McInally: We shot ourselves in the foot
SCOTLAND captain Stuart McInally admitted his team were the architects of their own downfall against the Welsh in Cardiff yesterday.
A slow start, which saw the Scots go 9-0 and then 14-3 down, meant they were always chasing the game.
‘We spoke about starting well, with loads of energy but didn’t do it,’ said McInally.
‘I thought Wales defended really well and we couldn’t get into our attacking shape as we would have liked.
‘In the second half, when they got a bit tired, we had a lot more time with the ball. We started attacking much better. In saying that, we were frustrated with some of our accuracy towards the end of the game.
‘Although I thought we defended well with the tries we conceded, Wales didn’t really have to earn them.
‘We will definitely learn our lessons from that defeat and tidy up a few things. I thought there was some good stuff out there, though.’
Wales coach Warren Gatland said Scotland didn’t try to catch them down the wings as much as they had expected, especially as they had the uncapped wing Luke Morgan on from the start.
Gatland was delighted with the win, but felt Scotland pushed them all the way.
He said: ‘We were rusty but still scored a few nice tries.
‘The Scots put us under a lot of pressure in that second half but we came through that. Scotland didn’t stretch us out wide, which was a little bit surprising.’
Gatland revealed that Wales ‘would have struggled’ had they opened their autumn Test series against Australia, instead of the Scots — and improvements will be required for the Wallabies’ Cardiff visit next weekend.
The Welsh will be striving to avoid a 14th successive defeat against the Aussies.
He said: ‘If we came up against Australia today, we would have struggled, just with them having come off the Rugby Championship (against New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina).’