Wales v Scotland, 15 March

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Walesv Scotland  

Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
15 March 2014, KO:14:45

Referee: Jérôme Garces (FFR)
First Assistant: Chris Pollock (NZR)
Second Assistant: Greg Garner (RFU)
TMO: Graham Hughes (RFU)

A. Squads

1. Wales

Forwards: Paul James (Bath), Gethin Jenkins (Cardiff Blues), Ryan Bevington (Ospreys), Richard Hibbard (Ospreys), Ken Owens (Scarlets), Emyr Phillips (Scarlets), Adam Jones (Ospreys), Samson Lee (Scarlets), Rhodri Jones (Scarlets), Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys), Luke Charteris (Perpignan), Ian Evans (Ospreys), Andrew Coombs (Dragons), Ryan Jones (Ospreys), Justin Tipuric (Ospreys), Sam Warburton Capt (Cardiff Blues), Toby Faletau (Dragons), Dan Lydiate (Racing Metro), Aaron Shingler (Scarlets)

Backs: Rhodri Williams (Scarlets), Mike Phillips (Racing Metro), Rhys Webb (Ospreys), Dan Biggar (Ospreys), Rhys Priestland (Scarlets), James Hook (Perpignan), Jonathan Davies (Scarlets), Jamie Roberts (Racing Metro), Scott Williams (Scarlets), Alex Cuthbert (Cardiff Blues), George North (Northampton Saints), Leigh Halfpenny (Cardiff Blues), Liam Williams (Scarlets).

2. Scotland

Forwards: John Beattie (Montpellier), Kelly Brown (Saracens), Geoff Cross, David Denton, Alasdair Dickinson, Ross Ford (all Edinburgh Rugby), Chris Fusaro (Glasgow Warriors), Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh Rugby), Ryan Grant, Jonny Gray (both Glasgow Warriors), Richie Gray (Castres), Jim Hamilton (Montpellier), Robert Harley (Glasgow Warriors), Scott Lawson (Newcastle Falcons), Kieran Low (London Irish), Moray Low, Pat MacArthur (both Glasgow Warriors), Ross Rennie (Edinburgh Rugby) Alasdair Strokosch (Perpignan), Tim Swinson and Ryan Wilson (both Glasgow Warriors).

Backs: Chris Cusiter (Glasgow Warriors), Nick De Luca (Edinburgh Rugby), Alex Dunbar (Glasgow Warriors), Max Evans (Castres), Dougie Fife (Edinburgh Rugby), Stuart Hogg, Ruaridh Jackson, Sean Lamont (all Glasgow Warriors), Greig Laidlaw (Edinburgh Rugby), Sean Maitland (Glasgow Warriors), Matt Scott (Edinburgh Rugby), Tommy Seymour (Glasgow Warriors), Duncan Taylor (Saracens), Greig Tonks (Edinburgh Rugby) and Duncan Weir (Glasgow Warriors).

B. Previous Form

9 March 2013, Murrayfield
18 – 28 to Wales

12 February 2012, Millennium Stadium
27 – 13 to Wales

12 February 2011, Murrayfield
6 – 24 to Wales

13 February 2010, Millennium Stadium
31 – 24 to Wales

8 February 2009, Murrayfield
13 – 26 to Wales

9 February 2008, Millennium Stadium
30 – 15 to Wales

10 February 2007, Murrayfield
21 – 9 to Scotland

12 February 2006, Millennium Stadium
28 – 18 to Wales

13 March 2005, Murrayfield
22 – 46 to Wales

14 February 2004, Millennium Stadium
23 – 10 to Wales

30 August 2003, Millennium Stadium
23 – 9 to Wales (2003 Rugby World Cup preparatory game)

8 March 2003, Murrayfield
30 – 22 to Scotland

6 April 2002, Millennium Stadium
22 – 27 to Scotland

C. Teams

1. Wales

15 Liam Williams (Scarlets)
14 Alex Cuthbert (Cardiff Blues)
13 Jonathan Davies (Scarlets)
12 Jamie Roberts (Racing Metro)
11 George North (Northampton Saints)
10 Dan Biggar (Ospreys)
09 Mike Phillips (Racing Metro)

01 Gethin Jenkins (Cardiff Blues)
02 Ken Owens (Scarlets)
03 Rhodri Jones (Scarlets)
04 Luke Charteris (Perpignan)
05 Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys)
06 Dan Lydiate (Racing Metro)
07 Sam Warburton (CAPT – Cardiff Blues)
08 Taulupe Faletau (Newport Gwent Dragons)

