Kicking king: Leigh Halfpenny
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Wales downed Scotland with a 28-18 victory in a penalty-ridden goalkicker's dream at Murrayfield in the Six Nations.
A match dominated more by the whistle and boot than any real memorable moments of attacking flair, Scotland and Wales racked up a total of 28 penalties between them as both sides continued to displease referee Craig Joubert.
Leigh Halfpenny ended his afternoon with seven penalties to his name and missed three earlier in the first half, while Scotland scrum-half Greig Laidlaw also reaped the rewards from persistent indiscipline with six penalties of his own.
Neither side was able to generate any sustained tempo due to an imposing performance from the Welsh scrum and countless idiotic penalties from Scotland, in a replica of their discipline against Ireland two weeks ago.
A promising start from Wales at the scrum lead to a simple penalty opportunity for Halfpenny, handing the visitors a 3-0 lead after four minutes.
Greig Laidlaw responded with a long-range penalty that snuck over the crossbar minutes later, before Scotland took the lead when Wales were caught offside outside their own 22.
Scotland's penalty count continued to rise but Halfpenny wasted two penalty chances to let the hosts off the hook. The full-back's fourth attempt ricocheted off the post.
George North's break down the right-hand side gave Wales excellent field position, and they capitalised with a try from Richard Hibbard, regaining the lead with Halfpenny converting.
Rare field position for Scotland yielded a penalty at the scrum to the hosts, Laidlaw going for goal from the limit of his range and sending it through the posts.
Sale lock Richie Gray was stretchered from the field after a lengthy stoppage in play, causing concern for is club side Sale and also the selectors of the British and Irish Lions.
Laidlaw continued to maintain his accuracy going for goal, putting Scotland ahead just before half-time with another 40 metre effort to put the hosts into the lead.
Wales though were handed an attacking scrum in Scotland's 22 after a knock-on from Sean Lamont at the restart, winning a penalty after Jim Hamilton infringed for Halfpenny to restore the Welsh lead in Edinburgh - 12-13 to the visitors at the interval.
Laidlaw fell short of the posts with his fifth penalty attempt at the start of the second half, his first miss of the afternoon as he struggled kicking into the wind from 46 metres out.
Halfpenny had no such problem from a much shorter distance after a Welsh attack, stretching the gap to four points before Laidlaw responded in the latest chapter of the Murrayfield kicking exhibition.
Wales were presented with a chance to produce some attacking rugby from a five metre lineout, but inevitably the ball was lost forward. Another penalty to the visitors from the scrum saw Ross Ford cautioned, with Halfpenny converting.
The full-back struck again with yet another penalty to stretch the Welsh lead to 22-15 nearing the 60 minute mark. The kicking pendulum inevitably swung back Scotland's way as Laidlaw then added three more points of his own.
Halfpenny added his fifth and sixth penalties of the afternoon to open up an 18-25 gap for Wales going into the final 10 minutes as their scrum continued to ruthlessly dominate the Scottish pack. Another penalty chance, another three points for Halfpenny.
Scotland threw everything at Wales late on as they attempted to claw their way back into the match, but there was to be no breakthrough against a revitalised Welsh defence. The title decider between Wales and England next weekend is very much on.
Man of the Match: Hounded by his critics in recent weeks, Sam Warburton's work ethic was exceptional throughout with 13 tackles to his name.
Moment of the Match: After missing three consecutive kicks, Leigh Halfpenny nailed a difficult touchline conversion after Richard Hibbard's try and never looked back.
Villain of the Match: Frustrating for supporters, the high penalty count ruined the game as a spectacle. Eyes on you Mr Joubert.
The scorers:
For Scotland:
Pens: Laidlaw 6
For Wales:
Try: Hibbard
Con: Halfpenny
Pens: Halfpenny 7
Yellow Card: James
The teams:
Scotland: 15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Sean Maitland, 13 Sean Lamont, 12 Matt Scott, 11 Tim Visser, 10 Duncan Weir, 9 Greig Laidlaw, 8 Johnnie Beattie, 7 Kelly Brown, 6 Robert Harley, 5 Jim Hamilton, 4 Richie Gray, 3 Euan Murray, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Ryan Grant.
Replacements: 16 Dougie Hall, 17 Moray Low, 18 Geoff Cross, 19 Alastair Kellock, 20 Ryan Wilson, 21 Henry Pyrgos, 22 Ruaridh Jackson, 23 Max Evans.
Wales: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Alex Cuthbert, 13 Jonathan Davies, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 George North, 10 Dan Biggar, 9 Mike Phillips, 8 Toby Faletau, 7 Sam Warburton, 6 Ryan Jones (capt), 5 Ian Evans, 4 Alun-Wyn Jones, 3 Adam Jones, 2 Richard Hibbard, 1 Paul James.
