After being outmuscled by England last week, it was very important to show early on that we weren't going to be knocked back.

We had the edge in the scrummage but didn't really capitalise on the extra man in the pack or the early dismissal of Scott Murray, one of Scotland's most experienced locks.

The sending-off gave Wales the impetus, but we had started well anyway, and looked very competitive up front.

It was a big improvement on the performance against England.

There is still an area of concern for me, though, in that we are not completely in control. It's still too frantic and needs a little more composure.

But the back-line is very exciting. I was especially pleased to see Gareth Thomas with the ball in his hands more often - ironically when he was not playing at 15 but after he'd moved to centre.

He is Wales' record try-scorer and needs to be in attacking positions. Far too often he's not found those positions lately.

He has this innate ability to spot opportunities and looks so dangerous when in possession, so it's nice to see that element back in his game.

I have to compliment Scotland on their display. They showed character and resolve in adverse conditions. They lost one of their most experienced forwards early on but battled back to score two excellent late tries.

Although you can never determine exactly how much influence the sending-off had on the game, it obviously did have an impact.

Losing their primary line-out forward affected Scotland's performance and meant they had to play for the best part of an hour with 14 men.

The battle of the number nines was always going to be an intriguing one. Dwayne Peel had an excellent game, and so too did Mike Blair. It's great to see Peel back to his sniping best, marshaling the troops and keeping the tempo up.

Sean Lamont was not able to get the ball in hand too much but kept himself very busy and was good in defence. He's obviously having a great tournament and a great season.

The most pleasing thing for the visitors was to see the 'Scottishness' back. Good Scotland sides of the past have always rampaged forward, played an ''in your face'', confrontational game with an aggressive pack. It's great to see them return to that under Frank Hadden.

France weren't up for the psychological battle against Scotland the previous weekend and I was pleased we showed we couldn't be dictated to up front as the French were.