Sione Tuipulotu has words for Wales and hails Scotland's problem solvers after Six Nations comeback

Dogged by off-field problems and having not won in the championship since 2023, Steve Tandy’s side were the better team in the first half and led until the 75th minute. However, Scotland kept their nerve and scored three second-half tries to eventually win 26-23.

It was a sore one for Wales who have now lost 14 Six Nations matches in a row but their performance was a vast improvement on their opening two games in this season’s tournament, which brought heavy defeats against England and France.

The home crowd responded to the effort put in by the Welsh and it felt like a major step forward under Tandy who took over as Wales head coach last year after leaving his position as Scotland’s defence coach.

“I think they deserve so much credit today,” said Tuipulotu, the Scotland captain. “I don't want to get up here and say anything too much about our performance, about things that we didn't do, because I think that discredits the job and the passionate team that Wales were today.

“I had a feeling that Steve was going to get them ready for this game, and maybe it's a game that they wrote down for themselves that they were going to target. I thought the pressure they put us under at the breakdown, but not only that, just their will and want to get in front of us over and over again. I thought that would die off a lot sooner than they did, so credit to those boys.

“I know they're fighting a lot at the moment, but I felt like the Principality was bouncing, the atmosphere seemed awesome. So that's awesome for Welsh rugby and credit to them for putting in a performance that they probably needed.”

It wasn’t always pretty but Tuipulotu was pleased with the way Scotland found a way in Cardiff. Trailing 17-5 at half-time, the visitors scored three second-half tries and the Scotland captain felt the players were able to “problem solve”.

“I'm really proud,” said Tuipulotu. “I said to the boys at half-time that we're going to have to look and find more of ourselves and I thought the boys that came off the bench and the problem-solving that we did at half-time but also on the pitch in the second half, found a way to win. In this competition, I feel like you're not going to get your best performance week after week. We dug deep and found a way to win.

“We were making errors at the breakdown and I felt like maybe the error count was a bit higher than it was against England [last week] and that was why the game moved a lot smoother against England. But my message to the boys was just to keep going and that we were going to have to find something in ourselves all as individuals.”

Trailing 23-19, Scotland were awarded two penalties in the final 10 minutes. Tuipulotu said kicking three-pointers was never an option he considered.

“I went for the corner because I wanted to win the game,” said the centre.