Wales Vs Scotland - SUNDAY 12th FEBRUARY - KO 15:00 Gonna be a classic..!

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Wales Vs Scotland

Date: Sunday, February 12
Kick-off: 15:00
Venue: Millennium Stadium

Coverage: Live on BBC One Wales, BBC Radio Wales & online, S4C and Radio Cymru, plus live text and score updates on the BBC Sport website

Date: Sunday, February 12
Venue: Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
Kick-off: 15:00 (15:00 GMT)
Expected weather: Cloudy with a few showers likely. High of 5°C, low of 3°C
Referee: Romain Poite (France)
Assistant referees: Peter Fitzgibbon (Ireland), Simon McDowell (Ireland)
TMO: Giulio De Santis (Italy)



Scotland will encounter a Wales side oozing confidence when round two of the Six Nations concludes at the Millennium Stadium on Sunday.

The opening round of the Championship was a weekend of contrasting fortunes for the two sides.
Wales underlined their status as potential Six Nations champions with a rousing 23-21 victory over Ireland in Dublin. It was a wonderful advert for Six Nations rugby with two teams going at it hammer and tongs for a game won in the last 20 seconds.
That win came less than 24 hours after Scotland had started their challenge with a 13-6 loss to England at Murrayfield. The Scots created enough chances to have beaten their visitors last week, however simple errors coupled with a lack of tries led to another disappointing defeat for Andy Robinson's men, who have now lost three on the trot.
Just once in 13 attempts have Scotland won on the opening weekend of the tournament since Italy joined the Five Nations in 2000.
Scotland must now attempt to bounce back and beat the Welsh in their own back yard - something they have failed to achieve in a decade.
They came mighty close though in their last Cardiff contest after leading by ten points with seven minutes remaining, only for the now retired Shane Williams to score a last-gasp try to secure a dramatic 31-24 come-from-behind victory.
Winning away from home has been a wee bit of a problem for the Scots in the Six Nations, where they have won just once on the road since 2006 (23-20 against Ireland at Croke Park in 2010).
But despite Scotland's poor showing last weekend and dismal away record, Wales will do well not to underestimate Sunday's visitors who are expected to come out all guns blazing after asking for the Millennium Stadium roof to be closed.
With wet weather being forecast, Scotland - notwithstanding the apparent lack of abilities to score tries (at least in the past four games) - have backed themselves to take on Wales at their own expansive game.
"We cannot afford to underestimate Scotland, the amount of possession and territory they had against England last weekend meant that they should have won the game and they will come to the Millennium Stadium buoyed by that knowledge," said Wales coach Warren Gatland.
Wales have won the opening two games of a Six Nations campaign on just two previous occasions - in 2005 and 2008 - and each time they went on to win the title and Grand Slam. Three of the World Cup semi-finalists' remaining four games are in Cardiff, starting on Sunday when try-shy Scotland arrive at the Millennium Stadium.
But following Wales' heroics in Dublin, the build-up to Sunday's Test has been blighted by the suspension of Bradley Davies, who will miss the rest of this season's tournament after collecting a seven-week ban for a reckless tip-tackle on Ireland replacement Donnacha Ryan last weekend.
Davies is the second Wales player suspended for that offence this season following Sam Warburton's dismissal and three-week punishment for an incident in the World Cup semi-final against France last October.
Davies now joins his fellow World Cup locks Luke Charteris and Alun-Wyn Jones on the international sidelines. But in a triple boost for Gatland, flanker Dan Lydiate has recovered from an ankle injury to reclaim the number six shirt, prop Gethin Jenkins has recovered from knee trouble to start and skipper Warburton also features after being in doubt with a leg injury.
However, Warburton has been wrapped in cotton wool this whole week and took a very limited part in training while staying clear of any contact work. Whether he actually leads the team out hangs in the balance and probably won't be known until the morning of the match.
In a game where the back-row battle will be absolutely crucial, everyone in the Welsh camp - and in Wales as a whole - will be keeping their fingers crossed that the inspirational skipper can defy the injury odds and help guide his team to back-to-back wins.
Wales are favourites, but nobody should have any illusions how tough this match will be...
Ones to watch:

