This was a titanic test match which was decided by a late drop goal from Dan Biggar, who kicked 15 points on his 100th international cap. A first half try from Tomas Francis, and some resolute Welsh defence also played its part in getting Wales over the line.
We take a look at the reaction from the Wales camp.
WAYNE PIVAC
“I was very pleased, obviously, that we got the win. The boys put a lot of work in during the week.
“Clearly, we weren’t happy with the performance last week. I think in a lot of the areas that the players themselves addressed, they backed the talk up with what was a pretty solid performance in all the areas we wanted to improve in.
“The three-point win – we’ll take that. We didn’t quite get it right last week and there was a big improvement this week.
“That enabled Dan [Biggar] to get a lot of front foot ball and we were able to put them under more pressure. When your bench comes on, you want them to lift the boys who have been working hard to get us to that stage of the game.
“They bring the energy and hopefully the communication. There were some big efforts and I’m just pleased we could dominate that last couple of minutes without the ball.
“The set-piece is improving and the scrum is going well. Our line-out defence was good and we scored a try from a driving line-out.
“What I like is Adam Beard’s leadership up front. He took full responsibility for the forward pack and he’s putting pressure on his fellow players.
“The players reviewed their own performance and reviewed it hard and that’s the way it should be. They knew they had to produce a big performance today and they certainly did that.
“It was a marked improvement and I’m very, very pleased with the players who had an opportunity and delivered. It certainly made Dan’s job a lot easier.”
DAN BIGGAR
“It was just pure emotion really. You tend not to have to guess what I’m feeling when I’m on the field. It was one of the toughest and best victories I’ve had.
“It’s a little bit of relief as well because we knew we were coming into the game under pressure having not performed last week. We’d taken a fair bit of flak, but for me, I absolutely love that.
“I’d almost rather people were slagging me than praising me because it brings out a different side of me and maybe more of a focus. To get your first win as captain was nice as well and the changing room is a happy place at the moment. Hopefully we can continue to get a few more victories along the way.
“We’re not getting ahead of ourselves and that’s the way it should be. I felt we were maybe a little bit unlucky not to go in a bit further ahead at half time.
“I thought we played some really good stuff, won more collisions, and could play on the front foot more as a result. In the second half it became more about game management and it became really, really greasy out there.
“It was difficult ball conditions and weighing up the risk of having possession versus not having possession. 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’re pretty pleased we came out on the right side of it and managed the second half.”
RYAN ELIAS
“It was a tough game, and we knew it was going to be a tough game. They are a very physical side, and they pose a different sort of threat to what Ireland did last week.
“We had a long hard look at ourselves in the week following the Irish match. There were quite a few areas we wanted to get better at, and one of them was the physicality side of things.
“Scotland are a bit more direct as a side. Physically they are big boys as well.
“For us forwards it was a case of wanting to front up physically and get stuck into them. We’ve got to build on what we’ve done here today.
“I thought the set-piece was a lot better this week, and around the park we fired a lot more shots. Last week we didn’t.
“More of the same and hopefully go up another gear against the English because it’s a tough old test match up in Twickenham. We need more of the same and we need to keep getting better.
“They were more direct with more ball carriers, and it was just a case of trying to get stuck into them. Set-piece wise I thought the scrum and lineout was a lot better. We got into our maul game, and we tried to play on top of them which helped us get the victory today.”
