6N Round 2: Scotland v Wales, 15 February

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SCOTLAND v WALES
Sunday 15 February 2015
KO 15:00 (GMT)
BT Murrayfield, Edinburgh

Live on BBC1

Referee: Glen Jackson (NZR)
AR1: George Clancy (IRFU)
AR2: Dudley Phillips (IRFU)
TMO: Simon McDowell (IRFU)

A. Teams:

1. SCOTLAND

15 Stuart Hogg (Glasgow Warriors);
14 Sean Lamont (Glasgow Warriors);
13 Mark Bennett (Glasgow Warriors);
12 Alex Dunbar (Glasgow Warriors);
11 Tim Visser (Edinburgh Rugby);
10 Finn Russell (Glasgow Warriors);
9 Greig Laidlaw CAPTAIN (Gloucester);

1 Alasdair Dickinson (Edinburgh Rugby);
2 Ross Ford (Edinburgh Rugby);
3 Geoff Cross (London Irish);
4 Richie Gray (Castres);
5 Jonny Gray (Glasgow Warriors);
6 Rob Harley (Glasgow Warriors),
7 Blair Cowan (London Irish);
8 Johnnie Beattie (Castres);

16 Fraser Brown (Glasgow Warriors);
17 Gordon Reid (Glasgow Warriors);
18 Jon Welsh (Glasgow Warriors);
19 Jim Hamilton (Saracens);
20 Alasdair Strokosch (USA Perpignan);
21 Sam Hidalgo-Clyne (Edinburgh Rugby);
22 Greig Tonks (Edinburgh Rugby);
23 Matt Scott (Edinburgh Rugby);

2. WALES

15 Leigh Halfpenny (Toulon)
14 Alex Cuthbert (Cardiff Blues)
13 Jonathan Davies (ASM Clermont Auvergne)
12 Jamie Roberts (Racing Metro)
11 Liam Williams (Scarlets)
10 Dan Biggar (Ospreys)
09 Rhys Webb (Ospreys)

01 Gethin Jenkins (Cardiff Blues)
02 Richard Hibbard (Gloucester)
03 Aaron Jarvis (Ospreys)
04 Jake Ball (Scarlets)
05 Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys)
06 Dan Lydiate (Ospreys)
07 Sam Warburton (Cardiff Blues, CAPT)
08 Taulupe Faletau (Newport Gwent Dragons)

16 Scott Baldwin (Ospreys)
17 Paul James (Bath Rugby)
18 Scott Andrews (Cardiff Blues)
19 Luke Charteris (Racing Metro)
20 Justin Tipuric (Ospreys)
21 Mike Phillips (Racing Metro)
22 Rhys Priestland (Scarlets)
23 Scott Williams (Scarlets)

B. Form (last 4 games):

1. SCOTLAND

07/02/15 - France 15 - 8 Scotland

22/11/14 - Scotland 37 - 12 Tonga

15/11/14 - Scotland 16 - 24 New Zealand

08/11/14 - Scotland 41 - 31 Argentina

2. WALES

06/02/15 - Wales 16 - 21 England

29/11/14 - Wales 12 - 6 South Africa

22/11/14 - Wales 16 - 34 New Zealand

15/11/14  - Wales 17 - 13 Fiji

C. Head to Head:

120 Played 120

48 Wins 69

69 Losses 48

3 Draws 3

180 Tries 227

80 Conversions 112

130 Penalties 142

30 Drop Goals 25

1,204 Points 1,578

For me the greatest fear I have is Wales turn up with a fit and on form Jamie Roberts. If he plays well, Wales invariably play well since he generates the bulk of the momentum that Gatlands style of play relies on.

In addition, Halfpenny given the ball in space and given free reign to attack is one of the most glorious sights in Rugby. I have no idea why he doesn't come into the line more.

Interesting to hear from our Welsh brethren who they see as danger men in the Scottish team.

TJ wrote:

reallybored wrote:Had the medics taken off North, would he have missed the Scotland match due to the concussion protocol?

Depends if he passed all the stages - he is now apparently undergoing the graduated return and monitoring which takes a minimum of six days.  YThis is the same as he would if they had taken him off.  they are denying he has any signs of concussion.  I do not believe it

Hard to believe there's no sign of concussion considering we all saw him getting knocked-out, twice.  He looked awful in the second half.

Pretty confident about this one, so long as we've not picked up many injuries.

So what tactics should Wales play? If I had Roberts, North et al  with one of the most accurate kicker in the world, my tactics would probably be similar to gatland's!