For Wales: Former Wales captain Ryan Jones will, as expected, fill the second-row void against Scotland caused by Bradley Davies' seven-week suspension. Jones was exceptional at blindside flanker against Ireland in Dublin and his versatility is proving of immeasurable value to Gatland.
For Scotland: With Dan Parks calling it quits from Test rugby this week, Greig Laidlaw inherits the number 10 jersey for Scotland. The Edinburgh skipper won the first two of his three caps as a replacement scrum-half, before coming on at fly-half for Parks in the Calcutta Cup defeat to England. Yet an impressive display during the small amount of time he was on the pitch has been rewarded with his first Test start.
Head to head: Toby Faletau v David Denton. Scotland's Zimbabwean-born number eight Denton was deservedly named man-of-the-match following his Herculean ball-carrying against England last Saturday, and much of the same will be required against the tough as nails Faletau, who will always be found where the battle is at its most ferocious.

Recent results:
2011: Wales won 24-6, Edinburgh
2010: Wales won 31-24, Cardiff
2009: Wales won 26-13, Edinburgh
2008: Wales won 30-15, Cardiff
2007: Scotland won 21-9, Edinburgh
2006: Wales won 28-18, Cardiff
2005: Wales won 46-22, Edinburgh
2004: Wales won 23-10, Cardiff
2003: Wales won 23-9, Cardiff
2003: Scotland won 30-22, Edinburgh
Prediction: Neither history or form is with Scotland heading into this match, and while we're sure they'll give it a good crack - we just can't see Wales letting this one slip. Wales to win by nine points!
Rugby Union betting odds

The teams:

Wales: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Alex Cuthbert, 13 Jonathan Davies, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 George North, 10 Rhys Priestland, 9 Mike Phillips, 8 Toby Faletau, 7 Sam Warburton (c), 6 Dan Lydiate, 5 Ian Evans, 4 Ryan Jones, 3 Adam Jones, 2 Huw Bennett, 1 Gethin Jenkins.

Replacements: 16 Ken Owens, 17 Paul James, 18 Lou Reed, 19 Andy Powell, 20 Lloyd Williams, 21 James Hook, 22 Scott Williams.

Scotland: 15 Rory Lamont, 14 Lee Jones, 13 Nick De Luca, 12 Sean Lamont, 11 Max Evans, 10 Greig Laidlaw, 9 Chris Cusiter, 8 David Denton, 7 Ross Rennie, 6 Alasdair Strokosch, 5 Jim Hamilton, 4 Richie Gray, 3 Geoff Cross, 2 Ross Ford (c), 1 Allan Jacobsen.

Replacements: 16 Scott Lawson, 17 Ed Kalman, 18 Alastair Kellock, 19 John Barclay, 20 Mike Blair, 21 Duncan Weir, 22 Stuart Hogg.

I feel I should appoligise here for Wales winning the game. Onwards and upwards. Must really be killing RiskySports and Rory right now.

Good performance from Scotland as was expected when the team was announced.

Riskysports wrote:Wales.sjould.have had 4 or 5 in the bin

the amount of times I have seen Scottish onthe floor with Welsh boys lrgally competing and the man of the floor holding on must run into double figures, the referee was the same for both teams.

Wales scored, Scotland didnt, same old story and the story the arrogant Welsh fans said would happen.

Morgannwg wrote:I feel I should appoligise here for Wales winning the game. Onwards and upwards. Must really be killing RiskySports and Rory right now.

Good performance from Scotland as was expected when the team was announced.

I agree mate, our third choice captain led the teams well, and our second choice pack really competed didnt they, luckily Cuthbert made up for losing North.

Congrats Wales. Way too good for Scotland.

And for Poite.

Cuthbert might be even be better than North in the long run.

Riskysports wrote:

AlynDavies wrote:Well at least another chance to hear Robinson moaning about injustices and the referee.... let the good times roll!

Thank god the Welsh boys have a week off to get over their injuries.

funny enough.thia.time justified

Chill out eh Risky. Poite's been poor, but poor both ways

Well done Wales... Scotland was looking alright in the first half but in the second half Wales just stepped up a gear.

