PENNY DROPS SCOTS IN IT!

GARY FITZGERALD Wales 34 Scotland 7 LETHAL Leigh Halfpenny was red-hot as the Dragons breathed fire to melt Scottish hearts with a blistering start to the Six Nations.

The Wales full-back ended a five-year try drought with a superb double strike to heap humiliation on the woeful visitors.

Lions star Halfpenny was also foot perfect, kicking all his goals and amassing 24 points in a one-sided demolition job.

It gave Warren Gatland’s men a crushing bonus-point victory in their bid for a first title since 2013.

The coach said: “Everybody knows Leigh is a world-class performer.

“He was certainly in the zone today, kicking superbly and supporting excellently for his two tries. He’s a useful weapon to have in your backs, isn’t he?

“But the whole team were outstanding. Each man played his part in making sure we have made a pretty good start to this Six Nations.

“We knew the Scots would be full of confidence and belief coming here after the autumn but I was also confident we could get the job done. We did that with a very good 80-minute display.”

Scotland thrashed Australia and gave world champions New Zealand a major scare towards the end of last year – but they were lambs to the slaughter in Cardiff.

A breathless, frantic start saw them attempt to take the game to Wales but instead they were hit by two damaging setbacks inside 10 minutes.

Gareth Davies gave the hosts the ideal start, the scrum-half intercepting an Ali Price pass to race over from the halfway line.

Steff Evans let Alun Wyn-Jones’ pass slip from his fingers as he failed to round off what would have been a sensational try.

But Halfpenny caught the ball when he found himself on the right wing moments later and raced over for a second quickfire try which he also converted. Scotland were their own worst enemies, making far too many handling errors while trying to play open and attacking rugby.

It backfired badly and was frustrating for coach Gregor Townsend sitting in his seat – and heartbreaking for the travelling fans.

Halfpenny punished them again at the start of the second half with two penalties after Scotland captain John Barclay sinned at successive rucks.

He then popped up on the wing to finish off more heavy Welsh pressure by diving over the line.

Halfpenny converted and the remaining 17 minutes was mental as well as physical punishment for Scotland.

Evans dived over in the corner to finish the embarrassment for the visitors.

The pass to him was forward but Halfpenny did not care as he converted yet again.

Scotland replacement Peter Horne’s converted try at the end was greeted with muted cheers from the away supporters.

Skipper Barclay said: “I’m speechless. We made a lot of errors.

“We tried to find the tempo we had in the autumn but we couldn’t find the accuracy and that’s the end result.

“We’ll have a look back but there were too many individual errors and too many missed tackles. Our line-out didn’t function all that well and when we got the ball we gave it away.

“It’s hard to find positives, although I’m sure there will be some. Wales were superb and we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Wales captain Wyn-Jones said: “I’m a bit tired afer that.

“That was a performance borne out of respect for Scotland and the way they’ve been playing. We are very pleased to start like that but there’s a long campaign ahead.

“I’m particularly pleased about the way our guys took their opportunities.”