Scotland captain Finn Russell felt more positive than negative about Scotland’s first victory in Cardiff in 22 years, following a proverbial two-half performance.
A one-point victory is nothing to sneeze at, but given that Scotland led by 27 points in the opening minutes of the second half, it wasn’t all good news.
“I’ve played similar games against Scotland and we’ve lost,” he said. “That’s the most satisfying thing, we found a way to win with the support of the crowd. It shows how far we’ve come, being able to fight and win these games. It’s a bit like a monkey away from us. Next up is France, but there’s still a lot of work to do and that’s a positive place to be.”
Their opponents played like men in the second half, but they were an inexperienced team led by the second youngest captain in Wells’ history. However, the enthusiasm of Cardiff fans has not diminished.
“It showed what the atmosphere and the crowd here can do but we got back to how we played and in the end we managed to dig it out. Credit to Wales it’s exactly what we expected but we have to do it Better. I was disappointed with the second half, but it was a great start to the championship and our first win here in 22 years.”
For young captain Dafydd Jenkins opposite him, the experience was equally bittersweet. “I couldn’t be more proud of the boys in the second half,” he said. “Obviously our performance in the first half wasn’t that accurate. We showed them too much respect. My family is very proud, but it doesn’t mean anything if you don’t win.”
His coach, Warren Gatland, is a different beast in terms of experience. He knows this will always be a key challenge for his team.
“You can’t direct experience,” he said. “When you have 75,000 people on the ground making noise and there’s a certain pressure, pace and intensity, it’s a bit more than you’re used to in club rugby and you take time to get used to it. So we need a little bit of wiggle room, but it’s still International rugby, it’s still very important and it’s about winning. We need to be hard on ourselves, hard on ourselves.”
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Wells next travels to Twickenham. “We have to play like we did in the second half. England had a tough win today. They are probably in a rebuilding stage as well. But we will go there with confidence and we can build on our performance and belief in the second half.”