RDW_Scotland wrote:So what tactics should Wales play? If I had Roberts, North et al  with one of the most accurate kicker in the world, my tactics would probably be similar to gatland's!

Mix it up a bit more and allow the back three to counter from deep. Be a little less predictable.

TJ wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:So what tactics should Wales play? If I had Roberts, North et al  with one of the most accurate kicker in the world, my tactics would probably be similar to gatland's!

Mix it up a bit more and allow the back three to counter from deep.  Be a little less predictable.  

I think the point us fans make is that when it doesn't work we require a change in personnel so we can do things differently. The personnel aren't getting picked. In the backs I'd have Scott Williams, Hallam Amos and Liam Williams all starting - that's just backs, I haven't even mentioned forwards or bench!

The welsh team didn't apply any pressure on England in the second half, our set piece fell apart and our backrow didn't try to compete for ball. The players made stupid decisions that weren't going to take advantage of England's weaknesses and weren't going to use our strengths.

AWJs calls line out? He has to take a lot of blame, he is an experienced leader in the team and he needs to be far more accurate in his decisions.

Hibbard needs to be more explosive in attack and defence, as does jake ball, both are our carriers and neither impressed.

Samson lee needs to be taught how to play rugby, Adam Jones might be slow around the park but he is an infinitely better rugby player.

We need some brains in the front five.

With the backs, everyone outside Biggar needs to offer better lines in attack. They gave him nothing to play with.

At halfback we need to retain possession far longer, don't kick it away, pressure the opposition and force their defensive mistakes, it takes a lot of patience.

Here is some optimism for the Scottish. On the seven occasions that Scotland have played Wales in a Five/Six Nations match at Murrayfield during a World Cup year, the Scots have won six times; the only exception (that obviously proves the rule!) was in 2011.

Tactics and team selection? Pah...leave it all to fate.

maestegmafia wrote:The welsh team didn't apply any pressure on England in the second half, our set piece fell apart and our backrow didn't try to compete for ball. The players made stupid decisions that weren't going to take advantage of England's weaknesses and weren't going to use our strengths.

AWJs calls line out? He has to take a lot of blame, he is an experienced leader in the team and he needs to be far more accurate in his decisions.

Hibbard needs to be more explosive in attack and defence, as does jake ball, both are our carriers and neither impressed.

Samson lee needs to be taught how to play rugby, Adam Jones might be slow around the park but he is an infinitely better rugby player.

We need some brains in the front five.

With the backs, everyone outside Biggar needs to offer better lines in attack. They gave him nothing to play with.

At halfback we need to retain possession far longer, don't kick it away, pressure the opposition and force their defensive mistakes, it takes a lot of patience.

Maes,

No mention of Jenkins there I see, someone who I have said for some time shouldn't be first choice but you dis-agree yet he got utterly stuffed from the get go on Friday.

I'm surprised at the number of Welshies talking about Gatland changing his personal and/or tactics. At the risk of looking a fool when the team is announced, surely there is no chance of this happening? Gatland has played almost exactly the same game plan his entire tenure so what was so special about last Friday that means this time he will change?

As a few have pointed out, Gatlandball has had the beating of us for almost a decade. Do you think Gatland sees enough of an improvement in Scotland in the last half a dozen games to change his entire strategy?

Everyone criticises him for saying the 6N is a preparation for the RWC but if he were to change his team now, surely that is worse? That way he definitely would be using the 6N as a RWC warm up.

Weegie,

We all think he should but if honest most of us think he won't unless forced by injury.

The problem with Warrenball is that it has never really resulted in a string of defeats in any single playing year, just the odd isolated one or two.

This has let the coach brazen out any defeats by describing them as aberrations, the product of bad luck, out of character performances, poor refereeing or all of the above.

It means that he has never come under sustained pressure to change it. It's only when you see an aggregate record over the years against SH opposition that you could make an argument that the strategy needs refining.

Wales' options are limited. Even if they have a poor 6N, they can't exactly get rid of Gatland this close to the RWC. Not to mention how much they'll have to pay to be shot of him.

Nor should we get rid of him Rugger, however his backrow staff Howley and McBryde especially need a revamp.

bedfordwelsh wrote:Nor should we get rid of him Rugger, however his backrow staff Howley and McBryde especially need a revamp.

I just feel his tactics need a tweak, not a massive tweak.

His stubbornness is his weakness. Unable to change his tactics on the fly and to play what is in front of him. I don't think he is a bad coach, but I think for a Kiwi he seems to want to play like the Boks.

