Welsh Rugby Union
Wales v Scotland - Six Nations Review
By Lestyn (17/02/04)
February 17 2004
Wales never even remotely looked in danger of letting a first opening weekend victory for seven years slip away. Any doubts about whether the men in red could continue the form shown in the World cup were swiftly removed by a blistering opening forty minutes.
| Against what has to be one of the worst Scottish sides for many a year, Wales showed much of the same
vigour and expansive play witnessed four months ago against New Zealand and England. Disappointingly though, Wales fell away in similar
fashion to those games in the final quarter. The visitor’s inept defensive effort was clear to see as gaps were exposed time and time again, Matt Williams was lucky to concede only three tries on his international coaching bow, with a little luck it could easily have been six or seven. A gliding break from Iestyn Harris was responsible for the first try of the afternoon, the centre exploited poor cross-field defence before offloading and neat link play allowed Rhys Williams the simplest of finishes. A well-struck Chris Paterson drop goal offered his side a glimmer of hope; hope, which proved to be short, lived. The Scots defence was sliced apart before more superb passing allowed Adam Jones of all people to dive over in the corner. Jones was soon to depart in a now routinely switch with Gethin Jenkins, due to Hansen’s belief that the black haired member of the Ospreys hair bare duo was not fit enough to offer much over the entire eighty minutes – opposed to being an impact player in the first half an hour. Hansen has stressed the significance of fitness in his side’s revival, a sweeping move from one side of the pitch to the other and back showed just how far under the guidance of Andrew Hore Wales have progressed. Had the resulting touch down by Gareth Thomas not been agonisingly ruled out for crossing, without doubt it would have been one of, if not the best scores seen in the Stadiums five year history. Recent replacement Gethin Jenkins went close with an athletic sprint into the Scot’s twenty-two before being dragged down just short of the line. The sheer time the Warriors prop was given highlighted the by now obvious gulf between the two sides. Stephen Jones increased the deficit between the two sides further with two penalties shortly before the interval, at 18-3 Scotland looked dead buried, with the prospect of even scoring a try looking unlikely. The men in red dominated the opening exchanges of the second half; two golden chances were missed before the game was killed off beyond all doubt. Shane Williams couldn’t squeeze his way over in the corner the resulting line out was turned over by Wales and had Full back Ben Hinshelwood not clearly stuck out his left palm to block what would have been a certain try. Referee Donal Courtney for some reason saw otherwise. In a similar fashion to Shane near-try, the other Williams out on the wing added his second. Rhys cut inside Dan Parks to complete his brace. Wales went close on a few more occasions but could never quite reach the highs of the first half, the tiredness of the less match fit members of the team in particular Brent Cockbain contributed as the match began to fizzle out as rustiness began to ebb it’s way into the team. Rather than injecting new life into the game Hansen choose not to ring that many changes. Gareth Llewellyn’s exit after fifty minutes saw the Welsh lineout disintegrate, as Michael Owen struggle to grip with calls. The last twenty minutes can in some ways be seen as a positive. If anything it will be a healthy dose of reality ahead of next weeks ever so slightly tougher trip to Dublin. |