Injuries, but Wales cruise

– Wales head coach Warren Gatland insisted he “predicted victory by 20 points” and never doubted his injury-hit side would get their Six Nations campaign off to the perfect start against Scotland.

Leigh Halfpenny (above) scored 24 points to secure a bonus point 34-7 victory over Gregor Townsend’s side at the Principality Stadium.

Gareth Davies got the hosts off to a flying start when he intercepted an Ali Price pass and sprinted 60 metres to score.

Halfpenny then ended a fiveyear wait for an international try when he darted through a gaping hole in the Scottish defence to score.

He completed his brace after the break and added 12 points with the boot before completing his haul with the conversion of Steff Evans’ acrobatic score.

Peter Horne finally broke the Welsh defence in the dying moments to get Scotland on the scoreboard, but it was Wales who sent out a warning to the rest of their Six Nations rivals.

“It was an afternoon I was expecting with the way we have trained the last couple of weeks. There was definitely a quiet confidence in the squad, they have been outstanding in their preparation and we went into the game expecting to win reasonably comfortably,” said Gatland.

“I told the chief executive that I thought we would win by 20 points at the team run and he was shocked, but that’s how well we’ve trained, the guys they’ve been excellent.

“I thought we defended superbly, Scotland have a lot of attacking threats and we had to cope with that. Apart from the soft try at the end our defence was outstanding,” he said. – AFP