START & SOUL
Super Scotland shrugged off the weight of history to fire up their Six Nations hopes with a ground- breaking record win over Wales.
For the first time ever, the dark blues went two from two at the start of a Six Nations campaign by slaying the Dragons after putting England to the sword.
Finn Russell’s Murrayfield masterclass was the inspiration behind backing up last week’s Twickenham heroics with a record home win over Wales.
France now lie in wait in a fortnight as Gregor Townsend’s side head into unchartered territory.
A pre-match tribute to former Scotland lock Doddie Weir provided an emotional prelude to a contest which was fought out for a trophy named after the rugby legend who passed away last November after a battle with Motor Neurone Disease.
It would be an afternoon to make the big man proud.
Scots boss Gregor Townsend had insisted there was plenty of room for improvement from the win over England and his side delivered with plenty to spare.
The swashbuckling Scots were full of attacking verve from the off and Hugh Jones led a seventh minute charge to find Russell who’s magnificent crossfield kick was gathered by Kyle Steyn, but the winger was dragged to the ground short of the try-line.
Wale s were then penalised for an offside and Russell drew first blood with a simple penalty.
That was followed by the ominous sight of talismanic fullback Stuart Hogg leaving the field with a head injury as he was replaced by Blair Kinghorn.
It didn’t knock Townsend’s side out of their stride.
Another Russell penalty edged Scotland into a six-point lead after 20 minutes with Wales struggling to make any inroads into enemy territory.
Wales finally ignited as an attacking threat and Richie Gray managed to repel a danger moment by ripping the ball away at an opposition line-out as the visitors closed in.
The Welsh set-piece was misfiring and so too was the kicking of Dan Biggar who blasted a penalty uncharacteristically wide after being provided with the chance to reduce the deficit in the 25th minute.
There was no doubt Warren Gatland’s players were out to make amends for surrendering so meekly against the Irish last week and they were beginning to exert pressure as they looked to stretch their manager’s unbeaten record against the Scots to 12 games.
But the Scots had other ideas and had some clear daylight when George Turner bulldozed over after another line-out was immaculately executed and Russell added the extras.
Turner’s joy was quickly tempered with a ten- minute spell in the sin-bin after a high tackle on George North – and it would prove immediately costly.
Wales made their extra man count by powering forward for Ken Owens to score and with Biggar converting there was a sense of momentum swinging.
It could – and should – have been worse for Scotland but Rio Dyer fumbled from a few yards out seconds before the break.
Wales had been dominating both possession and territory and resumed with more of the same as they continued to probe at the Scottish defence.
Russell released some of the pressure with an immaculate kick to touch and the resultant line-out almost brought another try for Turner, but he was held up just short of the line.
Scintillating Scotland served up a series of superb breaks to get the Murrayfield crowd on their feet and Steyn dived over after Russell’s sublime offload before the playmaker bulleted over the conversion.
The initiative had been seized and when Liam Williams was yellow carded, Scotland rammed home the advantage with Russell’s sublime crossfield kick finished off by Steyn.
Russell failed to convert but made amends as another crossff iield kick in the 70th minute m was collected by Duhan D van der Merwe who made m ground before sending se Kinghorn over .
The playmaker was again ag wide with the extras but bu it would matter not as Matt Ma Fagerson added a fifth try before Murrayfield rose to acclaim Scotland’s history hist makers at full-time.