Poite - ruined a good game. Think Wales would have shaded it, but such a shame it was so poorly reffed. Scotland finally score a try (should be 2) and looked far better than they have done.
Wales down a number of key players and still grind out a good win.
Twickenham looking more interesting now. Wouldn't have given England better than a 40% chance before - would say 50 - 50 now.

Excellent win Wales and well played Scotland, We now have time on our side to get our injured players back.

Having seen both Welsh games, i see no reason why they cant beat France and win the GS. They are a very good side

That scottish pack are mean, the welsh pack were bullied for large parts of that game. Probably a more physical game than last week if thats possible.

Thank the rugby gods we have AWJ, and Smiler to come back into the pack and hopefully Warburton, We are going to need them against the English. North looked a pretty bad injury so he could be out for a while so we might see Byrne come in.

Wales deserved the win. Really composed, took opportunities and caused all sorts of issues at the breakdown (not always legitimately but Wales played the ref well).

From a Scotland perspective just the usual disappointment. Stuart Hogg should have started the tournament at 15, he confirmed that again today. Shame we have to arrive at the right team selection half way through the tournament through a process of elimination. That 15 minutes at the start of the second half was utterly stupid, particularly the restart. Cusiter did some good stuff, particularly in defence, and his passing was much better than the previous week, but surely Blair starts next weekend. Richie Gray and David Denton also had standout games.

I'm not as disappointed as I was after the England game. We lost to the better side this time round. Just a shame we had to gift the game away in the 3rd quarter, but credit to Wales, they took all the opportunities very nicely and the rush defence was absolutely top class today. Lydiate was a good call for MOTM, what a cracking 6, and Falateu was also top class. Wales vs France for the slam I think, on what we've seen so far, Wales will storm Twickenham.

TycroesOsprey wrote:North looked a pretty bad injury so he could be out for a while so we might see Byrne come in.

That's what I would do. Byrne in at 15 and Halfpenny to the wing. England kick a lot of ball so having to 15s would make sense, plus I just don't like Hook at 15. He's better as an impact sub at 10. Byrne has been on fire this season at Clermont, and Halfpenny showed today what a class finisher he is.

Quick mention for Cuthbert - came of age today. Really impressed, in particular with the counter-attacking.

wales won with a 20 minute burst- to be fair its how the good teams win games.

scotland got a concelation try at least

Biltong, you're boring now. I'm acting arrogant because we have been accused of arrogance all week and all the through the match, you know, the match where we cheated our way to victory. And also, I am yet to meet a nice South African.

Alyn, do you think we'll be on course for another flash in the pan should we beat England?

Congratulations to Wales and the Welsh supporters, a great attacking & defensive display.

funnyExiledScot wrote:Wales deserved the win. Really composed, took opportunities and caused all sorts of issues at the breakdown (not always legitimately but Wales played the ref well).

From a Scotland perspective just the usual disappointment. Stuart Hogg should have started the tournament at 15, he confirmed that again today. Shame we have to arrive at the right team selection half way through the tournament through a process of elimination. That 15 minutes at the start of the second half was utterly stupid, particularly the restart. Cusiter did some good stuff, particularly in defence, and his passing was much better than the previous week, but surely Blair starts next weekend. Richie Gray and David Denton also had standout games.

I'm not as disappointed as I was after the England game. We lost to the better side this time round. Just a shame we had to gift the game away in the 3rd quarter, but credit to Wales, they took all the opportunities very nicely and the rush defence was absolutely top class today. Lydiate was a good call for MOTM, what a cracking 6, and Falateu was also top class. Wales vs France for the slam I think, on what we've seen so far, Wales will storm Twickenham.

I really hope they go there with that attitude as they are setting themselves up for a huge fall.

