Wales outscored Scotland by four tries to three at the Principality but it was the visitors who prevailed by the narrowest of margins thanks in no small part to Finn Russell’s accuracy off the tee.

The stand-off landed all five of his place kicks – three conversions and two penalties – while Wales substitute fly-half Ioan Lloyd was off target with one of his four conversion attempts as the home side just fell short in pulling off the mother of all comebacks as they lost 27-26 after trailing 27-0 early in the second half.

Russell said having the roof shut at the stadium helped. “We’re indoors so it’s nice and easy,” he laughed. “I’ll need to have a chat with the guys at the SRU and get them to put a roof over Murrayfield!

Scotland's Finn Russell celebrates with the Doddie Weir Cup at the end of the Guinness Six Nations match at the Principality Stadium, Cardiff. Picture date: Saturday February 3, 2024.

“My kicking was good, I’ve been feeling good the last week so that was pleasing for me to hit five from five. That effectively proved the point in the end. The boys scored two tries under the posts which makes it a little bit easier as well.

“The roof being shut, obviously I played at Racing and know what it’s like, so it didn’t change too much for me being indoors.”

It was Russell’s first match since being appointed co-captain with Rory Darge. The flanker missed the game with a knee injury so Russell was flying solo, with the help of vice-captains Jamie Ritchie and Sione Tuipulotu. He said he didn’t feel overburdened.

“I thought I was fine on the pitch. I’ll have a chat with the boys, the leaders in the team, and see what they thought about how I handled it.

“We’ll do that debrief on what was good and what could have been better. Personally I didn’t think it was that dissimilar in terms of what it would be normally like making messages and getting points across.

“Usually as a ten you’ve got quite a bit to say, mainly through the attacking side. You get a feel for how the game is going. That didn’t change too much in the game.”

The roof being shut also made it noisier and the atmosphere grew and grew as the home supporters sensed the comeback was on.

“It’s tough and it showed what the atmosphere and the crowd here can do,” admitted Russell. “Towards the end we managed to get back to how we can play and how we can defend. We managed to dig it out in the end.

“But that does show how tough a place it is to come, even with the first half that we had. Wales never went away – and that’s the pressure the team put us under but also that the crowd getting involved put us under.

“Credit to them, it’s what we expected, but it’s something we will have to get better at if we’re in this situation again.”

Given how long Scotland have had to wait for a win in Cardiff, Russell was asked if the poor record had started to prey on the minds of the players.

“I wouldn’t say it felt like, ‘here we go again’,” he said. “We tried to reset and get onto the next job, but the two yellow cards had an impact because we felt a bit more under pressure with a man down.

“It’s a learning curve for me as captain, in terms of the points I’m getting across. The way we need to change and adapt in those situations. Had we lost, I’d probably be feeling a lot different, but we managed to win it which is great.”

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