Edinburgh (AFP) - Scotland co-captain Finn Russell was back to his best from the kicking tee as the fly-half orchestrated a 35-29 Six Nations win over Wales at Murrayfield on Saturday.

Russell landed all five of his conversion attempts and starred in open play, with Scotland backs Tom Jordan and the impressive Blair Kinghorn scoring two tries apiece.

It was all in marked contrast to the Bath stand-off’s troubles at Twickenham a fortnight ago where Scotland outscored England three tries to one only to lose 16-15 after Russell was off target with all three conversions.

Wales, 35-8 behind early in the second half, scored late tries through Ben Thomas, Teddy Williams and Max Llewellyn as Scotland switched off, but their efforts weren’t enough to stop the visitors from suffering a national record-extending 16th straight Test defeat.

Scotland’s second victory from four games this tournament maintained their hopes of a first top-two finish in the Six Nations era ahead of their finale away to leaders France, who stunned champions Ireland 47-22 in Dublin earlier Saturday, next weekend.

- ‘Foot off the gas’ -

“We know we should have won (against England) so we wanted to come back with revenge for ourselves,” player-of-the-match Kinghorn told the BBC. “It’s going to be a massive game over there (against France), they’ll be going for the championship. We’ll look to spoil the party.”

Russell added: “I think for 50 minutes we played really well and then took the foot off the gas and allowed Wales in.”

Wales captain Jac Morgan said: “We just probably left a little bit too much work to do after that first half.

“But the character the boys showed was brilliant,” he added.

This was another gutsy defeat for Wales after they gave champions Ireland a scare before losing 27-18 to champions Ireland in interim coach Matt Sherratt’s first game in charge.

Cardiff coach Sherratt’s spell as Wales’ caretaker boss is set to end a week on Saturday when Wales finish their Six Nations at home to his native England.

It took Scotland just five minutes to score the game’s first try, full-back Kinghorn crowning an excellent 14-phase move after returning wing Darcy Graham’s injection of pace and well-timed pass.

Russell then landed a tough conversion from the left touchline – a kick greeted by huge cheers from Scotland fans delighted to see their hero back on target.

And just six minutes later more fine back play led to another Scotland try.

Powerhouse wing Duhan van der Merwe fended off Ellis Mee to create a two-on-one overlap out wide, with Huw Jones’s inside pass paving the way for fellow centre Jordan to score his first Test try.

Russell again added the extras and Scotland led 14-3.

Morgan, however, was winning ruck turnovers and the visitors got back into the game when fly-half Gareth Anscombe’s precise chip through the defence allowed full-back Blair Murray to score a 24th-minute try.

Anscombe’s conversion hit the post and moments later Scotland had another try when Russell sold Anscombe a dummy before his clever delayed pass sent Graham in under the posts for a converted try that made it 21-8.

- Murray jump -

Wales prop WillGriff John was then yellow-carded for cynically sticking out a leg to stop Scotland scrum-half Ben White from playing the ball.

Scotland capitalised with a fourth try that owed much to a litany of Wales errors before Jordan hacked a loose ball downfield before regathering.

Eight minutes into the second half Kinghorn, a star for European champions Toulouse, completed a try double after Russell released him into a gaping hole in the Welsh defence.

With Townsend turning to his bench, centre Thomas and replacement Teddy Williams crossed for tries as Scotland lost their way.

With Scotland 35-22 ahead and three minutes of normal time left, Wales back-row Taulupe Faletau, to the huge relief of an increasingly nervous capacity crowd, had a try disallowed after Murray illegally jumped out of the tackle in the build-up.

Llewellyn’s converted try deep into stoppage time was the last play of the game, with Scotland just having enough breathing space.