I think they will win it just and itll be much harder. I think England will be strengthened again and you are all writing off what it took to get these wins away for this young side.

funnyexiledscot. To be fair this welsh team is on fire, and even with half (I am told) their team injured they are still a cut above the other home unions at the moment. Scotland did very well in the first half, the only thing that bothered me was the way Laidlaw stepped and slowed before passing, it seemed that he improved in the last twenty (perhaps shaking off the habit of being a 9). But there are some good players in the scottish team, your 4, 6, 8, 12, 15 and that new guy was it at 14 looks good.

I am happy they got their try. Unfortunately for Scotland they made the same errors at the ruck as SA did against OZ in the quarter, when a referee is blase at ruck time, you need to counter ruck and take those hands away.

Apart from that good performance by Scotland. They did show guts and determination in the last 20 minutes, and it seems open play helped in the last 10 minutes.

Morgannwg wrote:I'm acting arrogant because we have been accused of arrogance all week and all the through the match

I think it's the other way around mate.

It was a good game overall, not as clinical as we have been against Ireland with a few knock ons in good positions, but in the 2nd half we finished off attacks well.

Thought we really missed both Warburton and Tipuric today, luckily Lydiate had a good game and to be fair Shingler showed some glimpses.

Shame to lose North early on as well, hope its nothing serious.

Biltong - agreed, we needed to get nastier at the breakdown and commit more numbers. A few studs on hands would have sorted it. That said, Rennie did his fair share of slowing down Welsh ball.

As I said before, Wales thoroughly deserved to win, and they look set for a Slam showdown against France. I can't see England winning on past form. England will need to really step up a couple of gears to reach the level being set by Wales.

Morgannwg wrote:I feel I should appoligise here for Wales winning the game. Onwards and upwards. Must really be killing RiskySports and Rory right now.

Good performance from Scotland as was expected when the team was announced.

I have less issue with Wales winning, as they played some good attaching rugby, played the ref well and defended well. What I am angry about, is Rugby seems to be dicsted by the whims of the refs these days, they do not seem to be able to handle the game.

Refs are deciding matches more often than ever

We have some chances but did not take them, but when the ref calls 6 times in one ruck hands away on the Welsh try line and does nothing - you got to wonder

Just to re-firm - Angry at the Ref not the Welsh who played him better than we did

On the poisitive for Scotland - Hogg has a great game when he came on, hope he stays

Laidlaw got better and will grow into the role

NDL - he is one brain fart away from being an idiot...

Well, I suppose that's the end of that then.

funnyExiledScot wrote:Biltong - agreed, we needed to get nastier at the breakdown and commit more numbers. A few studs on hands would have sorted it. That said, Rennie did his fair share of slowing down Welsh ball.

As I said before, Wales thoroughly deserved to win, and they look set for a Slam showdown against France. I can't see England winning on past form. England will need to really step up a couple of gears to reach the level being set by Wales.

Rennie is a glorious player

We tend to have selective hearing when it comes to refs. If you watched the match again you will probably find that he was shouting the same things at both sides.

Thanks for clearing that up RiskySports. Like I said, you played well. Should crush Italy and are capable of beating France.

I wasn't too impressed with Strokotch again tbh.. I think Scotland should start Barclay at 6. They have Denton and Gray to add significant bulk to the team, so I don't think they would be that much less physical with Barclay starting. Otherwise, I would look to playing McInally at 8 and moving Denton to 6.

I thought the ref let a lot go from both sides. But obviously Scotland were unlucky with the Hogg try (although the try they did get came after we'd handed the ball back to them after that by doing something dumb in the continuation of play).

I would have thought Scotland could take a lot from that. They had Wales under a lot of pressure.

From Wales' point of view, they defended hard and were ruthless in taking their chances when they came.

Hope North is nott to bad, looked like could be a little bit sore

Same with Evan,s although with R lamont on wing we ok just now

I noticed North was sat watching the game and seemed to be having a laugh with the other squad members.

Cymroglan wrote:We tend to have selective hearing when it comes to refs. If you watched the match again you will probably find that he was shouting the same things at both sides.

Sorry I do not have a sterio TV so can only hear one wasy

Cymroglan wrote:I noticed North was sat watching the game and seemed to be having a laugh with the other squad members.

He jarred his ankle, if it was anything serious he'd of been off to hospital for an x-ray.