Really need to improve our support at the breakdown, we got turned-over far too often against France and against Warburton that'll only continue unless we improve.

Fancy our chances at set-piece, especially the line-out.

Got to have good line speed in defence because Wales present a similar challenge to the French, big and direct.  But our defence has been consistently good since Cotter came in (SA 55 - Sco 6 ).

Looking forward to seeing Hogg and co cutting loose.

Any news on injuries?

I'm sure I read that Scotland gave away 17 turnovers, whether through losing the ball in contact (Beattie responsible for most of those!) or the more traditional turnovers at ruck time.

That is definitely something that needs worked on this week.

Take out Butterfingers Beattie and we probably only turned the thing over 3 times - I would imagine due to Peter Horne being tossed around like a dog's chew toy.

I really hope to hell that Lamont benches.

RDW_Scotland wrote:I'm sure I read that Scotland gave away 17 turnovers, whether through losing the ball in contact (Beattie responsible for most of those!) or the more traditional turnovers at ruck time.

That is definitely something that needs worked on this week.

Beattie wasn't just responsible for losing the ball in contact, he also completely failed to get us over the advantage line once and resorted to running sideways, meaning the support couldn't get to him quickly enough.

Still, it's clearly not just down to one person, and I do think Harley was a bit undercooked and not quite his usual destructive self on Saturday. Laidlaw was also fairly sluggish on a couple of occasions.

We should also credit France as well, who battled hard to make the breakdown difficult for us.

We should note how badly Wales faded on Friday. They were very good for 40 minutes and then ran out of puff in the second half. As good as England were, I couldn't help but suspect the gruelling conditioning and training regime Gatland has imposed this year took some toil, with Wales clearly looking to peak later in the year. I think if we can stay close to them for 50 minutes then we may well be able to impose ourselves a little more as the game moves to the final quarter. To counter that the Welsh bench will be far superior to ours. I do think Cotter should look to Hidalgo-Clyne in the closing stages to give us a bit more zip.

Pretty sure I read in the Grauniad's stats that the most turned over player all weekend was Hogg. But then, he was making breaks and the fatties forwards simply weren't keeping up with play to safeguard the ball well enough. This is where a fit Rob Harley would have helped, he works so hard to stay up with play and protect the ball.

To be fair if a back tears through the opposition at top speed and gets isolated then at least it means he didn't concede a silly penalty clinging on to the ball. A turnover still requires the opposition to escape the danger zone, whereas a penalty makes that easy.

Given the spontaneous nature of Hogg's play from 15, it'll always be a danger regardless of who is in the pack. Even the ABs get turned over from time to time due to making breaks. Rather than the forwards being solely blamed, that's where the backs also need to help out re: ball retention as they have the speed and position to get there. It's what makes the SH sides so good, is that their backs can basically double up as forwards when needed. The likes of Nonu and De Villiers for example can outruck most NH forwards, and Tindall and Cohen used to perform as similar role for England, as did BOD for Ireland. The likes of Visser (don't laugh) and Bennett need to take note.

FES hang on, hang on Visser needs to learn to crawl before he tries to walk:
Tackling is the only skill he should be forced to concentrate on, don't confuse him with telling him about rucking for at least the next 3 years!

Let's start a campaign: Richie Vernon for Scotland.

Where else can we find a pacy back who is equally adept at rucking, controlling the ball at the back of a scrum, lineout jumping...

Visser needs to learn the attempt to tackle before anything else

I have never been so shocked at his attempts at stopping people

Push them in the shoulder, shoulder charge them or run away

under 12 rugby tackles harder than he does

I think I have found my new NDL

Riskysports wrote:I think I have found my new NDL

I have said numerous times Visser is an absolute wuss in defence. However he is Scotland's most potent attacking weapon.

If he isn't getting the ball you would be better putting Lamont on the wing.

If he gets picked this weekend he has to get his hands on the ball, otherwise he is a passenger at best and a liability at worst.

Scotland wouldn't go far wrong in kicking and defending for long periods this weekend.

Given Wales' abysmal line out, I'd be looking to pin them back and attack the set piece rather than take them on anywhere else. Then if things go to plan, open up more in the last third/quarter where Wales seem to be imploding and bring players like Hogg into the line.

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:

Riskysports wrote:I think I have found my new NDL

I have said numerous times Visser is an absolute wuss in defence. However he is Scotland's most potent attacking weapon.

