Ref costs Scots chance of lifting trophy in honour of hero Doddie
Scotland were lef t counting small blessings af ter a l l owing the Doddie Weir Cup to slip from their grasp at the first time of asking.
An afternoon aimed at raising funds and awareness for the stricken dark blue hero’s charity coincided with a Scotland display which rose above so many recent trips to Cardiff.
Not least a dismal 34-7 Six Nations loss back in February, but this time the business end was all about those less fortunate.
Driven on by emotion and desire to lift the trophy which bore the name of the Scot who’s battling Motor Neurone Disease, Scotland paid the price for failure to make pressure tell and poor defence and skipper Stuart McInally admitted it wasn’t for the want of trying.
He said: “It was a tough day and we are pretty frustrated. In the second half we dominated territory but couldn’t convert.
“We had two tries disallowed which was disappointing but Wales defended very well so credit has to go to them.”
Leigh Halfpenny booted the Welsh into an early three point lead before stepping up to fire over another penalty to double it.
A long afternoon looked increasingly on the cards as Jonny Gray conceded yet another penalty with an infringement which allowed Halfpenny to increase his points total to nine.
The penny, so to speak, hadn’t yet dropped as poor discipline was allowing one of the deadliest kickers in world rugby to keep the scoreboard ticking over.
Scotland cut that deficit in the 26th minute as Hastings hit his first points for his country with a penalty. But, almost inevitably, their line punctured as a dark blue wave surged forward in search of a grandstand finish.
Wales went a man down as Elliot Lee was sin- binned for an infringement at a ruck as the action focused solely deep inside Welsh territory.
Peter Horne bel ieved he managed to get a touch to brother George’s chip forward only for the TMO to again deny the Scots a try but this time it was a controversial call and looked a harsh one.
It would be as near as Scotland would come to hauling themselves back before the inaugural Doddie Weir Cup found its way into Welsh hands.
Scotland boss Townsend said: “It would have been good to win it.
“I looked up a couple of times and he was on the big screen and the reaction Doddie got from the supporters was tremendous.
“We really wanted to win that game the match, and the trophy.
“The way we kept going at Wales in the second half, yes we didn’t get the points but we were doing all we could to win that game.” Wales boss Warren Gatland admitted his side weren’t up to scratch against a Scottish side which had them in a squeeze.
He said: “We were a bit rusty but stil l scored a few nice tries. Scotland put us under a lot of pressure in the second half but we came through.”