Williams steals it as Wales push on

Gatland's charges built on last week's sensational win over England by dominating virtually all the possession and territory and outscoring Scotland three tries to nil. But the visitors were hanging on at only 20-15 down thanks to the dependable boot of Chris Paterson.

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It was then that Williams scorched through a gap down the left and dodged the Scottish defence to dive in at the corner despite the tackle of Nikki Walker.

At first, replays suggested the diminutive winger had produced an outstanding display of finishing to thwart his Ospreys club colleague and the television referee, Italian Carlo Damasco, duly awarded the try.

But later footage showed quite clearly that Williams' left foot had dragged across the touchline and the Scots, with just one try in their last five Tests, had been put out of the match unfairly.

To add insult to injury, Gatland, whose side will have fans dreaming of a second Grand Slam in four seasons if they can beat Italy in Cardiff in a fortnight, then put the boot into Scotland for failing to play any meaningful rugby.

"We thoroughly deserved to win and there was only one team out there who tried to play rugby," said the New Zealander.

"Scotland made it easy for us. The only disappointing aspect for us were the soft penalties we kept giving Paterson to keep us under pressure. Now we've got a chance of the Triple Crown if we can win in Ireland next month.

"The skills level in my team is brilliant, as is the attitude, and I don't believe any other team in the Six Nations work as hard as us, but I still maintain it's going to take us two years before we can seriously challenge the best."

Gatland's opposite number, Frank Hadden, bore the weary look of a coach with no luck.

"It was another tough day at the office," he said. "We weren't playing that well but we kept on fighting and hanging in there and still believed we could dig out a win.

"It was a bitter blow when the television official got it wrong for the second year running to leave us with a mountain to climb. That said, we weren't threatening individually or collectively."

Hadden was referring to the inexplicable try awarded to Jonny Wilkinson at Twickenham last year after television replays.

"That official has now retired," was his response when asked if there was any appeal he could launch.

But he accepted that a team who cannot score a try will struggle to win many Tests.

"We're simply not good enough at the moment," he added. Ironically, Scotland started well and took a 10th-minute advantage through Paterson, who became his country's most capped back by winning his 83rd yesterday and beating Gregor Townsend's mark.

Three minutes later, however, Wales took a lead they would never lose when Shane Williams finished off a move involving Mike Phillips, Gavin Henson, James Hook and Lee Byrne with a shimmy in the corner that did for Mike Blair.

Hook converted and then added a penalty before Paterson's second strike of the afternoon saw Wales hold a four-point half-time lead.

Four minutes after the break Paterson reduced the arrears to just a point but Hook scored a soft try for Wales when a 46th-minute dummy and hand-off were enough to see off Scottish hooker Ross Ford.

The conversion put Hook on 166 Test points, equalling Phil Bennett to place him seventh in the all-time list of Welsh scorers.

Still, with two Paterson penalties drawing Scotland to within two points of Wales, Gatland decided a change was required and took off both halfbacks and replaced them with the experienced Llanelli pair of Dwayne Peel and Stephen Jones.

"I just wanted some experience to bring us home," explained Gatland later.

It did the trick. A Jones penalty in the 64th minute eased the burden before Williams finally settled the issue 12 minutes from time. Jones converted, then added a further penalty to add some gloss to the final score.

There was still time for Scotland to camp on the Welsh line in the last few minutes, only to be kept out by stubborn defence. It was a passage of play that brought a cheer from the crowd and a tear to assistant coach Shaun Edwards' eye.

"We're proving that defence can be exciting," said the man who the RFU allowed to slip away to Wales. "That's one try conceded in two games and now even the crowd are cheering our defence as much as a try. I found that very heartening."

It is still early days, but Gatland and Edwards may have started a revolution in the Principality.

WALES: Byrne, Roberts, Shanklin (Parker 71min), Henson, S Williams, Hook (S Jones 58), Phillips (Peel 58), D Jones (Jenkins 54), Bennett (Rees 58), A Jones, Gough (D Jones 73), Evans, Thomas, M Williams, R Jones (Delve 62).

SCOTLAND: Southwell, Walker (Danielli 74), De Luca, Henderson, Paterson, Parks, Blair (Cusiter 73), Jacobsen, Ford (Thomson 73), Murray, Hines (MacLeod 62), Hamilton, White (Hogg 32), Brown, Barclay. Sin Bin: Hines (16min).

Referee: B Lawrence (New Zealand).