Scotland 28 Wales 28

Murrayfield witnessed one of the great international comebacks on Saturday, when Scotland fought back from 25-6 down to earn a memorable 28-28 draw with Wales in the Lloyds-TSB Six Nations Championship.

Duncan Hodge held his nerve to strike the decisive conversion with only one minute to go, after Ian McGeechan's Scotland side produced a monumental effort to come up with two tries in the last five minutes when the game looked well beyond them, with Wales' man-of-the-match Neil Jenkins conceding afterwards, "We blew it."

James McLaren and Tom Smith earned the two last gasp tries, adding to Chris Paterson's earlier effort, but it was the poor kicking display of Scotland's Kenny Logan which will have the Murrayfield crowd rueing the one that got away.

On at least three occasions Logan missed easy shots at goal, and when the decisive shot came up at the death he passed the buck to Duncan Hodge to take the applause.

Wales scored only one try on the day, with Mark Taylor's interception score coming just after the break, which had seen his side go in at 18-6 up.

Speaking after the game, Scotland scrum-half and captain Andy Nicol hailed the "never say die" attitude of his battlers.

"This team has a lot of belief, and we're disappointed we didn't win," said the Glasgow Caledonian Reds star.

"Giving Wales a big lead made it very difficult, but we showed a lot of guts."

Wales fly-half Neil Jenkins -- who hit 23 of Wales' 28 points with the boot spoke of the despair in the Welsh dressing room after going in to such a big lead.

"We blew it, absolutely blew it," he said.

"We thought the game was under control, but we let ourselves down defensively again.  No disrespect, but we lost it rather than Scotland winning it.  Hopefully we can build on this."

The difference between the two kickers was obvious right from the start of a try-less forst half, with Jenkins drop-goal in the very first minute flying over to set the scoreboard in motion, and Kenny Logan's first penalty attempt for Scotland going wide, when in truth it was an eminently kickable chance.

It was the two kickers who dominated the first half, or to be more precise one kicker -- Neil Jenkins.  His penalty on seven minutes put Wales 6-0 up, hit back with a penalty from straight in front outside the 22.

Possibly learning their lessons from their Cardiff abomination against England, Wales took the points when they were on offer, with a second drop-goal from Jenkins following, before a third penalty and then another drop goal as the backs struggled to engineer gaps.

One of the attacks which may have yielded the first try was stopped illegally by giant lock Richard Metcalfe, when he curtailed Scott Gibbs' chip-and-chase by body checking him as he ran to retrieve the ball.

In a fairly scrappy half the last word went to Kenny Logan who pulled the scores slightly back with an easy penalty from inside the 22 for an 18-6 half-time score.

The second-half saw both teams come out with tries in mind, and it was Scotland's willingness to throw the ball around in the backs which led to the first try of the match -- unfortunately it went to Wales.

With Scotland in possession in midfield John Leslie saw the space out wide and launched a loop pass, but Wales and Swansea centre Mark Taylor had anticipated the mistake, and as Leslie's pass failed to clear Taylor he stuck his arms in to the air and claimed the ball for a free run-in from the halfway line for the try, which Jenkins converted from under the posts.

Scotland hit back virtually straight away when fullback Chris Paterson set away down the left wing from halfway, but with men to beat it looked as if his progress would be limited to the 22.  A shocking attempted tackle by fullback Rhys Williams -- a late addition for the injured Stephen Jones -- saw Paterson breeze in under the posts for the converted try, and the was deficit brought back to 25-13.  All this in the five minutes after the break.

Normality was soon restored to Murrayfield as Logan went about missing his third kickable penalty of the afternoon, but he got the next one with 20 minutes left on the clock as Scotland applied the pressure.

The normally reliable Jenkins then proved that Logan was not the only player capable of missing easy points, as he sliced a penalty wide of the posts, and there was a real charge on from both teams, but Jenkins composed himself to slot over his fourth penalty as the match went in to the last 10 minutes with Graham Henry's Wales 28-16 up.

Scotland probed the Welsh line, and after the video referee had denied them a score from a pile-up over the Welsh line, it was down to centre James McLaren to do the honours with a crashing try as he barged over the line on the burst after the the ball had been moved left, but again, Logan produced a diabolical kick to miss the extra points.

Scotland were not done though, and as prop forward Tom Smith broke down the left from the Welsh 22 it seemed incomprehensible that he could beat Llanelli flyer Mark Jones for pace, but the British Lion threw a dummy and accelerated past the wing for a precious try -- but Scotland were still two points down.

Kenny Logan shirked the responsibility of the testing conversion from between the posts and the left touch line, and it was down to Duncan Hodge to strike the extras to tie the game.  The Edinburgh star sent Murrayfield in to delirium as he nailed the kick, but missed a late drop goal which could have won the match outright.

One man who will be feeling the strain from Murrayfield is Wales coach Graham Henry, who spoke after the game of the mood in the Welsh camp.

"We've come a long way in a week, and we've got to be positive, but yeah we're disappointed," he said.

"It's always a worry when you concede that many points, and we need to work harder.  There's no magic wand though."

Att:  67,500
Referee:  Steve Lander (Eng)
Touch Judges:  Steve Walsh (New Zealand), Joel Jutge (France).

The Teams:

Scotland:  1 Tom Smith, 2 Gordon Bulloch, 3 Mattie Stewart, 4 Richard Metcalfe, 5 Scott Murray, 6 Budge Pountney, 7 Martin Leslie, 8 Jon Petrie, 9 Andy Nicol (c), 10 Duncan Hodge, 11 Kenny Logan, 12 John Leslie, 13 James McLaren, 14 Cammie Murray, 15 Chris Paterson
Reserves:  Gordon McIlwham, James Craig, Stuart Grimes
Unused:  Alan Bulloch, Bryan Redpath, Steve Scott, Jason White

Wales:  1 Darren Morris, 2 Robin McBryde, 3 Dai Young (c), 4 Ian Gough, 5 Andrew Moore, 6 Colin Charvis, 7 Martyn Williams, 8 Scott Quinnell, 9 Rob Howley, 10 Neil Jenkins, 11 Mark Jones, 12 Scott Gibbs, 13 Mark Taylor, 14 Dafydd James, 15 Rhys Williams
Reserves:  Spencer John, Rupert Moon, Craig Quinnell
Unused:  Geraint Lewis, Allan Bateman, Garin Jenkins, Gareth Thomas

Points Scorers:

Scotland
Tries:  McLaren J.G. 1, Paterson C.D. 1, Smith T.J. 1
Conv:  Hodge D.W. 1, Logan K.McK. 1
Pen K.:  Logan K.McK. 3

Wales
Tries:  Taylor M. 1
Conv:  Jenkins N.R. 1
Pen K.:  Jenkins N.R. 4
Drop G.:  Jenkins N.R. 3