Scotland's long-suffering supporters were expected to take some more medicine on a wooden spoon. Instead there was the perfect tonic of a victory that will lift this patient from its sickbed. The Scottish dressing-room looked like a casualty ward after this demolition. One of the walking wounded, the Wasps wing Kenny Logan, held an ice-pack to his bruised knee, but a painful time for Scottish rugby is over.

"The Scottish game hasn't been in the best of shape and it is up to the national team to instill interest in our supporters and young players," Logan said. "We showed a lot of character and fought to the end. We were keeping the scoreboard moving rather than just hanging on for victory.

"There were 22 players in our squad who were all good enough to play international rugby. In the past years we've maybe had 14 or 15. But when you can bring on players of the calibre and experience of Alan Tait it is a big bonus."

Logan sealed the victory with a perfectly struck 40-metre penalty in the final minute; the contrast with the final attempt at goal by David Humphreys in Dublin two hours earlier could not have been more marked.

It was an error-strewn game of cut and thrust, in the balance until five minutes from the end when Scott Murray peeled from a ruck and crashed through Scott Quinnell's tackle for Scotland's fourth try.

But the Scots had rallied impressively in the final quarter. Their forwards drove and rucked with a concerted, mean intent, and their tackling, particularly after Tait arrived on the scene when Duncan Hodge was carried off five minutes after the interval, was effectively ruthless. Moreover, the Scots seemed better prepared by the wily old fox Jim Telfer than the Welsh under Graham Henry, for whom this was a sobering Five Nations baptism after the euphoria of last autumn.

The opening try, for instance - at nine seconds, the fastest in the Championship's history - was the result of careful planning. As the crowd were settling into their seats, Hodge hoisted the kick-off to the right wing where Matthew Robinson was making his Wales debut. Shane Howarth, trying to protect the new boy, saw the ball snatched out of the air by John Leslie and the New Zealand-born centre ran 25 metres unopposed to score. Easy stuff, this Five Nations lark.

Murray, Tom Smith, Peter Walton and Eric Peters gave the Scots a harder edge up front, but it was the mercurial Gregor Townsend who proved their real match-winner. Townsend has played in three positions for Scotland already this season, but makes no secret of the fact that he feels most comfortable at out-half.

Once Hodge departed, with what was later diagnosed as a fractured shin, Townsend moved from outside centre. His first contribution altered the course of the game. With Scotland 13-8 adrift, Rob Howley set off on an attack into enemy territory. He passed to Neil Jenkins but the out-half's intended transfer to Quinnell was intercepted by Townsend, who hared 60 metres to score.

Later, his break from a ruck, perfectly angled run and halfdummy gave Tait the chance to cancel out a score by Scott Gibbs five minutes earlier.

Townsend neatly side-stepped questions about his role at Twickenham on Saturday week. But in the war of attrition against England, Tait will surely fill in at centre should Jamie Mayer not be fit, with Townsend given the creative role at out-half. For Wales, who meet Ireland at Wembley next week, dusk in Edinburgh overshadowed another false dawn. Howley's opportunism fashioned a marvellous try out of nothing for Daffyd James five minutes before the interval, but Henry complained that his talented backs were "living off crumbs" from his pack.

The Welsh competed as well as they could have hoped at the scrum, but their line out was a shambles and the lack of big, mobile forwards took its toll.

Telfer was pointed in his observations. "Maybe they have one or two stars in Wales, but we have 15 players playing for each other and working in a meritocracy."

There was a fine sprinkling of snow in Edinburgh yesterday morning but the Flower of Scotland is at last blooming again. Hordes of hungover Welshmen, though, were wearing daffodils that had a wilting look.

Scotland: Metcalfe (Glasgow Caledonians); C Murray (Edinburgh Reivers), Townsend (Brive), J Leslie (Glasgow Caledonians), Logan (Wasps); Hodge (Edinburgh Reivers), Armstrong (Newcastle, capt); Smith (Glasgow Caledonians), Bulloch (Glasgow Caledonians), Burnell (London Scottish), Murray (Bedford), Weir (Newcastle), Walton (Newcastle), Peters (Bath), M Leslie (Edinburgh). Replacement: A Tait (Edinburgh) for Hodge (45 min).

Wales: Howarth (Sale); Robinson (Swansea), Bateman (Richmond), Gibbs (Swansea), James (Pontypridd); Jenkins (Pontypridd), Howley (Cardiff); Morris (Swansea), Humphreys (Cardiff), Anthony (Swansea), Gough (Pontypridd), Wyatt (Llanelli), Williams (Pontypridd), Quinnell (Richmond), Charvis (Swansea).

Referee: E Morrison (England).