Replacements:
16 Richard Hibbard (Ospreys)
17 Paul James (Bath Rugby)
18 Adam Jones (Ospreys)
19 Jake Ball (Scarlets)
20 Justin Tipuric (Ospreys)
21 Rhodri Williams (Scarlets)
22 Rhys Priestland (Scarlets)
23 James Hook (Perpignan)

2. Scotland

15 Stuart Hogg (Glasgow Warriors)
14 Dougie Fife(Edinburgh Rugby)
13 Alex Dunbar (Glasgow Warriors) 7
12 Matt Scott (Edinburgh Rugby)
11 Max Evans (Castres)
10 Duncan Weir (Glasgow Warriors)
9 Greig Laidlaw (Edinburgh Rugby) vice-cpt

1 Ryan Grant (Glasgow Warriors)
2 Scott Lawson (Newcastle Falcons)
3 Geoff Cross (Edinburgh Rugby)
4 Richie Gray (Castres)
5 Jim Hamilton (Montpellier)
6 Ryan Wilson (Glasgow Warriors)
7 Kelly Brown (Saracens) captain
8 David Denton (Edinburgh Rugby)

Substitutes
16 Ross Ford (Edinburgh Rugby)
17 Alasdair Dickinson (Edinburgh Rugby)
18 Euan Murray (Worcester Warriors)
19 Tim Swinson (Glasgow Warriors)
20 Alasdair Strokosch (Perpignan)
21 Chris Cusiter (Glasgow Warriors)
22 Duncan Taylor (Saracens)
23 Jack Cuthbert (Edinburgh Rugby)

that Hibbard needs a haircut!
in watching Scotland camped on the Welsh line he must have waved the hair out of his eyes around 8-10 times just to see what was right in front of him...crazy...do they not have hair ties? Moli for the blues down our way is the same. How one can be paid at this level to continuously flick the hair of the face just to be effective is just crazy.

I'm sure Scotland will be back when they have a decent coach, they do have good players. Certainly better than this year's 6N results suggest.

I don't know what was in Hogg's mind, he actually seemed to leave his feet to make contact with the jaw. I've never seen anything like that from him before. Ruined the game for everyone.

For Wales, I was pleased to see Gatland accepting afterwards that they do need to change things a bit tactically. Whether he'll go far enough is another matter.

We need the Scarlets pair at scrum-half, and, at least for now, Biggar at 10.

Thanks for the kind words Bluenote, however the lack of a 7 meant your boys were getting over the gain line every time, a 9 who never snipes around the fringes meant your back row were able to flood the mid-field, the sending off made for a lop-sided score board but you would have won anyway. Hogg's offence was a nasty cheapshot and he deserved a red.

Jimbopip, what have they got against Barclay? I always thought he was good.

I don't think any of us Scotland fans can explain why Barclay hasn't been involved. He's playing well for the Scarlets and is fully fit. The fact is that Scott Johnson just isn't a very good coach, and is awful at picking a side, particularly the forwards. We haven't had a balanced pack once in this Championship, and he's chopped and changed throughout, meaning that we're no closing to knowing what our best XV is (although what is clear is that SJ never go close to it).

Scotland are actually blessed at openside. We have John Barclay and Ross Rennie, two top quality experienced specialist opensides, and Chris Fusaro, a highly promising young pretender. When we did use Fusaro, we decided against pairing him with a specialist 6 to assist with the breakdown (i.e. Strokosch or Brown), and instead went with two ball carriers (a nice idea, but not when you don't have much of the ball).

Scott Johnson is the worst coach we've had since Matt Williams. Comfortably in my view. His smugness at press conferences makes it even worse. He likes the idea that he's the source of all wisdom and perspective in the rugby world, and that his laid back attitude suggests that he has everything under control, and all will be fine in the end. The problem is that it isn't fine. We've made next to no progress under him. None of the key combinations are any clearer, we haven't developed a particular style of play, our key players have been dropped, hacked off and messed about in terms of position, and our rivals have all moved forward at pace towards the World Cup.

Both Ireland and England cruised to wins against us. Cruised. Neither broke sweat. They were so dominant in every aspect it must have felt like a training run. Whilst Andy Robinson was an equally dreadful selector, we did make sides work hard to beat us, and I was always confident that we would at least be competitive. Now we're a joke. England A and Ireland A would probably beat our 1st XV under Scott Johnson. We have no structure, no game plan and no settled combinations from which to build a proper side.

Vern Cotter should be in a position to make a huge difference.