Blair Kinghorn and Tom Jordan scored two tries apiece as Scotland survived a late fightback to beat Wales 35-29 and raise the Doddie Weir Cup.
An early Gareth Anscombe penalty was cancelled out when Scotland spread the ball wide, Kinghorn pinning his ears back to place the ball in the corner. Not long after, Tom Jordan cantered over after fine work from Huw Jones on the left. Finn Russell converted both efforts. Blair Murray’s well-taken effort was the visitor’s riposte, but soon Wales were forced to scramble again. Ben White broke from a ruck, then Finn Russell’s sweetly delayed short ball found Darcy Graham, who galloped through the Welsh defence to restore the Scottish advantage.
Wales were a shambles. WillGriff John was shown a yellow card for a silly transgression, sticking his foot out to prevent Ben White from passing. Then, Ben Thomas fumbled a loose reverse-offload by Murray which led Tom Jordan to hack the ball away and score which cemented Scotland’s lead. They had the try bonus point before half-time, and consolidated it not long afterwards in style. From a Scottish maul, Russell found Kinghorn who cantered in under the posts. Russell made his fifth conversion to make it 35-8.
It wasn’t all plain sailing, however, as Wales capitalised on some poor Scottish defending and mounted a comeback. First, Ben Thomas cut through on a sharp line to score, then Teddy Williams crashed over from close range. The 27-point lead was cut to 13 — with a further attempt by Taulupe Faletau being ruled out for illegal play. Wales were gutsy, but were unable to force things their way, though Max Llewellyn did score a consolation try at the death to secure a bonus point.
It was a nervy finale — but in the end, Scotland’s stunning first-half display proved to be enough.
Image credits: “Murrayfield Autumn 2017” by Calum404 is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.