Any time you turn an ankle you are hurt for about 15 minutes then the feeling comes back, he would of strained ligaments but 2 weeks off now before the england game, hopefully he will recover.

That has got to be the worst ref I've ever seen. Wales offside the whole game. Deliberate knock on, should have been a card, led to the move that got NDL a card, rightly. Disallowed a good try and gave a knock on at end of 1st half when it was Jenkins. Rubbish.

Yeah they never replayed that part, but I was certain there was a deliberate knock on right before Davies was tackled off the ball.. anyone else notice this?

Rory_Gallagher wrote:Yeah they never replayed that part, but I was certain there was a deliberate knock on right before Davies was tackled off the ball.. anyone else notice this?

I posted earlier in this thread that I thought Scotland had advantage for a knock on. Having looked at it again I don't think advantage is getting played but I think it was a deliberate knock on. So I was half right (maybe)

Rory_Gallagher wrote:Yeah they never replayed that part, but I was certain there was a deliberate knock on right before Davies was tackled off the ball.. anyone else notice this?

I missed it. By Whom?

I have no idea.. however Scotland were on the attack, a pass was made but seemed to be obstructed by a Welsh hand.. then Davies kicks it down the field and De Luca tackles him off the ball. Like I said they never replayed it, so I could be totally wrong. But that is what I thought I saw in real-time. Would like to check again..

Here we go again with "offside all game" retort just as the thread was getting better.

Morgannwg wrote:Here we go again with "offside all game" retort just as the thread was getting better.

Why are you taking this as a dig. A couple of people thought the same. It's a genuine question from someone, and it open to discussion. Or are we just to assume (like the referee) that Wales do no wrong and keep our mouths shut. See what I done there.

How is it even a question, he claimed Wales were offside all game. It's just good defence and you're bitter about it. In fact, we still hold the record in that department. Perhaps Scotland can match it on the opposite by 'scoring' two tries in the tournament .

Morgannwg wrote:Here we go again with "offside all game" retort just as the thread was getting better.

Your never going to win mate, no one will ever give Wales credit for winning, and scoring good tries...

Still at least the Ospreys won in Edinburgh, the Welsh U20's won, and the Welsh Women won against Scottish teams this weekend.

Anyone else feel that the Scottish Wee men did a good job on the Welsh giants?

Thought they managed to handle them very well

Riskysports wrote:Anyone else feel that the Scottish Wee men did a good job on the Welsh giants?

Thought they managed to handle them very well

Yes they did, though gaps were still created and Wales still scored 3 tries.

AlynDavies wrote:

Morgannwg wrote:Here we go again with "offside all game" retort just as the thread was getting better.

Your never going to win mate, no one will ever give Wales credit for winning, and scoring good tries...

+ 1 again my friend. We are plus one-ing each other a lot today. . Great minds thinking alike and all that. We better not give ourselves any credit from now on, we'll only be called arrogant by the Irish and English.

AlynDavies wrote:

Riskysports wrote:Anyone else feel that the Scottish Wee men did a good job on the Welsh giants?

Thought they managed to handle them very well

Yes they did, though gaps were still created and Wales still scored 3 tries.

True, but only 1 when 15 vs 15 (not a dig, just my feeling that when we had 15 players we managed to stop them making many scoring opporunities)

No more excuses Andy!!! get Matt Scott in the team now, put S lamont in his best position the Wing!!! and start Hogg, Laidlaw and Blair.
Get rid of Townsend and keep Steadman
I would have Ansbro in there instead of De luca but I think he's still injuried

1. Jacobsen
2. Ford
3. Cross
4. Gray
5. Hamilton
6. Barcley
7. Rennie
8. Denton
9. Blair
10. Laidlaw
11. S Lamont
12. Scott
13. De Luca
14. Jones
15. Hogg

S Lawson, Kalman, Kellock, Harley, R Lamont, Cuister, Weir

Risky, we've applauded Scotland on their performance. A performance that we had predicted. If you seen anything in the build up to think we took your team for granted then I assure you it was by the same poster who has 20 accounts. gnollbeast, etc...