6N 2018: Wales v Scotland, 3 February

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WALES v SCOTLAND
3 February 2018
KO: 14:15 GMT
Principality Stadium, Cardiff

Live on [ITV, RTE, SC4, FR2, DMAX / BBC (H)]

Referee: Pascal Gaüzère (France)
Assistant 1: Romain Poite (France)
Assistant 2: Matthew Carley (England)
TMO: David Grashoff (England)

A. Head to Head

122 Played 122
70 Won 49
3 Drawn 3
49 Lost 70
1,624 Points 1,263

B. Recent Form

9 March 2013
Murrayfield, Edinburgh
18–28 to Wales

15 March 2014
Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
51–3 to Wales

15 February 2015
Murrayfield, Edinburgh
23–26 to Wales

13 February 2016
Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
27–23 to Wales

25 February 2017
Murrayfield, Edinburgh
29–13 to Scotland

C. Teams

WALES 

Leigh Halfpenny (Scarlets); Josh Adams (Worcester), Scott Williams (Scarlets), Hadleigh Parkes (Scarlets), Steff Evans (Scarlets); Rhys Patchell (Scarlets), Gareth Davies (Scarlets); Rob Evans (Scarlets), Ken Owens (Scarlets), Samson Lee (Scarlets), Cory Hill (Dragons), Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys, capt), Aaron Shingler (Scarlets), Josh Navidi (Cardiff Blues), Ross Moriarty (Gloucester).

Replacements: Elliot Dee (Dragons), Wyn Jones (Scarlets), Tomas Francis (Exeter Chiefs), Bradley Davies (Ospreys), Justin Tipuric (Ospreys), Aled Davies (Scarlets), Gareth Anscombe (Cardiff Blues), Owen Watkin (Ospreys).

SCOTLAND

Stuart Hogg (Glasgow Warriors); Tommy Seymour (Glasgow Warriors), Chris Harris (Newcastle Falcons), Huw Jones (Glasgow Warriors), Byron McGuigan (Sale Sharks); Finn Russell (Glasgow Warriors), Ali Price (Glasgow Warriors); Gordon Reid (London Irish), Stuart McInally (Edinburgh), Jon Welsh (Newcastle Falcons), Ben Toolis (Edinburgh), Jonny Gray, John Barclay (Scarlets, captain), Hamish Watson (Edinburgh), Cornell du Preez (Edinburgh).

Replacements: Scott Lawson (Newcastle Falcons), Jamie Bhatti (Glasgow Warriors), Murray McCallum (Edinburgh), Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh), Ryan Wilson (Glasgow Warriors), Greig Laidlaw (Clermont Auvergne), Pete Horne (Glasgow Warriors), Sean Maitland (Saracens).

mikey_dragon wrote:

The Oracle wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:"We expected to win and win reasonably comfortably. The chief executive of the Welsh Rugby Union asked me yesterday how I thought we'd go and I said I thought we'd win by 20."

Stay classy Warren.

Not good Warren. Not good at all. I think he's probably lost his cool a bit there in response to being written off before the game.

Not the first time he's lost his cool given how much unfair criticism he gets every year. Under Gatland Wales have never lost to Scotland so it's fair that he was confident in his own game plan. Agree to an extent it wasn't good for him to say it. He could have said "We were confident in our game plan and executed it well." His score predictions aren't bad however.

Yeah, it just seems bad coming out with this after the game though. Probably just venting, as we both suggest. Easy to make predictions like this after the result is known though. Should have said it beforehand if he was so confident. Would have made him equally as plum-like I suppose!

Difficult to gauge how good Wales are as Scotland were a shambles.
The better team won but St Trinians 3rds would have been better than Scotland today.
The line out was hopeless. Luckily for Scotland Wales tried to keep the ball in play or it could have been worse from easy line out ball.
Gatland would never have picked this team in a thousand years if injuries hadn’t forced it, so Wales got lucky in that respect and some of the old favourites might not get a look in again. Saying that the old favourites would have won anyway on this showing from Scotland.

Townsend’s decision to pick Harris and McGuigan was dreadful - it’s difficult to believe that McGuigan is the second highest try scorer in the Aviva - there must be some truly awful defences in that league...

One other thing on Gatland - his post match comments were a disgrace, the man, unlike his captain, has no class.

David-Douglas wrote:One other thing on Gatland - his post match comments were a disgrace, the man, unlike his captain, has no class.

