Six Nations: Debut a nightmare, admits Dougie Fife

Dougie Fife made his debut for Scotland in the final Six Nations game of the season. Picture: SNS

The Edinburgh back celebrated his first cap in Cardiff as the Scots looked to for their first win in the Principality in 12 years.

But any hope of that was obliterated after just 23 minutes when full-back Stuart Hogg was sent off for slamming his shoulder into Dan Biggar’s jaw.

Fife was forced to spilt his duties covering the right flank with filling in at 15 but it proved an impossible task with some of George North’s capabilities steaming towards him.

It was a painful first lesson in the RBS 6 Nations for the 23-year-old as five of the Welsh scores came down his side.

Fife said: “I’ve dreamed about my first cap for so long but that wasn’t what I had in mind.

“It was never going to be an easy match but it got so much tougher once Hoggy got the red card.

“I had to slot in at 15 at times to cover but it is hard enough to play against the Welsh with a full compliment, never mind when you are a man down.

“It felt like I had been chucked in at the deep end - but in a way I did enjoy it.”

The 48-point drubbing - Scotland’s biggest ever margin of defeat in the championship - was a hammer blow to Fife’s confidence but the Edinburgh wing insists he is desperate for a chance to make amends.

“It didn’t go well but I’m hungry to win more caps and make up for that defeat,” he said. “We’ve got the World Cup next year and the summer tour coming up, so we don’t have time to feel sorry for ourselves.”

Scotland won just one of their five games as they finished second bottom of the table.

They were even 10 seconds from losing their Rome clash with Italy before Duncan Weir claimed a dramatic 21-20 win.

But the Scots had been dismal in Dublin, humiliated again when they failed to score against England and threw away a home win against France last time out before their mortifying display against the Welsh.

Head coach Scott Johnson will now be replaced by Vern Cotter, but flanker Ryan Wilson admits that while the side have taken a backward step by losing so heavily to Warren Gatland’s team, he believes there are signs of encouragement.

He said: “There is no hiding from it, we went badly wrong.

“It’s always difficult when you go down to 14-men that early, but even more so against a team like Wales.

“We spoke at half-time about trying to shut-up shop by keeping hold of the ball. At points we did that. We had a 20-minute spell when we kept the ball in their half and took it to them.

“But it is tiring. Going through phase after phase, you know at some point you are going to give away a penalty and then they will be back in our half.

“We have gone backwards with this result but I don’t think we will worry about that too much because the positive steps we’ve taken in the two games before this were massive.”