If he isn't getting the ball you would be better putting Lamont on the wing.

If he gets picked this weekend he has to get his hands on the ball, otherwise he is a passenger at best and a liability at worst.

I agree with pretty much all of that, apart from the fact I think Seymour takes the titles of "most potent attacking weapon"

Can someone explain to me what Gatland does in terms of conditioning?

I read a quote from (I think it was) Rhys Webb saying something like the squad 'expected to be beasted in training this week' following the England defeat. Is this part of the problem? Are they over-trained? Wales looked out on their feet in the last half hour against England which seems to be completely inconsistent with the brutal conditioning programme the players seemed to be subject to.

Not a clue, but whilst Wales looked powerful early on, they seemed sluggish in the second half. Perhaps too much time on the weights??

George Carlin wrote:Can someone explain to me what Gatland does in terms of conditioning?

I read a quote from (I think it was) Rhys Webb saying something like the squad 'expected to be beasted in training this week' following the England defeat. Is this part of the problem? Are they over-trained? Wales looked out on their feet in the last half hour against England which seems to be completely inconsistent with the brutal conditioning programme the players seemed to be subject to.

Gatland seems to be (how can I blasted know when me Drone got taken out by the damn Russians as it was taking off from Shannon) - anyway after a deep intake of frustrated air - Gats seems to be obsessed with this idea that conditioning and physical strength (bench pressing style) will afford him the advantages.  He kept saying that he gets Welsh players coming to him from Pro12 who aren't up to scratch in conditioning so that becomes a premium everytime.  You just have to look at a relatively small man in Halfpenny to see the drive there is in camp to pump up.
And if what you say is true, it's a little bit more evidence that Gatland seems to be stuck in a rut as regards it being the only 'tactic' he feels he can get a certain edge on the opposition with.  "If they rise to our conditioning levels then we'll just punish ourselves reaching a higher level still"

And yep, that kinda must have a cut-off switch at some point as regards effectiveness versus burnout.  Gatland just seems a man obsessed with winning the cold-war of super-fitness.  Where it'll eventually take him, who knows? - maybe a WC and he'll end up the final laugher - again.

If Wales spent as much time as they do on gym work and gruelling fitness tests on basic rugby skills e.g. breakdown work, line outs, support runners etc then I think we'd see a massive improvement.

Liam wrote:If Wales spent as much time as they do on gym work and gruelling fitness tests on basic rugby skills e.g. breakdown work, line outs, support runners etc then I think we'd see a massive improvement.  

It's one thing to drill the hell out of the pack, but the backline looked so one dimensional against England. The whole inside ball to North/Cuthbert off the wing is just so telegraphed, as is the going short side pick and drive routine. England were just waiting for the runners.

Although Webb and Biggar generally had good games and are flavour of the month, they also have to shoulder some responsibility for the predictability of Wales' play. I'm sure Gatland won't make any dramatic changes, but introducing Scott and Liam Williams into the backline, and replacing Priestland with Hook on the bench would be a step in the right direction. Also, is the Scarlet's scrum half (Davies) fit? If so he ought to be on the bench as well.

STV reporter tweeting that Alex Dunbar was training with the team today but Geoff Cross and Bob Harley sat out.

Great news if Dunbar is up and about.

For me Scotland are favorites Saturday, if they have improved as much as we and I believe they have they must prove they can beat us at their own ground. I'm not very confident is the Welsh team as the consistency isn't there and players are picked ahead of form players.

Our two biggest issues are squad depth and our kicking game. Said for a while now that i can't see the sense in our kicking tactics. We try and pin our opposition back into their 22 by kicking the ball deep to them. It was the same Saturday but i read this earlier which really made my blood boil http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/six-nations-2015-maybe-should-8615496. 'Maybe we should have kicked more' is he having a f**cking laugh. All we did was kick in the second half and Ford showed us how it's done.