A Kiwi. Nuff said.

As a neutral in this game I was shocked at how poor Scotland were. I put a number of their so-called best players in my Fantasy Team and they were utterly rudderless. I made less mistakes the last time I played back in 1989 as a replacement TH for the school 3rd XV (we lost 34-6!).

They had no Plan B, but worse than that, they simply did not do the basics well. Wales did everything that they had to, although the Steff Evans try was a bit lucky after the forward pass which wasn't picked up by the TMO. They didn't need to do anything amazing - just play basic rugby, wait for the mistakes (there were plenty) and then pounce. Job done.

Difficult to gauge how good Wales are given the level of the opposition (as stated above), but they certainly didn't need to try too hard. The back row were outstanding though. Navidi, Shingler and Moriarty (while he lasted) worked well as a unit and Shingler's MOM award was well deserved. Be interesting to see them next time.

I think Wales need to step up 10 gears next week, what with everyone saying how we didn't really do anything of course. Another convincing win that has nothing to do with Wales playing well...

Against England we need to be more physical in the collisions. We certainly can't give space to Watson the way we did to Seymour et al today as England will be a lot better at capitalizing on these opportunities. Speaking of capitalizing, Wales also need to stop fluffing so many try-scoring opportunities; all of it easier said than done I guess. A good start with plenty of work to do is a good position to be in IMO.

Exiledinborders wrote:

David-Douglas wrote:One other thing on Gatland - his post match comments were a disgrace, the man, unlike his captain, has no class.

A Kiwi. Nuff said.

Not all Kiwis are asswholes, Exiled.

R!skysports wrote:Wales about 3 m offside every time.

No 7&1/2 wrote:Anyone having doubts over hoggs defence though these days I have to admit I don't see it.

He did get bumped off on a head on tackle by Gareth Davies (I think).

R!skysports wrote:Think we can all agree getting rid if cotter was a mistake. Townsend is a step backwards.

I am not laughing at Scotland’s misfortune here, but at the fact I know nobody has lost faith in the messiah yet.

WELL-PAST-IT wrote:

eirebilly wrote:Jaysus Inverdul and the BBC are against Wales. The first thing that Inverdul can focus on is one forward pass. Try and at least congratulate Wales first...

Billy, the rugby on the BBC is controlled by Wales, take a look at the way rugby results are shown on the BBC, anything lower than the Championship is ignored, but you will fins Welsh village colts games reported. Take a look at the panel makeup today, 2 Welsh, 1 scot and an Englishman. Inverdale is usually a Welsh sycophant, they cannot do anything wrong, so perhaps he has been listening to some of the criticisms.

The try was important now we have bonus points, should Wales win the championship by one point, you can imaging the comments about it being undeserving. Wales played a fantastic game and fully deserved the win, but if Wales win a close 6N,the game will be remembered, rightly or wrongly for that mistake that gave them the extra point and not for their skills and play.

I’m sorry. Did we only score four tries? Did we have one ruled out where there was an angle that showed he did score after the decision?

A long winded post for a wum, unless you really are that ignorant?

The Oracle wrote:I don't think Wales have anywhere near enough to go to Twickers and get a result. Hope to push them close though.

Agreed.

mikey_dragon wrote:

The Oracle wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:"We expected to win and win reasonably comfortably. The chief executive of the Welsh Rugby Union asked me yesterday how I thought we'd go and I said I thought we'd win by 20."

Stay classy Warren.

Not good Warren. Not good at all. I think he's probably lost his cool a bit there in response to being written off before the game.

Not the first time he's lost his cool given how much unfair criticism he gets every year. Under Gatland Wales have never lost to Scotland so it's fair that he was confident in his own game plan. Agree to an extent it wasn't good for him to say it. He could have said "We were confident in our game plan and executed it well." His score predictions aren't bad however.

He should lose his cool though. He has been heavily criticised (I include myself in that), yet he has masterminded a victory today against a side fairly comfortably outranking us and with players that were smarting over non Lions selection. He is an honest coach in the media, so why should he have to sugarcoat what he thinks?

The Oracle wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:

The Oracle wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:"We expected to win and win reasonably comfortably. The chief executive of the Welsh Rugby Union asked me yesterday how I thought we'd go and I said I thought we'd win by 20."

Stay classy Warren.

Not good Warren. Not good at all. I think he's probably lost his cool a bit there in response to being written off before the game.

