year, eight of the Wales Six Nations starters were aged over 30, in a team boasting more than 950 caps and led by the country's oldest ever captain, Ken Owens.

In 2024, there were just over 400 caps with 21-year-old Jenkins Wales' second youngest skipper after Sir Gareth Edwards.

Dan Biggar and Leigh Halfpenny have followed Alun Wyn Jones and Justin Tipuric into international retirement while Taulupe Faletau, Jac Morgan, Owens, Dewi Lake, Liam Williams, Gareth Anscombe, Tomas Francis and Louis Rees-Zammit are unavailable for different reasons.

This turnover meant Cardiff full-back Cameron Winnett, 21, won his first cap, while fly-half Sam Costelow made his Six Nations debut.

Scotland have been more settled post-World Cup, where they bowed out at the pool stages.

With Stuart Hogg having retired and Blair Kinghorn absent with a knee injury, Glasgow's Kyle Rowe slotted in at full-back in his Six Nations debut.

Russell inspires Scotland

The usual pre-match Principality Stadium roof row emerged with Scotland originally saying they wanted it open before opting to have it closed.

Townsend's side started strongly with a Russell penalty before a try for prop Schoeman.

Russell slotted over another penalty after a needless transgression conceded by Adams, with the visitors indebted to their captain's excellent kicking game.

In a first-half masterclass, the fly-half glided through the defence to hand Van der Merwe his first try against Wales.

Costelow was forced off the field with a head injury and replaced by Ioan Lloyd, who was making his first international appearance for three years.

Wales' display was beset by line-out woes, a poor kicking game and handling errors, and could only rely on turnover penalties from Leicester flanker Reffell as Scotland scored 20 unanswered points in the first 40 minutes.

Wales fightback begins

Wales made a raft of changes with scrum-half Williams, hooker Elliot Dee and prop Keiron Assiratti coming on.

It initially mattered little after a poor Wales kick-chase allowed Russell to set up the rampaging Van der Merwe to sprint away and score a fine individual effort, which the Scotland captain converted.

Dee's introduction improved the line-out and Botham burrowed before making way for Mann.

Scotland hooker Turner was shown a yellow card for deliberately pulling down a maul and Wales had hope as they made more alterations.

The momentum continued with a well-worked try as the hosts capitalised on the extra man as Dyer dived over in the corner.

Scotland were in disarray and just after Turner returned, centre Tuipulotu was sent to the sin-bin after twice being caught offside.

Wales again capitalised when number eight Wainwright crashed over under the posts with Lloyd converting.

Dyer made a searing break to set up the attacking line-out which saw Mann score on debut, with Lloyd again converting.

The deficit was reduced to a point and set up a rousing finale before Wales ran out of steam. Scotland clung on for victory and it was Russell who lifted the Doddie Weir Cup on a nerve-wracking evening for all involved.

Line-ups

Wales: Winnett; Dyer, Watkin, Tompkins, Adams; Costelow, G Davies; Domachowski, Elias, Brown, D Jenkins (capt), Beard, Botham, Reffell, Wainwright.

Replacements: Dee, Mathias, Assiratti, Teddy Williams, Mann, Tomos Williams, I Lloyd, Grady

Scotland: Rowe; Steyn, H Jones, Tuipulotu, Van der Merwe; Russell (capt), White; Schoeman, Turner, Z Fagerson, R Gray, Cummings, Crosbie, Ritchie, M Fagerson.

Replacements: Ashman, Hepburn, Millar-Mills, Skinner, Dempsey, G Horne, Healy, Redpath.

Referee: Ben O'Keeffe (New Zealand)

Touch judges: James Doleman (New Zealand) & Angus Mabey (New Zealand)

TMO: Brendon Pickerill (New Zealand).

Sin-bin: Turner, Tuipulotu