Wales Raise The Roof (so to speak)

#Team of Week 2 now added at the bottom#

After yesterday's icy debacle in Paris, the bandwagon moved to Cardiff where Wales were big favourites to beat Scotland, who, while they had played better against England last weekend, still offered as much tooth as a new born child.

That this game would be played was never in doubt due to the exceptional roof at the Millennium Stadium. I remember being there for the opening game of the 1999 Rugby World Cup and have been lucky to experience it with roof both open and closed, great atmosphere and very patriotic (bordering on nationalistic if I'm honest).

Scotland showed well in the first half. The young triumvirate of Gray, Denton and Rennie really have a bright future ahead of them. There must be something warming for Scottish fans to see a mop of blond hair rampaging in attack and defence as it used to when John Jeffrey ruled the roost at Murrayfield; but now there are two! Wales countered with the excellent Lydiate, Faletau and Schengler (deputising for Warburton, a late withdrawal) and the first half never really caught fire with both sides snuffing the other out when it came to the nitty-gritty of play in the 22. The highlight was a huge hit by Hamilton on North, who was triple-teamed when possible by Scotland, and penalties were exchanged by Laidlaw and Halfpenny as the sides changed round at 3-3.

There must have been belief in Scotland's side as they entered the arena for the second half, but if there was, they extinguished it in a catastrophic fifteen minutes. Denton and Cusiter left the kick-off to each other, Wales won the line, one missed tackle and Cuthbert was in for the score. Halfpenny converted and added a penalty after Di Luca needlessly tackled Davies late (receiving a yellow card for his troubles) to make it 13-3, before Laidlaw kicked one back to make it 13-6 after just 8 minutes of an already engrossing second half. The 14 men defended valiantly, but numbers told and Halfpenny went round the outside and scooted under the posts to make it 20-6 two minutes later.

Just as they were about to return to full strength though, a third awful piece of play saw Rory Lamont tackle Jamie Roberts from a massively offside position, meaning 13 men briefly for Scotland. De Luca returned, but to no avail as Halfpenny looped round Phillips to score his second, which he also converted to push Wales 21 points clear after just 16 second half minutes. Wales were rampant with Lydiate, Roberts, Cuthbert, Halfpenny and Phillips pulling the strings and you would not have backed against a 5 or 6 try win, but to their credit, Scotland dug in when back up to full strength and Wales benefitted from a dodgy refereeing decision (no comment) when Hogg scored but was deemed to have knocked on. No bother though, as Laidlaw evoked memories of his Uncle with a cheeky sneak under Faletau's defence to score Scotland's first try since the mighty Romania back in September.

The game ebbed and flowed with both sides looking to score at every opportunity. Such a contrast to the dour first half and a welcome injection of incisive quality after the cold-induced stuttering of Saturday's game. It finished with another pacey Welsh break, capably snuffed out by Scotland, as Wales made it two out of two.

Final Score Wales 27 Scotland 13

Wales have now thoroughly outplayed both Ireland and Scotland, 2 very different sides, and head the table after 2 games. England away is up next and they and their supporters will be highly confident that they have the game to beat the English in their own back yard. George North limped off with a severely sprained ankle though and his absence would hurt them. England showed enough green shoots  in their win in Italy to have confidence themselves, so another cracker could be in store at Twickenham in two weeks time. I would actually make Wales favourites, but England have designs on a triple crown too and won't be taking the challenge lightly.

Scotland host France in two weeks time. Things don't get any easier for Andy Robinson's men. At this moment you can't see anything but a wooden spoon decider for them against the redoubtable (at home) Italians in Rome. At least there won't be snow on the pitch then.

I'd normally here say "Great weekend. Rugby was the winner." Given what happened yesterday though, that may be a little wide of the mark.

Team of Week 2

1. Alex Corbisiero (Eng) - another much improved performance from England's new cornerstone
2. Dylan Hartley (Eng) - greatly improved, and to be honest, none of the other hookers really played that well
3. Adam Jones (Wal) - solid scrummaging and effective (sometimes even legally) in the loose
4. Richie Gray (Sco) - another fluent loose performance from the big man
5. Mauritz Botha (Eng) - not at the height of last week's efforts, but still a solid performer
6. Dan Lydiate (Wal) - held Wales's pack together
7. Ross Rennie (Sco) - an immense performance in defeat, which deserved Man of the Match for me
8. David Denton (Sco) - with Rennie and Gray, the future is bright for the Scottish pack
9. Mike Phillips (Wal) - busy and buzzing at the base as ever. I thought he refereed the game excellently too.
10. Rhys Priestland (Wal) - shorn of the kicking duties, he was much more assured in Cardiff than he was in Dublin
11. Stuart Hogg (Sco) - no left wing shone this week, so Hogg as replacement gets in. His quick feet scored a try that wasn't given and created problems for Wales in defence (were you watching England?)
12. Jamie Roberts (Wal) - outshone by his centre colleague Davies last week, Roberts was much better this week
13. Brad Barritt (Eng) - the one England back who had a good all-round game
14. Alex Cuthbert (Wal) - having been substituted at half-time in Dublin, some were surprised he retained his place, but a much better performance, topped with  a try showed his promise
15. Leigh Halfpenny (Wal) - A great all-round performance, defensively, attacking and with the boot