 | Wales U21: (20) 34
Tries: Bishop, Hewitt, Daniel, Roberts
Con: Hook
Pens: Hook (4) Scotland U21: (21) 24
Tries: Cairns, Addison
Con: Blair
Pens: Blair (3)
Drop goal: Law |
Wales fly-half James Hook stole the show at Newport as the defending champions recovered from their opening Six Nations defeat to beat Scotland. Neath youngster Hook kicked 14 points and created all four tries for backs Andrew Bishop, Dafydd Hewitt, Darren Daniel and Jamie Roberts.
Scotland led 20-21 at half-time after Ben Cairns and Ben Addison scored breakaway tries from Welsh mistakes.
But Wales tightened up after the break and Roberts' try took them clear.
Scotland's first try came with just 31 seconds on the clock as centre Cairns intercepted a botched Welsh midfield move inside his own half and ran clear to score under the posts.
Wales centre Bishop made amends for his mistake for Scotland's try to score in the left corner on 12 minutes after Hook had had scythed through the Scottish defence.
But just as Wales threatened to score a second try, another midfield fumble allowed winger Addison to kick ahead and score after an unkind bounce had left Hook floundering yards from his own tryline.
Wales replied six minutes later when Hook gathered his own chip kick and passed to Bishop, who sent centre partner Hewitt away down the left wing.
Another Wales try arrived four minutes later when Hook's one-handed pass put winger Daniel away for a third try, which Hook converted.
Hook added a penalty either side of two from counterpart David Blair, but Gary Law's drop goal meant the Scots took a narrow lead into the interval.
The fly-halves exchanged penalties shortly after the break before full-back Roberts scored for Wales after another scintillating break from Hook.
Scotland never threatened to mount a fightback, and Wales were happy to settle for two more Hook penalties.
Wales Under-21 coach Chris Davey:
"After losing last week, it would have been easy for the team to lose their confidence when a couple of things didn't go to plan early on. "But we asked them to stick with it and show the confidence they've got in themselves and I thought they played some terrific rugby at times.
"They can take a lot of heart from this win. It was a good night all round."
Wales Under-21: Jamie Roberts (Cardiff/Blues Academy); Darren Daniel (Llanelli/Scarlets Academy), Andrew Bishop (Ospreys), Dafydd Hewitt (Cardiff/Blues Academy), Chris Czekaj (Cardiff Blues); James Hook (Neath/Ospreys Academy), Martin Roberts (Neath/Ospreys Academy); Rhys Gill (Cardiff/Blues Academy), Duane Goodfield (Pontypridd/Blues Academy), Phil Osborne (Newport), Alun Wyn Jones (Swansea/Ospreys Academy), Dominic Day (Carmarthen Quins/Scarlets Academy), Craig Everett (Worcester Academy), Rhys Shellard (Pontypridd/Blues Academy), Tom Smith (Neath/Ospreys Academy, capt).
Replacements: Ed Shervington (Neath), Ian Jones (Llanelli/Scarlets Academy), Will Jones (Newport/Dragons Academy), Ben Lewis (Swansea/Ospreys Academy), Tom Riley (Pontypridd/Blues Academy), Liam Davies (Llanelli/Scarlets Academy), Aled Thomas (Newport/Dragons Academy).
Scotland Under-21: I Kennedy (Glasgow Warriors, Glasgow Hawks and West of Scotland Institute of Sport); B Addison (Stirling County and Central Institute of Sport), B Cairns (Edinburgh Gunners, Currie and Scottish Institute of Sport), G Law (Border Reivers), L Kibble (Border Reivers, Biggar and East of Scotland Institute of Sport); D Blair (capt, Sale Sharks), G Laidlaw (Jed-Forest), R Grant (The Army), S Crombie (Aberdeen GSFP and Grampian Institute of Sport), D Young (Leicester Tigers), J Eddie (Glasgow Warriors, Ayr and West of Scotland Institute of Sport), I Nimmo (Leicester Tigers), S Newlands (Heriot's and East of Scotland Institute of Sport), J Barclay (Glasgow Warriors and Scottish Institute of Sport); A MacDonald (Edinburgh Gunners and Scottish Institute of Sport).
Replacements: I Brown (Stirling County and Tayside and Fife Institute of Sport), K Traynor (Edinburgh Gunners, Boroughmuir and East of Scotland Institute of Sport), M Robertson (Hawick), J Taggart (Currie), S Biggart (Glasgow Hawks), J King (Border Reivers, Melrose and East of Scotland Institute of Sport), D Whiteford (Melrose).
On Thursday night, Wales Under-19 beat their Scottish counterparts 48-10 at the Talbot Athletic Ground, Aberavon. Martyn Thomas, James Lewis and Alec Jenkins all got try braces.
MMIX
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