King keeps his cool to seal it for Scotland

By CAMERON STEPHENS

Scotland ……………………. 18pts

Tries: Brown 10, Penalty 50

Penalties: Afshar 31, King 70

Wales …………………………. 17pts

Tries: Morse 45, Andrew 56

Conversions: Edwards 46, 57

Penalties: Edwards 53

DAN King's late penalty secured a famous Scottish victory to record their first Six Nations win in nearly three years as they beat Wales 18-17 at Scotstoun.

Scotland led 8-0 at half-time before Wales, despite being reduced to 13 men on two occasions, hit back through tries from Morgan Morse and Oli Andrews either side of Scotland's penalty try to give them their first lead just before the hour mark.

But King's shot at goal with less than 10 minutes to play would be the winning moment as it snapped Scotland's 15-game losing streak and gave them their first home Six Nations victory in over four years to move them into fourth place.

Scotland flanker Rudi Brown said: “We don't want to be almost people, we want to get there.

“We trained hard and all those hours, this is what it's for.”

The opening stages provided a distinct insight into the difficulty of the conditions as the unrelenting wind created an error-strewn start to the contest. Despite the harsh conditions, Scotland opened the scoring in the 10th minute through Brown who crashed over the line from the back of a thunderous Scottish maul.

From there, the hosts began to gain parity as Wales' seventh penalty inside half an hour provided the chance to add points from the tee, Ben Afshar obliged and extended the lead to eight.

Wales struggled to cope with the constant waves of attack to end the first half and the pressure saw two Welsh yellow cards brandished inside five minutes, scrum-half Archie Hughes and prop Dylan Kelleher-Griffiths were sent to the bin following repeated team infringements.

Match winner: Dan King kicks the late three points

However, Scotland couldn't capitalise on their two-man advantage going into half-time as a desperate Welsh defence held up substitute prop Moby Ogunlaja over the line to keep the score at 8-0.

Byron Hayward's side started the second half strong as Morgan Morse's merciless carry off the base of the scrum resulted in the first Welsh points of the game five minutes after the break.

But after spilling the resulting kick-of f, Wales handed Scotland an instant chance to respond.

Kenny Murray's side struck moments later as they were awarded a penalty try after Morse collapsed a maul and was sent to the bin.

The game threatened to get away from the visitors, but a Dan Edwards penalty was followed by an Oli Andrews try after an outrageous offload from Cam Winnett in the build-up to give 13-man Wales a 17-15 lead.

However, the penalties continued to pile up as Scotland regained the lead through the boot of King with ten minutes to go. As the clock wound down Wales thought they had scored through Lewis Lloyd, but Afshar produced a sensational chop tackle to force the replacement hooker into a double movement as he stretched for the line.

Wales' fourth and final card in the dying seconds saw Scotland opt for the posts to end the game, and despite King's attempt flying wide, Scotstoun was soaked in Scottish elation.

The defeat leaves Wales cemented at the bottom of the table and subjected them to five straight Six Nations losses for the first time ever.