Scots Draw First Blood

The Dragons – favourites to take the spoils from this encounter – suffered a drawback before a ball had even been kicked with Iestyn Harris withdrawing due to a recurrence of his knee injury.

Despite that Wales took a 14-6 lead in with them at the interval thanks to tries from Richard Johnson, Adam Hughes and Lee Briers.

The Scottish could only get one try in the first period through Wade Liddell, but second half scored from Danny Brough, Jamie Benn, and Mick Nanyn all got on the scoresheet after the break to secure the win.

The two sides will meet again in November of next year on Scottish soil with the overall winner going through to the finals in Australia and the runner-up given a second chance to qualify through the repechege round.

Meanwhile, the USA made good their passage to the repechege round with a 54-18 defeat of Japan in the Atlantic qualifier.

And Lebanon got their campaign underway 22-8 defeat of Russia in group two of the European section.