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Gregor Townsend feared one other dramatic Cardiff collapse would cost Scotland their first win over Wales on the Principality Stadium for 22 years.
Head coach Townsend was an assistant to Andy Robinson in 2010 when Wales scored 17 factors within the ultimate couple of minutes in Cardiff to extremely flip a 14-24 deficit in to a 31-24 victory.
But this time Scotland – who have been 27-0 forward a couple of minutes into the second half – withstood a Welsh onslaught to win 27-26 and get their Guinness Six Nations marketing campaign off to a optimistic begin.
“It was a bit like 2010 and it went into my thoughts as the second half went on,” mentioned Townsend after Scotland had ended a run of 11 straight defeats in Cardiff stretching again to 2002.
“I remember the atmosphere that day when Wales had the momentum behind them and came back on the scoreboard.
“The same happened today, fortunately we stayed ahead and we were able to play well in the final five minutes.
“A lot of effort went into that last five minutes – we should have scored a try and we felt there were a couple of penalties that could have gone our way in the last passage – but it was past 80 minutes and we got the win.”
Wing Duhan Van Der Merwe scored two tries and prop Pierre Schoeman additionally touched down, whereas skipper Finn Russell was flawless with the boot in touchdown 12 factors.
After Van Der Merwe sliced by for a surprising second strive simply after the restart, Scotland have been on track to eclipse final 12 months’s report win over Wales.
But that was to not be and Townsend was grateful to see Scotland cling on whereas cursing important accidents to forwards Richie Gray and Luke Crosbie.
“Both are in a lot of pain,” Townsend mentioned. “Richie and the medics knew straight away it was a bicep injury. So that doesn’t look good for this Championship.
“Luke was a shoulder injury. It’s a painful one and that might settle.
“Not for next week (against France at Murrayfield), but let’s hope he’s not done any significant damage there. It’s a blow to lose two players from our starting team.”
On the nail-biting victory, Townsend added: “We were accurate and put Wales under pressure in the first half.
“Those two tries were really good reward and to have that cushion should have made it a more comfortable second half.
“The fact that it didn’t is a concern for us, but a lot of that was due to the penalty count (16 to four against Scotland) and the numerical advantage Wales had for 20 minutes.”
Wales made probably the most of second-half yellow playing cards for George Turner and Sione Tuipulotu to show the competition on its head.
James Botham, Rio Dyer, Aaron Wainwright and debutant Alex Mann crossed, with Ioan Lloyd kicking three conversions, as Wales secured two shedding bonus factors.
Wales head coach Warren Gatland, whose younger aspect head to Twickenham subsequent Saturday to play England, mentioned: Did we give Scotland an excessive amount of respect in that first half?
“They were fully loaded and we’re a young team. To do what we did, be 27-0 down, other teams might have shown less character and start thinking about next week, even throw in the towel.
“We didn’t do that. They kept fighting and put themselves in a position to win. That showed real character and we’ve just got to play like we did in the second half.
“You can’t coach experience. When you’re out there in front of 75,000 people making that much noise and the pace is quicker than club rugby, sometimes that takes time for players to get used to.
“We’ll need a little bit of leeway, but it’s still Test rugby and it’s about winning. That’s what we’ve got to focus on.”
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