Not the first time he's lost his cool given how much unfair criticism he gets every year. Under Gatland Wales have never lost to Scotland so it's fair that he was confident in his own game plan. Agree to an extent it wasn't good for him to say it. He could have said "We were confident in our game plan and executed it well." His score predictions aren't bad however.

Yeah, it just seems bad coming out with this after the game though. Probably just venting, as we both suggest. Easy to make predictions like this after the result is known though. Should have said it beforehand if he was so confident. Would have made him equally as plum-like I suppose!

He was confident enough to name his team on Tuesday, despite apparently waiting on North and Amos. I think he was confident without being vocal.

I’ve seen it mentioned about Wales keeping the ball in play and that was a deliberate tactic (I think). We used to do it against Scotland when they weren’t attacking, but I guess today he thought they would blow themselves out and our bench with Tips etc would be huge.

It will be interesting to see his tactics next weekend.

Just a warning, Risca - the Scottish mods are being hot on trolling. Careful you don’t cop a week ban. Not saying you are, but be careful.

Scotland tried to run the ball. Wales just waited and picked them off. End of game.

mikey_dragon wrote:

Scottrf wrote:

No 7&1/2 wrote:Hs has to ask the right question for what he saw scott.

Imo you can see the ball hit the grass from one angle and he was over the line from the other.

Either way it's a bit much to complain about a try being wrongly awarded when they clearly scored another.

I thought Wyn Jones scored a try for sure but completely understood why they didn't give it. I didn't see if Steff Evans knocked it on in the replay and haven't re-watched any match highlights yet. Anyway I just wanted to say it looks like you're finally applying logic and common sense to what goes on on the rugby field, Scott. Today's result is why people like you and Hazel Spaling should refrain from posting obnoxious hyperbole in the build up to competitive matches, the main reasons being it's disrespectful and you end up looking stupid. BamBam appears to have lost his wifi password too?

Well done Wales, long way to go yet though.

I predicted Wales to win. And criticised someone for predicting that Wales would only score 10. Please stop your pathetic swipes. You ruin threads.

Scottrf wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:

Scottrf wrote:

No 7&1/2 wrote:Hs has to ask the right question for what he saw scott.

Imo you can see the ball hit the grass from one angle and he was over the line from the other.

Either way it's a bit much to complain about a try being wrongly awarded when they clearly scored another.

I thought Wyn Jones scored a try for sure but completely understood why they didn't give it. I didn't see if Steff Evans knocked it on in the replay and haven't re-watched any match highlights yet. Anyway I just wanted to say it looks like you're finally applying logic and common sense to what goes on on the rugby field, Scott. Today's result is why people like you and Hazel Spaling should refrain from posting obnoxious hyperbole in the build up to competitive matches, the main reasons being it's disrespectful and you end up looking stupid. BamBam appears to have lost his wifi password too?

Well done Wales, long way to go yet though.

I predicted Wales to win. And criticised someone for predicting that Wales would only score 10. Please stop your pathetic swipes. You ruin threads.

And you also took some pathetic swipes at me and Wales when I alluded to some ridiculous predictions, which turned out to be just that. You posted a lot of obnoxious hyperbole. Not even an apology either.

RiscaGame wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:

The Oracle wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:"We expected to win and win reasonably comfortably. The chief executive of the Welsh Rugby Union asked me yesterday how I thought we'd go and I said I thought we'd win by 20."

Stay classy Warren.

Not good Warren. Not good at all. I think he's probably lost his cool a bit there in response to being written off before the game.

Not the first time he's lost his cool given how much unfair criticism he gets every year. Under Gatland Wales have never lost to Scotland so it's fair that he was confident in his own game plan. Agree to an extent it wasn't good for him to say it. He could have said "We were confident in our game plan and executed it well." His score predictions aren't bad however.

He should lose his cool though. He has been heavily criticised (I include myself in that), yet he has masterminded a victory today against a side fairly comfortably outranking us and with players that were smarting over non Lions selection. He is an honest coach in the media, so why should he have to sugarcoat what he thinks?

You're right and he doesn't have to sugar-coat it. I just don't like to see or hear it from players and coaches but I'm not overly bothered. For this Gatland will get criticized again of course, mostly by the English yet when Eddie Jones does it they think it's okay - that's more of a bugbear.

Recwatcher16 wrote:Scotland tried to run the ball. Wales just waited and picked them off. End of game.