Anyway, I would make changes not too many but mainly to the backs
1. Gethin Jenkins - hes been getting a lot of the blame and yes it wasn't his best display at the scrum but no matter what anyone says or tries to convince themselves otherwise he is the best loosehead in Wales and still one of the best in the world. His techniques is suspect to some refs but that's their interpretation as some feel that a short bind on the opposition can give the impression that they are pulling in their opposition arm which usually results in a collapsed scrum (a trait that you will see in a lot of french referee's). He did give two penalties away yes but don't take away the fact that Cole did as well. Anyway Paul is NOT the answer as he has proved when he has started int he past where he has held a scrum but also gives away a lot of penalties. I would rather see Rob start before James
2. Ken Owens - yes I would bring him straight in because Hibbard looked unfit and lazy Saturday which is why I think Gatland kept him on for a full game to prove a point to him as he is usually replaced after 50 min.
3. Samson Lee -  not his best but he put in a descent shift considering he had been out for a month. He will be better Sunday if fit, please god
4. Alyn Wyn Jones - done his bit but we know he's much better than he was
5. Jake Ball - It's annoying me that some people would call for Charteris instead of him because to me he was one of 2 welsh players who done their job properly on the weekend. I though he was the best player in the pack and it would be wrong to drop him.
6. Dan Lydiate - I though he had a better game than most are saying but I do agree that he need more grunt and to carry the ball
7. Sam Warburton - quite at the breakdwon, another who will come out much better on Sunday
8. Toby Falateu - Yes he played well but he just didn't offer himself as a ball carrier enough for me. Outplayed by Vunipolo who was awesome in defense which really surprised me
9. Rhys Webb - saw good and bad, Phillips should never have come one and shouldn't be in the team for that matter. Need to start integrating Gareth Davies into match day 23
10. Dan Biggar - again good and bad from him. I don't blame him for how bad our kicking game is i blame the coaching tactics behind out awful kicking game.
11. Hallam Amos - Why not, been in good form for Dragons and both George and Cuthbert just haven't been cutting it lately
12. Jamie Roberts - needs to be used much much more than we did
13. Scott Williams - in form centre and should have started against England. Davies was the worst player on the day as he constantly missed tackles and offered nothing in attack
14. Liam Williams - Same as Scott Williams, he has a spark that no other player in our back line has at the moment
15. Leigh Halfpenny - the second player (along with Ball) who done their job and was one of the more posotive players on the night

The bench is just as important as England have proved numerous times these past two season. England's impact players were awesome and made the impact they were put their to do. Us on the other hand ...........well whats the point in having players like Tipuric and Liam Williams on the bench if your not going to use them. I know we will never see the following but ideally in the real world i'd go for
16. Hibbard - seem to be more of a 30 minute player lately bring him on with 15 to go to ball carry and make some big hits
17. Rob Evans - more mobile, better ball carrier than James and a strong scrummager
18. Tom Francis - wathced him give Rhys Gill a torrid time the other day in the scrum and I respect Gill very highly as a scrummager. Looks very promising and is a big unit who would also stabalise a scrum and offer go forward of the bench. Jarvis offer nothing when he starts and nothing off the bench so why bother
19. Luke Charteris
20. Justin Tipuric - But actually use him
21. Gareth Davies - Mike came on slowed the ball down even further and went straight into the hands of the English defense where he was bundled backwards (the only thing that put a smile on my face at that point in the game). But Gareth like Rhys Webb is very good around the fringes and could open a game up
22. Gareth Anscombe - again why not, Gatland brought him over because he saw his potential, now let him show it
23. Johnathan Davies

To me we have nothing to loose now. I think we will be 3rd or 4th depending on the french game so we might as well bleed some new players into the squad before the world cup

Tattie Scones RRN wrote:STV reporter tweeting that Alex Dunbar was training with the team today but Geoff Cross and Bob Harley sat out.

Great news if Dunbar is up and about.

Bad news about Harley, is it a recurrence of the injury he picked up against Edinburgh?

Possibly just letting the rest of the squad recover before introducing him back.

The fact that we have not called anyone else into the Scotland squad aught to be a good sign. I would imagine they will have a pretty good idea about who is likely to be fit by now. Judging by the way he went off and the fact that he does seem to pick up injuries, Dunbar had been one of my bigger worries.

BBC said a similar thing

Meanwhile, prop Geoff Cross and flanker Rob Harley did not train with the Scotland squad in Tuesday's first session since the defeat in France but wing Tommy Seymour did take part after coming off early in Paris with a hip injury.

Good news on Seymour!

george north is playing

funnyExiledScot wrote:Not a clue, but whilst Wales looked powerful early on, they seemed sluggish in the second half. Perhaps too much time on the weights??

Perhaps they just thought, who cares about the second half. This is a training exercise for the RWC, who cares if we win.

maestegmafia wrote:

funnyExiledScot wrote:Not a clue, but whilst Wales looked powerful early on, they seemed sluggish in the second half. Perhaps too much time on the weights??

Perhaps they just thought, who cares about the second half. This is a training exercise for the RWC, who cares if we win.