Replacements: 16 Ken Owens, 17 Scott Andrews, 18 Craig Mitchell, 19 Andrew Coombs, 20 Justin Tipuric, 21 Lloyd Williams, 22 James Hook, 23 Scott Williams.
Referee: Craig Joubert (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Glen Jackson (New Zealand), Lourens van der Merwe (South Africa)
Television match official: Giulio De Santis (Italy)
Comments
carpelone says...
This went as expected.
Disagree about Joubert, I have been almost always criticising his refereeing since the infamous WC final, but I think yesterday he was ok.
Scotland may be disappointed if compare Joubert with the other refereeing they enjoyed so far, the truth is that they get away with so much against Italy and Ireland.
Scrum engagement is key, and I am not surprised that a lot of free kicks and penalties are coming from this phase. Ford should have knowm better than to give away two cheap early engagements in the early minutes.
Anyway, Scotland fought very well with virtually no possession and I consider this game a step in the right direction. Weir's kicking was astute and accurate, I wonder if he always plays like this.
Wales are solid but unimaginative, Warburton won couple of turnovers at the crucial stage of the game, which proved to be the difference between the two teams.
On a side note, who the hell will be the n8 for the Lions? All the four n8s are awful at the moment.
Posted 08:25 10th March 2013
kybone says...
I only managed to catch the second half of this game, but it seemed as though i hadn't missed a lot. Disappointing from Scotland, but to be fair, they didn't play well in either of the games that they won. the fact that they were ahead on the scoreboard in those games masked the fact that they'd been completely outplayed (ok maybe not completely outplayed in the Italy game).
As for Wales, thats three wins on the spin now, but i don't think they've played well once really. They were the better of two rubbish teams in Paris, then 2 weeks ago Italy were abysmal, and yesterday Scotland gave Wales everything they needed to win. I do think they'll put in their best performance next week though, so im not counting my chickens.
Posted 08:00 10th March 2013
kybone says...
Kent- I do agree that the Tuilagi try shouldn't have stood last week, but lets break it down shall we- he scored the try (5 points), Farrell missed the conv.( still 5 points), we give away a pen from the resulting kick-off ( effectively 2 points). So the try which shouldn't have stood ended up being worth 2 points- i hate to break it to you, but we won by 10! And before you suggest that it swung the game- we were already in front before the none try. So stop groaning on about it.
Posted 07:54 10th March 2013
Michtymauler says...
Could yeh administrator maybe just block @ FISH ?? All her posts are just silly, insulting and embarrassing!! Message to FISH, please start taking your anti psychotic medication again??!!
Posted 04:34 10th March 2013
mlbp says...
What I meant in my previous post is
I still think Wales are OVERRATED, not underrated.
Posted 02:01 10th March 2013
LondonWasp says...
why are people complaining about the referee?
we should be complaining about the players who were actually creating the penalties. Scotland could have got a try, if they didn't do silly obvious mistakes in front of the referee. dont do stupid things in front of the ref- rule no.1.
Posted 01:00 10th March 2013
lacroix says...
oh dear. not a great game.
as predicted, joubert had another dreadful game even by his own poor recent standards.
how anyone can say he got 99% of his calls right defies any logic. inconsistent. simply dreadful. he just seems to have lost all sense of the game around him and the players on both sides looked like they had as little idea of where he was drawing the line as he did.
however, neither team exactly contributed to the spectacle.
Posted 00:55 10th March 2013
JamieTheProp says...
@ Jhamer - up until this year I haven't heard Barnes say anything positive about England - in fact the opposite generally! Especially when Rob Andrew is involved (no love loss there).
If Wales play like that against England they will get smashed! That was one of the worst adverts for our game I have ever watched! Awful from start to finish!
Posted 00:35 10th March 2013
JamieTheProp says...
@ Jhamer - up until this year I haven't heard Barnes say anything positive about England - in fact the opposite generally! Especially when Rob Andrew is involved (no love loss there).
If Wales play like that against England they will get smashed! That was one of the worst adverts for our game I have ever watched! Awful from start to finish!
Posted 00:35 10th March 2013
Spartacus says...
Only just watched the game, and yes Joubert ruined it. Not only a lack of empathy for the game, but he was also inconsistent and incompetent at times at scrums, offside and breakdown. By my reckoning he gifted Wales 9 points, not enough for Scotland to have won, but the game would have been different without those decisions.
Always disappointing to see such a key game dominated by the ref!
Posted 23:55 09th March 2013
ShamanSheep says...
