Wales ground out a tight 20-17 victory against their Scottish visitors at the Principality Stadium to close the chapter on their Dublin nightmare.
Here's how some of the big-name pundits have reacted in the England and Scotland-based media.
Sir Ian McGeechan, The Telegraph
The intensity of the game in Paris put proceedings in Cardiff into their proper context. The game between France and Ireland was a step change in intensity, accuracy, power and quality over what was served up by Wales and Scotland.
Scotland passed up a golden opportunity to finally register a win in Cardiff in an extraordinary match which turned on two moments. The first came after just one minute when Liam Williams put in a seven-point turnover just as it seemed Scotland must score. The second came after the break when Dan Biggar’s penalty came back off the posts, which led to Finn Russell’s sin-binning and the drop-goal which gave Wales a lead which they never surrendered.
Even though Williams’ turnover and their two early penalties changed the dynamic of the game and brought their fans into play, for much of the first half, Scotland were by far the better side and if the visitors had kept up that pace then they would have built up a match-winning lead.
In particular, they showed huge patience for Darcy Graham’s try, with 18 phases, but they also followed that up with a couple of penalties which resulted in them playing with urgency, intensity and accuracy. But the way in which Wales changed the dynamic of the game so that Scotland were forced to play in areas they didn’t want to was fascinating.
Since 2002 there have been plenty of salutary lessons handed out to Scotland in Wales, but few have been more disappointing than this one for Scottish supporters. It’s always the hope that kills you.
Dreams and nightmares. The one can merge into the other. So it proved for Scotland, whose victory against England is again relegated into the realms of the one-off.
The genius of Finn Russell was bottled for huge chunks of the game. No broken fields for the fly half to attack, only a broken heart. He watched ten of the last 15 minutes, sent to the sin-bin in the sequence of play that led to the inexorable Biggar drop goal.
The match-winning kick summed up the Wales fly half’s performance, in many ways his career. He does not have the stardust of so many of his predecessors. He is more like his attacking coach, Stephen Jones — organised, neat and ready to follow instructions — than he is the legends of old.
He is also one of the bravest players on the planet. Lesser mortals would have limped off but the Wales captain is made of the right stuff. In obvious pain, he directed his penalty kicks into the corner with an accuracy and distance astonishing in a man seemingly in such distress. To attempt a 50-metre kick for goal on what appeared to be one leg was a bold statement of mind over matter. Somehow Biggar managed to reach the crossbar.
The Scottish fly half is a virtuoso but the afternoon belonged to Biggar. Russell was second best as Scotland came to Cardiff and were conquered. Another dead dream.
What this game proved is that Scotland have to be at 100 per cent, both technically and in terms of emotion and energy to win big Test matches on the road.
Wales had the bit between their teeth as we always suspected they might after that drubbing in Dublin, but I just did not perceive the same level of accuracy and intent from the Scots.
The most frustrating aspect for me was that everything Scotland had been doing well over the last 18 months, and everything that Wales seemed to be struggling with, was suddenly turned on its head at the Principality Stadium. Our work at the breakdown was neither accurate nor consistent enough, our defensive set-up was nowhere near as convincing as it we have grown accustomed to witnessing since the advent of Steve Tandy, and we were dominated in the lineout drive.
We have to talk about discipline, too. Scotland’s was dreadful, and though it never pays to focus too much on a single individual, the yellow card picked up by Finn Russell ought to be a cause for concern. Not to put too fine a point on it, you have absolutely no hope of winning a tight Test match if your fly half is in the sin bin at a crucial juncture.
All in all, the day was a bit of a reality check after the heady start to our campaign last week. It felt like one of those Scotland performances we all thought we had left behind us: when things began to go wrong, we could not fix them on the run, and very quickly the whole afternoon unravelled. Fair play to Wales; defensively they looked strong and they took their opportunities, but Wayne Pivac’s men would have expected to have to do a lot more to put Scotland away. There were only three points in it on the scoreboard come the end, but for most of the second half, the writing was on the wall.
Sir Clive Woodward, The Daily Mail
In Cardiff, I predicted a narrow Scotland win but was not surprised by a much more spirited and organised Wales performance than in Dublin last week.
They deserved their win and I was delighted to see Dan Biggar clinch it with a rare drop goal! The commentary team said it was a strange call given that Wales were playing an advantage and could have worked for a converted try, but I was with Biggar all the way.
It was a classic one-score game and if you have two attempts to get three points — the dropped goal and a shot at goal if you miss — it's a no brainer.
To take the lead at that stage was vital psychologically. Scotland became very frantic and lacked poise and I didn't ever feel they were going to rescue it from there.
Tom English, BBC Scotland's Rugby Podcast
Not good enough. Not good enough.
It was a litany of mistakes. Every kind of mistake in the book. They conceded eight penalties at the breakdown, 12 or 13 overall.
Scotland never played. The scored one try, a great try, the one time they tried to play.
In the second half, they were abject, they never ever tried to put a bit of width and ambition into the game.
It was all Wales. Wales were pretty average and they deserved to win the game. No complaints at all but Wales were no great shakes.
Scotland just did not turn up. Whatever game plan they were trying to play is beyond me. I'm quite angry at the performance because the Scotland team is better than that. That was a putrid performance.
They never threatened, they never put pressure on on Wales. They tried these dopey kicks in the second half to try to play the game in Wales' half, they didn't have the accuracy to even do that much.
Wales had more thunder about them. Scotland had nothing and we know this team has loads of attacking strengths but they delivered none of that tonight and got absolutely what they deserved.
They [Wales] looked like a team that was desperate for victory. They had a rage to win, they were prepared to do whatever they could to win the game. Scotland were just an absolute shambles.
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