Six Nations: Scotland 'chucked it away' as Stuart Hogg reveals what bugged him most about defeat to Wales

Stuart Hogg felt Scotland “chucked it away” as he reflected on the 20-17 defeat by Wales which extended the visitors’ winless run in Cardiff to beyond 20 years.

The Scots squandered a winning position in the second half against a Welsh side intent on making up for last week’s abject defeat against Ireland in Dublin.

Hogg cut a frustrated figure as he tried to piece together where it went wrong for Scotland who failed to build on their win over England on the opening day of the Guinness Six Nations.

The captain felt much of the damage was self-inflicted.

Scotland's Stuart Hogg during the Guinness Six Nations defeat to Wales at the Principality Stadium, Cardiff.

“We cost ourselves the game at times,” said Hogg. “We chucked it away at times and when we gave away a penalty that’s one thing but when we compounded error with error, that's when we get frustrated.

“That’s not a true reflection of what we are about. In the last 20 minutes we killed ourselves, unfortunately.”

Darcy Graham’s first-half try and four penalties from Finn Russell had Scotland 17-14 ahead as the clock ticked past 55 minutes. But Dan Biggar brought Wales level with his fourth penalty of the match and the stand-off then dropped a goal with ten minutes remaining while Russell was in the sin-bin. It proved the winning moment of a tense encounter in which prop Tomas Francis scored Wales’ try.

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“We were ahead because we showed a true reflection of what we are about,” continued Hogg.

“We were running the ball hard and getting in behind the Welsh defence. We were changing the point of contact, doing the simple things well and that was really effective for us.

“It won us field positions and some points, unfortunately we just didn't back it up.

“Test match rugby is all about competing in the small moments and every single moment we get in the game, it's about making sure we manage them in the right areas.”

There is now a free weekend before the third round of Six Nations fixtures and Hogg has vowed that Scotland will bounce back in the home game against France a week on Saturday, but there is no doubt that the result in Wales will hurt for some time.

“I’m sitting here bitterly disappointed and frustrated at what we’ve done,” added the full-back. “At times we will be beaten by better sides when things don’t go our way, but I think we gave them too easy avenues into the game today.

“Cheap field position, cheap penalties, cheap knock-ons. Stuff that we didn’t quite work hard enough to get into good positions for. That’s the thing that bugs me most.

“At times in the past, we’ve been in games and let them slip, and unfortunately that’s another one today.

“We are bitterly disappointed in the changing room and it’s so frustrating that we have to wait two weeks now to get another shot at it.”

France will arrive in Edinburgh on the back of two wins in the championship after they defeated Ireland in Paris yesterday, following up their opening day victory over Italy.

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