By Paul Jones
Dan Biggar hailed Wales’ 20-17 Guinness Six Nations victory over Scotland as one of his finest wins representing the national team.
The Wales captain and fly-half kicked four penalties and a clinching drop-goal 10 minutes from time, despite suffering a minor issue with his right knee.
It meant he marked his 100th Test match appearance for Wales and the British and Irish Lions in style as the defending Six Nations champions revived their title challenge following a tame 29-7 defeat against Ireland last weekend.
“This is one of the best victories I have had in a Welsh shirt,” Biggar said. “We didn’t get it right last week, and when you don’t get it right – certainly in this country – you take a fair bit of flak for it.
“For me, a brilliant day. The family are here, my little boy was able to come out on the pitch afterwards. It doesn’t get a huge amount better than that.
For what it’s worth – I think Dan Biggar has been brilliant as a captain. No 10. is the most judged / pressurised position in Wales – and for 14 years he’s been proving some people wrong and proving all team mates right
Grand Slams ✅
RWC Semi ✅
Captain ✅
Lions Test Starter ✅ https://t.co/N0ZtLQYfL4— Sam Warburton (@samwarburton_) February 13, 2022
“We’ve got a couple of days out of camp, so I will be driving home and having a family evening, I think. I am taking the little one to watch ‘Sing 2’ tomorrow – that is my afternoon, really rock and roll!”
Scotland have now lost 11 successive Tests to Wales in Cardiff – a sequence that stretches back 20 years – as they failed to build on victory over England seven days prior.
Darcy Graham’s try and four penalties from Finn Russell had them in front at one point too, but Russell’s yellow card was punished by his opposite number Biggar, who was relieved Wales managed to come through in the end.
“It is a little bit of relief as well because we knew we were coming into the game under pressure, having not performed last week,” Biggar said.
“We had taken a fair bit of flak, but for me, I absolutely love that. I would rather people were criticising me than praising me, because it brings out a different side of me and maybe more of a focus.
“It was very much a territory-based game and not wanting to play too much in a tight match. One moment wins or loses you the game, and we are pretty pleased we came out on the right side of it and managed the second half.
Nice gesture from Dan Biggar, inviting Jac Morgan to raise the trophy. Something the newly-capped @ospreys flanker will treasure for the rest of his life.
https://t.co/8fi8mhC2B1— Peter Jackson (@JackoRugby) February 13, 2022
“It was quite an emotional day, actually – a lot of heat flying around – and we just stuck together internally, but we also have to make sure we don’t get ahead of ourselves. We know we were very poor last week and played a lot better this week and got a result.
“It is about building on this now, rather than thinking we have cracked it and take our foot off the gas. It is really important we knuckle down and prepare for England [in two weeks] as well as we can.”
Wales’ victory has revitalised a campaign that next takes them to Twickenham to face old rivals England on Saturday, February 26, which is followed by home games against Italy and France.
A successful title defence remains a tall order, but they have at least put themselves back in the mix.
Townsend: Scotland did not execute in big moments
Gregor Townsend bemoaned Scotland’s failure to take advantage of “big moments” as their Six Nations hoodoo in Cardiff continued.
Scotland are without a Cardiff win since 2002 and have rarely come closer to victory over the past two decades as Wales closed out a tense victory.
It meant Scotland failed to build on their opening Calcutta Cup victory over England.
Dan Biggar 🖐️#GuinnessSixNations pic.twitter.com/NJVRVCqvSj
— Jared Wright (@jaredwright17) February 13, 2022
“The obvious emotion in the changing room is disappointment,” Scotland head coach Townsend said. “It’s going to be with the standards we set ourselves.
You only get five games in the Six Nations, so it’s going to have a negative effect on your chances of winning the tournament.
“There were big moments in the second half that we did not execute. We gave penalties to the opposition, so we did not control that second half.”
Scotland recovered from an early six-point deficit to lead 11-6 and 14-9 before half-time, but Wales were level at the interval and bounced back from their defeat to Ireland.
“After we went ahead on the scoreboard we needed to kick on, and we weren’t able to do that,” Townsend said.
“We should have taken the game to the opposition and been more accurate than we were during that period.
“We did well in the period when we were a man down. But the clock was ticking down and it was hard to make use of that final possession when we were in our half.
“There wasn’t a huge amount of difference really in the two performances. We played better against England than we did here, but we didn’t show our best in either game.”