Wales responded to last week's Six Nations defeat at the hands of England with a four-try victory over Scotland at Rodney Parade.
And on top of a deserved victory for the young Dragons, there were a handful of performances that will certainly not have gone unnoticed by senior coach Mike Ruddock.
Scotland, beaten 37-0 by France last week, made the perfect start with a try inside the opening 40 seconds. Wales turned over ball on the Scottish 22 and centre Ben Cairns picked up and raced 70 metres to touch down for Dave Blair to convert.
However, following a seven minute stoppage in play whilst John Barclay left the field on a stretcher following an accidental clash of heads, Wales struck with a try from Andrew Bishop after a clean break from outside half James Hook. Hook failed to convert and two minutes later, after Wales had fumbled another pass, this time in their own half, right wing Ben Addison picked up and crossed for a second Scotland try.
Hook made amends for his previous fumble when he chipped ahead from inside his own half, collected and drew the final line of Scottish defence before releasing Dafydd Hewitt for an unconverted try.
The game was quickly turning into a points fest - Scarlets wing Darren Daniel grabbing his side's third try after Hook had once again drawn the Scottish back line before sending out the scoring pass. This time the Neath outside half converted for a 17-12 lead. Blair's 32nd minute penalty brought a sense of calm to what was an otherwise frantic occasion and although Hook responded a minute later, the Scots led 21-20 at the interval courtesy of second Blair penalty and a drop goal on the stroke of half time from Garry Law.
Hook and Blair exchanged penalties at the beginning of the second half, but after a period of relative stability, the game opened up once more when Hook, dashed into a gap and sent in the impressive full back Jamie Roberts for the try of the night.
The outside half added a penalty aftefr Scotland prop David Young was yellow carded for persistent infringement and despite the odd hiccup, produced a performance of real quality to close off the game in a relatively uneventful final quarter.
His third and final penalty eight minutes wrapped matters up before Ben Lewis was yellow carded in the final minute.
Wales: J Roberts (A Thomas 70mins); D Daniel, A Bishop, D Hewitt (T Riley 58mins), C Czekaj; J Hook, M Roberts (L Davies 76mins); R Gill (I Jones 70mins), D Goodfield (E Shervington 67mins), P Osborne, A Wyn Jones, D Day, C Everett (B Lewis 61mins), R Shellard, T Smith (capt)
Scotland: I Kennedy (J King 73mins); B Addison, B Cairns, G Law, L Kibble (D Whiteford 74mins); D Blair (capt), G Laidlaw (S Biggart 78mins), R Grant, S Crombie (K Taylor 73mins), D Young, J Eddie, I Nimmo, S Newlands, A Macdonald, J Barclay (M Robertson 7mins. I Brown 62mins) Referee: D Keane (Ireland)
Scorers
Wales Tries: Bishop, Hewitt, Daniel, Roberts
Conversions: Hook
Penalties: Hook (3)
Scotland Tries: Cairns, Addison
Conversions: Blair
Penalties: Blair (3)
Drop goal: Law