Sums it up, although you are pushing Martin Johnson close for the most loquacious rugby commentary of the day. Good lord he's bad on the BBC!

The Oracle wrote:Just a warning, Risca - the Scottish mods are being hot on trolling. Careful you don’t cop a week ban. Not saying you are, but be careful.

I think my posting history would suggest I’m anything but a troll, but I’ll take a ban happily. Might get some work done then

As long as people like Hersh remain, I’m fairly safe though, surely?

For those who think Wales didn't play that well, and it was all Scotland being poor, do you think they make those mistakes against Romania?

I had to work during the Wales Scotland game but managed to catch snippets.  So I knew what was happening but the one thing I detected in the little moments I got to watch was some Scottish players that looked very heavy-legged and off the pace.... and a 'given up' grimace on their faces?

I don't know how accurate that observation is as I didn't see enough of the overall game.  But that was the bit that shocked me.  Didn't expect Scottish players to look so listless.

I'm sure Wales won on their own terms - they're good enough, Gatland is good enough.  But I think you could still throw a 'Scotland were poor' into the equation, if they were.  A good side doesn't always have to beat a good side to prove they're a good side

I have a soft spot for Gatland who I think cops an enormous amount of flack and is very underrated as a coach.

Scotland are a better team than the shwed today. I think it was a bad result from an English perspective as there will be a major backlasch. The game dynamics were unusual. Scotland actually were good value for an early lead. But and intercept try and a sloppily conceded free kick scrum put them in a 14 point hole and left them playing major catch up.

They tried to play low percentage rugby and Wales were good enough to hold and capitalise. Its difficult taticall t start a game brightly and all of a sudden be 14 points don playing behind. Changes the dynamics of the game. Scotland fell into the trap of overplaying trying to play catch up.

I wouldnt be overly disheartened from a Scotland view despite the result (already knives out for Townsend which is ridiculous). Neither would I be over confident in Wales. Things change quickly in the 6 NAtions. As ever, I think home advantage is massive and usually is the difference maker.

Scottrf wrote:For those who think Wales didn't play that well, and it was all Scotland being poor, do you think they make those mistakes against Romania?

Secret fly - it was back to the bad old days in that most of the team looked well beaten from 45 mins on

funnyExiledScot wrote:

Recwatcher16 wrote:Scotland tried to run the ball. Wales just waited and picked them off. End of game.

Sums it up, although you are pushing Martin Johnson close for the most loquacious rugby commentary of the day. Good lord he's bad on the BBC!

Thought drones aren't allowed within 150m of a sporting event?

eirebilly wrote:Again I am going to say, Scotland may be playing badly but that to me is due to the way Gatland set up this team and tactics to fully counter Scotland. Its this reason that Scotland have looked bad, they have been pressured in all the right areas and have lost their composure due to Wales tactics.

This is what Gatland does, as an Irish fan I have seen this far too often against us.

Another superb try for Wales , Even Andrew Cotter must see that Scotland have lost this now.

Broadly true but Scotland were already beating themselves in this game. That first 10 they had Wales under pressure then fluffed it to concede soft tries. Trying way too hard to play 7's rugby.

Also well done to Wales. You made it look like an easy win, but that was down to your game plan being bang on and executing it well. Tearing apart a team that's above you in the rankings and making it look easy isn't to be sniffed at!

catchweight wrote:I have a soft spot for Gatland who I think cops an enormous amount of flack and is very underrated as a coach.

Scotland are a better team than the shwed today. I think it was a bad result from an English perspective as there will be a major backlasch. The game dynamics were unusual. Scotland actually were good value for an early lead. But and intercept try and a sloppily conceded free kick scrum put them in a 14 point hole and left them playing major catch up.

They tried to play low percentage rugby and Wales were good enough to hold and capitalise. Its difficult taticall t start a game brightly and all of a sudden be 14 points don playing behind. Changes the dynamics of the game. Scotland fell into the trap of overplaying trying to play catch up.

I wouldnt be overly disheartened from a Scotland view despite the result (already knives out for Townsend which is ridiculous). Neither would I be over confident in Wales. Things change quickly in the 6 NAtions. As ever, I think home advantage is massive and usually is the difference maker.

The execution and sharpness just weren't there. I don't think anyone is sensibly wanting townsend out. He certainly would not have coached so many handling errors. Or for Price and Russell to have their worst game for Scotland.

