Confronted with the proverbial performance of two halves, Scotland’s captain, Finn Russell, is taking more positives than the reverse from Scotland’s first win in Cardiff for 22 years.
A one-point win is not to be sniffed at, but given Scotland led by 27 of them a couple of minutes into the second half Scotland’s victory was not all good news.
“I’ve been in games like that with Scotland that we’ve lost,” he said. “That was the most pleasing thing, that we found a way to win with the crowd on our backs. It shows how far we’ve come, to be able to fight and win those games. It is a bit of a monkey off our backs. We’ve got France next, but there’s a lot to work on, which is a positive place to be.”
Their opponents played like men inspired in the second half, but they were an inexperienced team, led by the second youngest captain in Wales’s history. There was, though, no let-up in intensity from the Cardiff crowd.
“It shows what the atmosphere and crowd here can do, but we got back to how we can play and we managed to dig it out in the end. Credit to Wales, it’s what we expected, but it’s something we’ll have to be better at. I’m disappointed with that second half but it’s a great start to the tournament, our first win here for 22 years.”
For the young captain opposite him, Dafydd Jenkins, the experience was similarly bittersweet. “I was incredibly proud of the boys in the second half,” he said. “Obviously we were not as accurate in the first half. We showed them too much respect. My family are incredibly proud, but it doesn’t really mean anything if you’re not winning.”
His coach, Warren Gatland, could not cut a more contrasting figure when it comes to experience. He knew that was always going to be the key challenge for his side.
“You can’t coach experience,” he said. “When there’s 75,000 people out there making that noise and there’s a bit of pressure, pace and intensity, a little more than you’re used to at club rugby, it takes time to get used to that. So we’ll need a little bit of leeway, but this is still international rugby and it’s still really important and it’s about winning. We need to be critical and tough on ourselves.”
Next Wales travel to Twickenham. “We’ve just got to play like we did in the second half. England had a tough win today. They’re probably in a bit of rebuilding phase too. But we’ll go there with a lot of confidence that we can build on that second-half performance and belief.”
