Tries from George North and Jonathan Davies plus 11 points from the boot of Leigh Halfpenny were enough to give Wales the win at Principality Stadium
Gatland believes there were a number of positives to come out of the 80 minutes.
“It’s a start for us, but we were a bit rusty at times,” said the Wales head coach.
“For long periods of the game we were pretty comfortable without the ball and defended well. We scored some nice tries and will be better for that.
“Scotland put us under a lot of pressure, but we defended well. We came out of it pretty positively.
“It’s nice to get a hit out rather than being thrown in against a southern hemisphere team coming straight off the Rugby Championship.”
Gatland was particularly pleased with the performance of fly-half Gareth Anscombe who put in an assured display.
“Gareth gave a lovely pass for Jonathan to score the try,” said Gatland.
“He attacked the line and put some players into some holes. He hasn’t had a huge amount of games, but we were pleased with him.
“I think this autumn is about some rotation of the squad and giving players a chance.
“Gareth had a good performance and that was pleasing for him. We wanted to create some depth in that position.”
Wales will face Australia next weekend ahead of clashes with Tonga and South Africa.
And Gatland insists they are in a good place prior to taking on the Wallabies.
“I don’t look at our recent record against Australia and it’s not about getting the monkey off our back,” he said.
“There are games where we’ve been leading going into the final minutes. We’ve been unlucky at times against Australia.
“It would be nice to win next week and get a result, but the more important game will be when we play Australia at the World Cup.”