Ahhh, the classic lure the main opposition in your pool into a complacent mood ploy!

GLove39 wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:

funnyExiledScot wrote:Not a clue, but whilst Wales looked powerful early on, they seemed sluggish in the second half. Perhaps too much time on the weights??

Perhaps they just thought, who cares about the second half. This is a training exercise for the RWC, who cares if we win.

Ahhh, the classic lure the main opposition in your pool into a complacent mood ploy!

I saw that in the coaching box Warren has employed a new long term strategy coach. Looks like that Tony Robinson fella from time team onchannel four, only a bit more deshrevelled.. Anyhow he said he "had a cunning plan", may even have been "a very cunning plan", i'm not sure of the exact details. Anyhow, we are running to that tune for now...

Surprised you hadn't heard about it..? There was a masterly protestation on one of the other forum sites by a Mr E. Blackadder saying that following this advice the WRUs coaches might be "the stupidest thing since Nelson ordered the flags saying "" England knows Lady Hamilton's a virgin, poke my eye out and cut off my arm if I'm wrong""..!

Wales will announce their team at eleven o clock this morning.

North out, Williams in, rest unchanged

Glad to see common sense has prevailed and north is being rested, even if they say he's ok.

Yes, I'm glad that North is sitting this one out and it's got nothing to do with being a Scotland fan (Williams is a more dangerous player at the moment anyway). I got a flashback to last May when Florian Fritz was returned to the field for Toulouse against Racing Metro when he could barely focus. That was an ugly scene and so it was last week too.

I guess we will never know what the medical staff talked about or how they reached their conclusion that he was fine, but it looked pretty ugly and, more importantly, completely unneccessary for him to continue from where I was sitting.

BamBam wrote:North out, Williams in, rest unchanged

Good news about North (not that he is not playing, just the right decision). Can't see keeping the rest of the team the same is going to be too popular

lostinwales wrote:

BamBam wrote:North out, Williams in, rest unchanged

Good news about North (not that he is not playing, just the right decision). Can't see keeping the rest of the team the same is going to be too popular

It will be in Scotland

WALES TEAM TO PLAY SCOTLAND:
Leigh Halfpenny (Toulon), Alex Cuthbert (Cardiff Blues), Jonathan Davies (ASM Clermont Auvergne), Jamie Roberts (Racing Metro), Liam Williams (Scarlets), Dan Biggar (Ospreys), Rhys Webb (Ospreys), Gethin Jenkins (Cardiff Blues), Richard Hibbard (Gloucester), Samson Lee* (Scarlets), Jake Ball (Scarlets), Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys), Dan Lydiate (Ospreys), Sam Warburton (Cardiff Blues, CAPT), Taulupe Faletau (Newport Gwent Dragons).
Replacements: Scott Baldwin (Ospreys), Paul James (Bath Rugby), Aaron Jarvis (Ospreys), Luke Charteris (Racing Metro), Justin Tipuric (Ospreys), Mike Phillips (Racing Metro), Rhys Priestland (Scarlets), Scott Williams (Scarlets).

So North misses out, in a rare victory for common sense, and Samson Lee will play if/when he completes the return to play protocol thingy. I'm glad North is out because concussion, especially repeated concussions, is no laughing matter. On a purely selfish note I think Williams is the form back three player for Wales at the moment so I'd rather Gatland had picked someone else. I don't want to see him running at Tim Visser one on one.
If Cotter goes with a front row of Dickinson-Ford-Cross and the Grays in the boiler room then I think Scotland have the advantage in the front fives. However, it's the back row that could be the pivot upon which the whole game turns. I wouldn't be surprised if Fes, GC and Ian Bru are receiving phone calls from Murrayfield right now. Not surprised but disappointed: I'm a much better 7 than Bru.
The Welsh backs were very predictable and pedestrian against Engerland but no-one ever used those adjectives about Liam Williams so it should be interesting to see what effect he has on his team mates.
Will Cotter persevere with Visser? Will Matt Scott be seen? How many sleeps till Sunday?

OP updated, well done Jimbo.

L Williams will face off against Tommy Seymour, hopefully.

Against Cuthbert, I would rather see Maitland.

Jim, a hypoglycemic koala bear would be a better 7 than me. If, however, you're looking for a dashing young man to streak up the wings, pass to no-one, attempt pointless intercepts, miss more tackles than he makes, and generally undo all the hard work put in by his team-mates then by all means give me a...

...wait, Visser's fit? OK, best stick with him.