A record-equalling points tally for the fixture. A record margin of victory too. And, more pertinently, back-to-back victories from the start of the Championship for the first time since 1996.
The Scotland squad had insisted they would need to improve from last week’s against England to see off the Welsh, and they did that, with Jamie Ritchie giving this performance eight out of ten rather than the seven he thought Twickenham had merited. By the captain’s own admission there were “a few clunky bits”, especially during a first-half spell in which, with George Turner in the sinbin, Wales grew in confidence.
But the home team seized hold of the game early in the second 40, and ran out worthy winners by five tries to one. Scotland are now on ten points along with Ireland, who are ahead on points differential only. The tournament now has a week off before Gregor Townsend’s team visit France in round three.
The first indication of the potency that would produce those five tries from the home attack came when Stuart Hogg broke from deep. After the full-back was tackled to the deck, Russell sent a kick to the corner which was tapped back to Jamie Ritchie, but the captain was halted short of the line.
Wales had already offended, however, and Russell opened the scoring with the penalty from in front of the posts. Hogg soon went off with a head injury and was replaced by Kinghorn. But the enforced change did not throw the Scots off their stride, and Russell doubled their lead with a second penalty after nearly quarter of an hour.
Hogg’s early break was the closest the game had got to a try in the opening half-hour, but that changed as Scotland at last made pressure tell. Kyle Steyn was tackled into touch by Rio Dyer on the right when a score looked on, but advantage was being played and we came back for a penalty on the left.
It went to touch, and George Turner finished off from the lineout maul. Russell converted to make it 13-0.
Scotland lost the try-scorer to the sin bin when he put in a high tackle on George North. It took no time for the visitors to make the extra man tell, and they opened their account when captain Ken Owens finished off from a maul. Biggar converted and it was 13-7.
There was still time left in the first half for the Welsh to score again, but they blew their chance of a second try before the break when Dyer fumbled a pass with the line at his mercy.
Wales were back on the attack in the opening minutes of the second half, but they failed to score again before Turner returned. A brilliant kick by Russell shifted the momentum and gave Scotland a great attacking platform, but from the lineout Turner lost the ball just short of the line.
Then Duhan van der Merwe set off on a powerful run upfield only for the Welsh defence to drag him down well short. Scotland next won two penalties in quick succession as Wales began to feel the pressure - and from the second penalty the home side at last turned that pressure into points.
The lineout maul was stopped, but the ball came back from the breakdown. Russell made a break for the line, and just as he was being tackled to the ground he offloaded to Steyn, who caught and touched down all in one motion. Russell added the extra two points to give Scotland a 20-7 lead.
Welsh full-back Liam Williams saw yellow as the referee grew tired of the visitors’ repeated offences, and this time it was Scotland’s turn to make the numerical advantage count. A clean lineout saw the ball come back to Russell, and his punt to the corner found Steyn, who finished calmly for his second try - unconverted this time.
Wales tried to hit back inside the final quarter-hour, but replacement prop Rhys Carre was stripped of the ball when it looked easier to score. Scotland went back in search of the bonus-point try, and they got it when Van der Merwe put in another lung-bursting run up the right and provided the scoring pass for Edinburgh team-mate Kinghorn. Russell missed the conversion again, but the game was in the bag.
Two minutes from time Matt Fagerson got a fifth after another superb pass from Russell, whose conversion attempt was again off target. To their credit, Wales kept fighting until the end in search of more points, but a poor afternoon ended for them on another low note when replacement Rhys Webb was yellow-carded.
