Wales Under-21 began their Grand Slam defence in scintillating fashion with a crushing win over their Scottish counterparts at the Brewery Field.
Over 3,000 fans packed into the ground to see Wales record their seventh straight win over Scotland at this level, a victory that takes the overall record to Wales 17, Scotland 2.
After a tight opening 10 minutes when Lee Thomas opened the scoring for Wales with a penalty kick and Brian Archibald replied for the visitors with a similar score, the home side pulled away to romp to victory.
Thomas rattled up 13 points from three penalty goals and two conversions, the Man-of-the-Match award going to the hugely impressive Gloucester back row forward James Merriman. He scored two tries and was rock-solid in defence.
Wales scored four tries, three in a blistering 10-minute period after the break. The first came after 25 minutes through right wing Ifan Evans. Five minutes after the restart Nick McLeod popped up to score Wales’ second score, before Merriman added his tries after 50 and 55 minutes.
That proved to be the final scoring action of the match as the introduction of numerous replacements disrupted the flow of the match, but by this point Wales were in control and home and dry.
Wales take on Ireland next week.
Wales (*denotes new cap): 15 Matthew Nuthall (Pontypridd); 14 *Ifan Evans (Llandovery), 13 *Richard Payne (Newport), 12*Lee Thomas (Celtic Warriors), 11*Francesco Brillante (Cardiff); 10*Scott Macleod (Cardiff Blues), 9*Rhodri Wells (Swansea); 1*John Yapp (Cardiff Blues), 2 Kieran Crawford (The Dragons) or Huw Bennett (Ospreys), 3*Cai Griffiths (Neath), 4*Ian Evans (Pontypridd), 5 Luke Charteris (The Dragons), 6 James Merriman (Gloucester), 7 Richie Pugh (Ospreys, capt), 8*Richard Dale (Newport).
Replacements: *David Maddocks (Llanelli Scarlets), K Crawford or *Will Kay (Newcastle Falcons), *Nathan Williams (Llanelli Scarlets), *Jonathan Mills (Bath), *Matthew Jones (Ospreys), *Richard Rees (Swansea), *Gavin Evans (Llanelli).
Scotland 15 Brian Archibald (Stirling County) 14 Nick De Luca (Heriot’s) 13 Iain Berthinussen (Gala) 12 Robert Dewey (Kirkcaldy) 11 Colin Shaw (Glasgow Hawks)
10 Andy McLean (Gala) 9 Mark McMillan (Stirling County and Scottish Institute of Sport) 1 Robert Blake (Birmingham University) 2 Ross Ford (The Borders and Scottish Institute of Sport) 3 Willie Aitken (Peebles) 4 Peter Wilmshurst-Smith (Gloucester) 5 Colin White (Stirling County) 6 Alasdair Strokosh (Boroughmuir and Scottish Institute of Sport) 8 David Callam (Hawick and Scottish Institute of Sport) (captain)7 Mark Cairns (Loughborough University
Replacements16 Mark Hunter (Stirling County) 17 Fergus Thomson (Glasgow Hawks and Scottish Institute of Sport) 18 Ian Dryburgh (Watsonians) 19 Jonathan White (Heriot’s and Scottish Institute of Sport) 20 Brendan McKerchar (Durham University and Melrose) 21 Stephen Jones (Newcastle Falcons) 22Alan Nash (Watsonians)
