Wales v Scotland 6N Super Saturday 31st Oct 2020

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Wales v Scotland

6 Nations Championship
Saturday 31st Oct
Parc y Scarlets

KO 14.15


Well Wales and Scotland kick off Super saturday, only 7 months late, but a game we are all happy to see being played at long last.

Scotland started the new session of internationals in much the same vein as they finnished, albeit was against Georgia, who were even more rusty than the rest of the teams and did not put up a great opposition.

Wales, by their own high standards, did not have a great tournament so far, the transition from Gatland to Pivac was always going to be a little tricky and so it has proved. They came up against a French side who were up for it at home and got comfortably beaten last week, for whatever reason, they just don't seem to have quite clicked yet.

One thing is for sure though, they will not relish the prospect of being beaten by Scotland at home, it is a long time since that has happened! They will also be battle hardened by the game last weekend and you can only expect them to improve.

So are Scotland feeling confident?

Well they do seem to be playing to a decent standard atm, but we have been there before and left the principality with our trails trailing between our legs on many occasions. It is and always will be a very hard place to come and win a game.

It will be odd playing in an empty stadium though and you wonder how it might effect both teams. Wales are used to having that very passionate crowd behind them playing at home and no doubt it has helped get them accross the line on more than one occasion.

Scotland have to feel that they have a good chance here, but also have to manage that pressure, something that they have not been very good at in recent times.

It should be a cracking game.

I am hoping for a Scotland team along these lines:

1. Sutherland
2. Brown
3. Fagerson Z
4. Cummings
5. Gray J
6. Ritchie
7. Watson
8. Haining
9. Price
10. Russell
11. VDM
12. Johnson
13. Harris
14. Graham
15. Hogg - Capt

Subs:

Keeble
McInally
Berghan
Toolis
Cowan
Horne G
Hastings
Jones H

The one time we needed Harris to run a little bit slower

Poor pass from Hogg there, should have been a try

BigGee wrote:Poor pass from Hogg there, should have been a try

Not Hogg’s fault. Harris had to hold his run a bit

Hogg has to almost pass it behind him to stop it being a forward pass and Harris couldn’t gather

Stop playing so many phases, Scotland. Grubber the ball into touch. Straight line-out throws are nigh-on impossible at the moment.

Ah come on chuckles. The rest of the pack won’t have found that funny

Wales taking their chances where we haven’t, and sounds like Finn is injured. Great.

Wales rumble over eventually from 5m after another lineout goes wrong

Russell off injured as well

Deserved lead. Wales looking comfortably the better team so far. Completely dominating the gainline. For all of Scotland's possession, they've done very little with it, and even Andrew Brace's terrible refereeing can't help them.

Yep, Wales had the right idea. Put the pressure on the opposition line-out, rather than roll through endless phases.

Not good lineout calling from Scotland, got what we deserved there

Wales have the wind and have only attacked off ball when Scotland are having to go back from a Welsh kick.

Anyone who thinks wales have been dominating needs to reevaluate their knowledge of rugby

We really are shooting ourselves in the foot here. I'd take this scoreline at half time to be honest.

Daft decision to try to throw to the back ...

tigertattie wrote:Wales have the wind and have only attacked off ball when Scotland are having to go back from a Welsh kick.

Anyone who thinks wales have been dominating needs to reevaluate their knowledge of rugby

Referee's been good, too, consistent in his application which is what's required.

Just 5 minutes to sum up Scottish international rugby there. Awful lineout decision, compounded by an offload that was not on. In the midst of all that an injury to our star player. You'd think there'd be a memory tattooed on the mind of every single Scottish player from 2015 not to go to the back when the pressure is on.

Great turnover from Ritchie

BigGee wrote:Great turnover from Ritchie

With Gatland's game plan I reckon Ritchie will be right in the mix for the Lions.

Our kicking game has been dreadful. Absolutely dreadful.

BigGee wrote:Great turnover from Ritchie

Then destroyed by Hogg then Hastings poor kicking

I would say terrible conditions but I watched the game between scotland and england this year so this is paradise.

That's the right call from Hasting's IMO. With the soft ground I'd never guess it would bounce that hard. It's one timely break away from driving Wales back into the 22. Unlucky I'd say.

Why are Wales being allowed to collapse the scrum on their ball and negate the contest? Sutherland seems to have Francis in bother.

Was that not a lift tip and spear tackle in the breakdown on Watson there by the two welsh players?

Hastings slots a penalty on the stroke of half time

7-6 Wales

Nip and tuck

7-6 going in at half time having played into the wind is arguably Scotland advantage. It's going to be a tight game I think.

Andrew Brace is terrible, fair play.

Scotland look impotent, Wales dominating the gainline and mistakes aside look more ruthless as well.

Not much of a rugby game though. Combination of the weather and Brace are conspiring to turn it in to a stop start borefest.

Wales just have to keep plugging the 22. Kick deep, kick off field, and make Scotland play. Wales have stood up to everything Scotland have thrown at Wales. Make them play in their own 22 now rather than in the Welsh half and everything will be fine.

profitius wrote:Is that Welshman Andrew Brace reffing?

