That try by Max Llewellyn was converted by Jarrod Evans and that kick earned Wales a losing bonus point as well. Now all attention moves to the final round match of the Guinness Six Nations against England at Principality Stadium on Saturday.
“It was a tale of the first 20 minutes and the last 20 minutes wasn’t it. Ultimately the first 20 minutes was always going to dictate where the game went,” said Sherratt.
“It was a real brave effort in the end to come back and get two points but I’ve seen enough of those games where the reality is they probably thought they’d done enough and dropped off five per cent.
“What I did feel though is there was a hell of a lot of effort from our boys in that last 20 minutes. It was nice to get that four try bonus point but what was more pleasing for me was seeing the desperation of them defending our line.
“It was almost like it was a one score game given the amount of tackles some of our forwards put into those sets. It was outstanding.”
Twice Wales held up the Scottish forwards over their line in the final 10 minutes to deny them any extra scores. A thrilling run from Blair Murray then paved the way for Taulupe Faletau to score, but the try was ruled out after the TMO determined the Wales full back had jumped over a tackler in the build up.
That score could have made a huge difference to the outcome, although Sherratt had no qualms about the decision.
“We knew two things were going to be really important. Having a contestable kicking game – they edged that area – and I’ve got to say their defence at the contact area was so good,” added Sherratt.
“They spent time in the tackle, they’ve got really good people over the ball and we knew if we didn’t get that quite right they’d either get the ball off us or we’d have some pretty slow ball to work off. That’s what happened in the first 40.
“It’s pretty clear where the game was. We gave their back three some run ups and they are really dangerous and the contact area was probably in their favour during that first-half.
“Just before half-time we knew that if we started chasing the game and started to get unstructured we’d hurt ourselves. So, I thought there was an element of maturity in the second-half where we weren’t reckless.
Ben Thomas beats Duhan van der Merwe and Zander Fagerson of Scotland to score a try.
“We weren’t just running everything and going out of system. We managed to feel a little bit better and all the tries came from structured play – it gave us something to build on and some green shoots going into the England game.
“We’ve got to remember that Scotland are a good team. They outscored England three tries to one in the previous round at Twickneham.
“They’ve been together a long time, they have a very distinct style of play and a coaching staff who have been together a long time. We ran into them on a good day, but there was no lack of effort or passion out there.”
The tournament now all comes down to the final round game against England at a sold out Principality Stadium on Saturday.
“Straight away after the game the players said in the huddle it’s not a week to lick your wounds for too long,” added Sherratt.
“We get back tonight, have time with our families on Sunday and then there’s no greater challenge than England in Cardiff. I know it’s something the boys can’t wait for and personally for me it should be a great occasion.
“Our record is there in the background, but it’s not something I’m going to talk about. Everyone knows that but if you start taking the picture of desperation and anxiety and worrying where the next win comes from it’s just going to chew you up.
“What I can promise the players next week is I’ll do my best to make them a better team. When they come in on Monday I’ll be positive and we’ll have a plan for England.
“There’s no point hanging onto the past at all – we’ll learn on Monday, refresh and then attack England on Saturday.”