For me that's the worst performance I've ever seen from Scotland. Even when we got humped at Twickenham last year, when we did have the ball we were accurate, direct and scored tries at our usual rate, it's just England scored a hell of a lot more.

Whereas against Wales yesterday we were just rubbish, no accuracy, guys running down blind alleys and we were generally nothing like the team that hammered Australia in the autumn. Yes I know it was against 14 men for a lot of it, but 14 men doesn't have an impact on handling etc.

All in all a bad day at the office. Let's see how we get on next week and hope that one of Taylor or Dunbar are fit because the Harris experiment was a failure, no. Chemistry between him and Jones and I think Jones is far more comfortable at 13.

RuggarRage2611

I have to agree with you about Scotland,s performance yesterday . I don.t think i have seen Scotland play so bad in a game before. 

After last years AI against Australia  i really that Scotland would have won, Wales are normaly slow starters in the 6ns. But after Webbs intercept try Scotland seemed to give up.

Will Scotland pick themselves up for the rest of the tournament? or will they become contender for the the wooden spoon this year?

Scotland missing a number of good front five players from their squad had a big effect against a welsh front five who are first choice and playing well at their respective regions.

A gimme try for Gareth Davies gave a cushion and a tight defence stopped Scotland playing catch up rugby.

Scotland Turken to the fecking cleaners ewe could say.
Made mostly in Llanelli, ewe could also say. Has Townsend watched any Turk games this season? Been running in tries for fun from everywhere. Joy to watch.
Some pretty bad defending by the Scots too however.

Some very strange player ratings from the Guardian! Mostly 6/10 for Scottish players and 7s for Wales. Halfpenny (20 points, 2 tries, a rock in defence, positionally excellent all game), Scott Williams, Seymour, Finn Russell, Huw Jones, Hogg - all got 6. Not sure I agree!

The Oracle wrote:Some very strange player ratings once Guardian! Mostly 6/10 for Scottish players and 7s for Wales. Halfpenny (20 points, 2 tries, a rock in defence, positionallt excellent all game), Scott Williams, Seymour, Finn Russell, Huw Jones, Hogg - all got 6. Not sure I agree!

That’s a touch unfair by the guardian. Halfpenny deserved at least a 7.5

I normally do Scotland player ratings on here after games but they'd all be 1s or 2s so I realised there was no point!

My wife is raging as I told her to take 1/2p out her fantasy 6N team as he never scores...

Yet another false dawn for Scotland. Townsend tries to coach 7s rugby with a side that can’t do the basics. I wonder if Hogg will be cited?

Looks like the blue sides will be contesting the bottom of the table as usual.

maestegmafia wrote:

The Oracle wrote:Some very strange player ratings once Guardian! Mostly 6/10 for Scottish players and 7s for Wales. Halfpenny (20 points, 2 tries, a rock in defence, positionallt excellent all game), Scott Williams, Seymour, Finn Russell, Huw Jones, Hogg - all got 6. Not sure I agree!

That’s a touch unfair by the guardian. Halfpenny deserved at least a 7.5

Yeah, not saying Hogg wasn’t a 6. Thought he was Scotland’s most lively player. Just felt 1/2p had more influence on the game. If Hogg was 6 then 1/2p was perhaps an 8, for me.

Huw Jones had a bit of a mare, according to a number of Scottish posters on here. He didn’t look comfortable at 12. Scott Williams was solid. So I might have gone for something like a 5 for Jones and maybe a 7 for Williams.

Player ratings are useless by most pundits. Scared of giving 5s and below and only give 8s for exceptional performances. So it ends up being 6= bad, 7 = good.

Scottrf wrote:Player ratings are useless by most pundits. Scared of giving 5s and below and only give 8s for exceptional performances. So it ends up being 6= bad, 7 = good.

Yeah, seemed that way! They did give a few 5s for the Scottish forwards.

The Telegraph had a much bigger range in their scores for some reason.

What did Hogg do to warrant citing? I can’t remember that.

Reading about Gareth Davies’ try has made me wonder what would’ve happened, if he didn’t pick that off though. Scotland had started pretty well up to that point.

Well layed Wales. So lovely rugby .
Scotland you were a bit disappointing

Cyril wrote:Yet another false dawn for Scotland. Townsend tries to coach 7s rugby with a side that can’t do the basics. I wonder if Hogg will be cited?

Looks like the blue sides will be contesting the bottom of the table as usual.

For what you intolerable troll?