Don't pin him on us. He clearly learnt all his ballhocks in the Emerald Isle.

Is Stuart Hogg wearing George Horne's shorts?

7-6 HT. Scotland shouldn't be too disappointed, they've got the edge at the breakdown and the scrum. Better composure with ball in hand and better kicking, the wind might favour them in the second half, will see them home. Wales have done very little of note.

So. Can Hastings manage the game to pick up the win? With the help the wind game wales each time they kicked, surely Scotland will look to play for territory and should realistically get more points in the second half

profitius wrote:Is that Welshman Andrew Brace reffing?

Keen to prove otherwise, isn’t he. Really hot at making one team roll away.

tigertattie wrote:Wales have the wind and have only attacked off ball when Scotland are having to go back from a Welsh kick.

Anyone who thinks wales have been dominating needs to reevaluate their knowledge of rugby

They 'have the wind'? You've clearly never visited Parc y Scarlets then...haha. No one has the wind when it's windy, it swirls.

Scotland look pants tbh. They've got no strength, no ability to get over the gainline, they've had nearly all the play for 30 minutes and never even came close to threatening to Welsh tryline.

Wales dominating. All they need is 3-4 more attacking positions and that should be enough to win the game. Unfortunately the positions they worked in the Scottish third were crooked lineout throws. Without the wind it could be much healthier.



Wales dominant, should win from here once.

EDITED to include the point that winning the possession stats doesn't count as dominance. Just ask Brendan Rodgers circa 2014 about that. Not sure why that's been modded out, it's a salient point. Editing it out takes away the fundamental point I'm making, so needs restating.

Both sides playing pretty terribly. But I think it is the conditions really, they're struggling with the swirling wind and rain.

Scotland will be disappointed to butcher that well created try scoring opportunity, that felt like earlier games in the 6N where they created good chances but stuffed up the final pass. Territory has been good though and the scrum looks stronger than the Welsh scrum so that could be a point of difference later on. The Scottish bench has a few useful subs too so it is going to be aninteresting final 40.

7-6 seems a fair result so far, but both sides probably feel annoyed with their performances. Wales discipline has been poor and Scotland's accuracy has been lacking.

RiscaGame wrote:

profitius wrote:Is that Welshman Andrew Brace reffing?

Keen to prove otherwise, isn’t he. Really hot at making one team roll away.

The call on James Davies was one of the worst I've seen in a while. Meanwhile, he allows one of their fat props to just run in at the side an slow it down for 3 seconds and step back while Wales are 8m out from the Scotland line. He's such a bad referee. He's bad at Pro14 level, can't believe he's getting pushed in to the international game. He's too high strung and misses so much while arbitrarily focusing on other things and over-penalises them. Games he refs are almost always crap spectacles and this is no different. Too slow, too arbitrary.

Watkin had a good half. Willing to put his body on the line. The Welsh defence looked hungry and was ruthlessly effective. A few more turnovers and a little more punishing Scotland for breakdown shenanigans would be fine reward.

Biggar off with injury. Patchell's on. Let's hope it comes off, should threaten the gainline more now with ball in hand.

A yeah, good old Brace. That old 'lying on' law just applies to red shirts. What a clown.

Scrum collapsed again by Wales there. "Play on" says the ref.

Wales being a touch cynical on their scrum ball. Under pressure and their scrum is tending to go down securing ball. If you can get away with it great bit cant see if it continues it will go well.

Good stuff, Wales still dominating the breakdown. Nice footwork by Hastings - I honestly don't think you lose anything with him over Russell - but terrible sealing off by about 4 Scottish forwards piling in off feet on the ruck beforehand.

Sorry to be boring everyone but Brace being a joke really needs pointing out so claims of bias or whatever don't get rolled out at full time. He's just not a good referee and it hurts both teams.

Thankfully Hastings looks like he’s shook off his tweak.

Not great body positions from Scotland here, and Wales finding it too easy to hold people up.

Wales are just a smidge more physical, and it's starting to tell.

Halfpenny proving his worth there with his aerial ability. What a player. Still criminally underrated.

Apparently that wind isn’t going left to right according to some “expert” on here

Carre going off has made a difference, he was struggling.

funnyExiledScot wrote:Wales are just a smidge more physical, and it's starting to tell.

It's a lot more than a swidge, FES.

As we see there, the idea of Scottish scrum dominance was a bit farfetched. It seemed like Carre's height was counting against him and some skullduggery was conning the ref. Good Welsh scrum.

Big impact from Wyn Jones there!!

tigertattie wrote:Apparently that wind isn’t going left to right according to some “expert” on here

'Expert'?

If you attended a game in Llanelli, you might know what the wind does in this stadium.

Anyway, Wales getting on top now. Time to make it pay on the scoreboard. Turn physical dominance in to points.

Brown has had a poor game. He's surely got to come off. That was plain dumb.