Ach - another awful game, really really bad. Of course weather dictates and refs are very influential (I agree that Joubert is poor and should have handed out 2-3 yellows at least in my opinion which may have had an impact on the game), but the sheer lack of any willingness to run the ball or even to generate quick ball is getting depressing. Wales are now serial candidates for playing incredibly boring rugby - I've been saying it for a while but we seem to be hitting new levels of stodginess. France, Italy and Scotland games have all been abysmal.
The thing is it will continue too because it's effective - people saying England will smash us on this performance are wrong - they'll find it very difficult to cope with the way Wales now smother games of rugby. For the first time in my life (say I've been watching rugby for 20 years), I'll hold my hands up and actually be glad for England if they beat us by playing some running rugby (I don't think they will, but still).
Watched the program on Barry John last night and also the U20s Wales-Scotland game - some incredible running rugby clips from the King and a some great back play from the youngsters. The contrast with the modern international game could not be greater. Football is the great sport for real tribalism, rugby obviously has that but entertainment is important, and at the moment there is no entertainment.
Posted 23:25 09th March 2013
Chubbylugs says...
@Jhamer Stuart Barnes is a different kind of idiot. He tends to slag off any player with more caps than him, which is most. The difference being that you pay for sky, the BBC is supposed to be impartial and they keep putting idiots like JD in front of a microphone. Same applies to Brian Moore, but he's not quite as bad as JD. He does try to be impartial through gritted teeth
@jimboism it's difficult to generalise a whole game, because there were clearly a few good turnovers. You could argue the welsh were savvy, but the breakdown wasn't managed well and I thought the welsh didn't as a rule make any effort to roll away and hands were persistently going in after the ruck was formed. As for offside, the welsh seemed to set the back foot at the half way point of the ruck. This is fine if you are attached to the ruck, but the line was generally set by this player and not by the back foot
@kent bit harsh mate, but then it's fine to disagree. As for the "blatant" offside in the England France game, it's easy to get your information from the commentators and slo mo cameras, but in real time, no one picked it up - should be fun next week xxx
Posted 23:07 09th March 2013
porridge_time says...
Well played Wales deserved winners. Scotland are just not clever or brutal enough at the breakdown, the amount of times they failed to clear out was disgraceful.
Joubert, I expected to allow the game to flow, but he did not stopped any chance that the game had of getting going... which if being honest probably shackled Wales more than Scotland.
All those apologists for Euan Murray, its time you held you hands up and agreed that this guys is not fully committed to Scottish Rugby. In my opinion this must be having a negative impact on the squad... Cross must be livid.
There were cries of unfair selection from a huge amount of Welsh fans about Warburton, but he came and show why he was chosen, conversely, Euan Murray did nothing, but give away countless free kicks and penalties at scrum time. His effort in the lose was that of a Sunday School teacher.
Posted 22:54 09th March 2013
trelawney says...
Here we go again - referee slagging again!
Would all of you poster please state if you have been on a referees course. If not, SHUT UP. You obviously watched the game on TV which did not show what the ref saw.
Posted 22:41 09th March 2013
dezz says...
Poor game. Glad Wales won. Can't blame the ref for all the penalties, that's the players fault. Will say though that Jouberts communication with his touch judges is pants, at 68 mins he missed 2 blatant knock ons by the Scots. What are these officials doing, especially the touch judges who have an easy job.
Posted 22:40 09th March 2013
AngusmacXV says...
Slowly but surely, we're losing our beloved game to the rules governing the set scrum. Today, clueless referees like Craig Joubert, who's anal fixation with micro infractions of timing, turned Scotland vs Wales into a farce. I'd be asking the IRB for a ticket refund if I'd paid to see a rugby match and ended up watching one of the worst refs in circulation kill off any trace of the game.
Posted 21:18 09th March 2013
alanatleeds says...
Dire match. Once the referee starts to continually penalise the team with the ball then it becomes a shambles.
Posted 21:16 09th March 2013
Kent says...
@melkdave - glad to see the game went as you thought it would you sage - IMO
Posted 21:05 09th March 2013
1st58 says...
Yes Joubert was awful, but lets admit it, this 6 nations has been largely utter pants.
Its high time we changed the rugby season, either to a split season or to a summer game - and there is still far too much emphasis on goal kicking - time to reduce a penalty to 2 points, or for kicking lovers keep a pen at 3 and up a conversion to 3 also - the game is becoming v boring to watch at times.
Posted 21:02 09th March 2013
Cdn_content says...
Haven't seen the game but Joubert stole the rwc from the French so not surprised he screwed the pouch again. Agree he seems like a decent guy and Walsh does not, but at least Walsh has balls
Posted 20:52 09th March 2013