Edinburgh — Scotland are off to their best ever start in the Six Nations after a 35-7 thrashing of Wales on Saturday made it two wins from two for Gregor Townsend's men.
Kyle Steyn struck twice, while George Turner, Blair Kinghorn and Matt Fagerson also scored tries at Murrayfield to secure Scotland's record win over Wales.
Finn Russell 🤝 Duhan van der Merwe
— SuperSport 🏆 (@SuperSportTV) February 11, 2023
Scotland are looking good in the #GuinnessSixNations and thrash Wales 35-7!pic.twitter.com/ec7HoBirKq
A bonus point victory takes Scotland level with Ireland on 10 points at the top of the table and is the first time they have won their opening two games of the Championship since it was still the Five Nations back in 1996.
By contrast, Wales have lost their opening two matches of the Six Nations for the first time since 2007 with the return of Warren Gatland unable to turn around their fortunes.
Gatland won all 11 of his meetings with Scotland in his previous stint as Wales boss between 2008 and 2019.
But the New Zealander is quickly learning the scale of his task second time round after a 34-10 humbling on home soil against Ireland last weekend.
Gatland had dropped former captain Alun Wyn Jones, Justin Tipuric and Taulupe Faletau among five changes from the defeat to Ireland.
That trio account for 342 Wales caps as well 18 appearances for the British and Irish Lions.
But Gatland's shake up did not have the desired effect in another error-strewn performance.
It was a first half of missed opportunity for Wales as Dan Biggar pulled a simple penalty wide and they were twice turned over from set-pieces on the Scottish line.
Scotland took advantage to move into a 13-0 lead as after two Finn Russell penalties, Turner barreled over the line and got the ball down despite Biggar's best efforts to hold him up.
Turner went from hero to villain in a few minutes as he was sent to the sin bin for a high tackle on George North.
Wales quickly made the most of the man advantage as captain Ken Owens forced his way over in the corner.
Biggar added the extras from a far tougher kick out on the toucline and Gatland's men should have been ahead by half-time.
Alex Cuthbert burst through Scotland's defences only for Rio Dyer to fumble with a walk in to the try line.
But it was one-way traffic in the second half as Scotland ran in four unanswered tries.
Duhan van der Merwe was Scotland's hero with two scintillating tries to win the Calcutta Cup over England at Twickenham last weekend and the Edinburgh winger's blistering run down the left touchline set up a conserted spell of pressure on the Welsh line early in the second half.
Twice the home side turned down a simple three points to kick to the corner and finally got their reward.
Russell was the architect with a brilliant sleight of hand to feed Steyn to finish in the corner.
The same duo combined for another try moments later after Liam Williams' yellow card left Wales down a man for 10 minutes.
Russell's perfectly weighted kick set up Steyn to cross in the corner, but this time the Racing 92 fly-half failed to add the extras.
It mattered little as Scotland got the bonus point when Van der Merwe's pass sent Blair Kinghorn in for the hosts' fourth try.
Fagerson then rounded off a fine team move and performance two minutes from time to break a 99-year-old record for Scotland's biggest win in this fixture.
AFP