Scotland v Wales 6N Championship Saturday 11th February 2023

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Scotland v Wales
6 Nations Championship
Saturday 11th February 2023

BT Murrayfield Stadium
Edinburgh

KO 16.45


So here we are after the first week of the 6N. Scotland on a bit of a high after beating England at Twickenham and Wales not in the best of places following a poor loss to Ireland at home.

So a nice easy win for Scotland at home in round 2 you would predict?

History would suggest it is never that simple though. Scotland have a poor record of backing up good wins and Wales, especially under a certain Mr Warren Gatland have a habit of bouncing back from poor displays, especially against Scotland!

What crumbs of comfort Gatland can take from the Wales performance, for which he largely selected his old guard, will be around the performance of his newer younger players, like Jac Morgan, who managed to steady the ship somewhat in the second half. So how will he see this game, a chance for redemption or a chance to bring on more youngsters with the WC in mind? You might imagine he will have a bit of a free pass with little or no expectation for this game. This is Wales however and expectation and rugby go very much hand in hand and expectation will always be there, especially against Scotland, who they have had the hex on for many many years.

So can Scotland finally become the team they have threatened to be for many a year now. Is this the year where one good win (usually against England) is enough to count for a good season. You sense that the players, the coaches and the fans want a bit more than that now and as the Toonie era maybe draws to a close and the international careers of a few of the senior players come towards the end, you do sense that it may be now or never.

Let's not pretend otherwise, this is a game Scotland should win, but will they be able to deal with the pressure of that and you can guarantee that the Welsh side that comes up to Scotland will be hurting badly and will certainly be a lot more competitive in the second game of the series than they were in the first. make no mistake, this is going to be a live game that both sides will fancy.

Another absorbing weekend in the 6 nations!


My guess for the Scotland team, I don't think there will be many changes:

1. Schoeman
2. Turner
3. Nel
4. Gray R
5. Gilchrist
6. Ritchie (capt)
7. Crosbie
8. Fagerson M
9. White
10. Russell
11. DVDM
12. Tuipolotu
13. Jones
14. Steyn
15. Kinghorn

Bhatti
Brown
Fagerson Z
Gray J
Dempsey
Horne
Healy
Harris/Redpath - Heart says Redpath, Head says Harris


Hoggy did not look fully fit to me and played like it. Let him have a week off and then go and play for Exeter in the break week. He will make his 100 caps, there is no rush

Some big names dropped, no AWJ, Falateau nor Tipiric!!!

Scotland: 15. Stuart Hogg, 14. Kyle Steyn, 13. Huw Jones, 12. Sione Tuipulotu, 11. Duhan van der Merwe, 10. Finn Russell, 9. Ben White, 1. Pierre Schoeman, 2. George Turner, 3. Zander Fagerson, 4. Richie Gray, 5. Grant Gilchrist, 6. Jamie Ritchie (capt), 7. Luke Crosbie, 8. Matt Fagerson.

Replacements: 16. Fraser Brown, 17. Jamie Bhatti, 18. WP Nel, 19. Jonny Gray, 20. Jack Dempsey, 21. George Horne, 22. Blair Kinghorn, 23. Chris Harris.

Probably saving Ben Healy for the Ireland game

I like our side. I’m glad cement head has acknowledged how poor our pack was. Agree that I would’ve played Rhys Davies though.

Still think we lose, but we look like we will make more of a go of it.

Gats has done it, he’s put out the team we required to challenge Scotland! Not sure about Wyn Jones but I did question his selection from the beginning. Nicky Smith must be feeling a little annoyed still.

mikey_dragon wrote:Gats has done it, he’s put out the team we required to challenge Scotland! Not sure about Wyn Jones but I did question his selection from the beginning. Nicky Smith must be feeling a little annoyed still.

Not often you & I see eye to eye but I do agree with you 100%. Smith was my first loosehead pick when I was thinking about Gatlands squad. Wyn is very lucky, as he has had little to no gametime & his fitness could be an issue.

This should be a great game and if I was one of those Welsh youngfellers in that side, I would absolutely relish the prospect. No pressure on them at all and that makes them very dangerous. They can just focus on their own games.

For Scotland, having Zander back was the missing piece of the puzzle. We can't have any excuses now. How rare to beat England away and then say that the team you list the next week is actually stronger than that one. Just hope that there aren't many cards and we get a full 15 on 15 jamboree.

Rhys Davies I would have started from round 1. Not sure how Baldwin has leapfrogged Roberts either.

Scotland 2/5
Draw 20/1
Wales 2/1

Gatland realisin Wales cannot win the triple crown or the Grand slam, so has decided to leave out the ols guard and brinh in some yong blood, I wander if England will do the dame thing for the same reason. we will see.

Rumour has it that this is a test for next Lions tour. Beat Wales and more of you are in. Lose… well, it’s not like Gats needs much of an excuse to lower Scottish representation in the Lions now .

mikey_dragon wrote:Rumour has it that this is a test for next Lions tour. Beat Wales and more of you are in. Lose… well, it’s not like Gats needs much of an excuse to lower Scottish representation in the Lions now .

It's okay Mikey. However many Scots there are, the Irish press will still claim that it's too many and their 4th choice ladies second XV fly half is much better than that Finn Russell pretender.

Under 20s game is a bit of a lottery with the wind and the ref doing some really odd officiating

Wow, somehow Scotland have beaten Wales in the U20s 18-17. That was not looking likely playing into the wind!

The end of 15 straight defeats

Not a pretty game but real grit from the Scottish kids, fabulous effort

Well deserved and long awaited win! Our pack in particularly looks to have a lot of grit.

RDW wrote:Well deserved and long awaited win! Our pack in particularly looks to have a lot of grit.

Should have mauled it up the pitch all night. Wales had no answer to the Scottish maul

Both teams lost lineout after lineout trying to throw to the tail in that wind. Was the only blot on the Scottish pack that no one turned round and said “Oi, front balls only at the lineout lads”

So chuffed that the under 20s finally won and tbh I don't think the boys even care about the manner.

Hopefully they get some credit because it's certainly due after all them times of pundits/fans and journalists telling us how bleak our future is!

Well done the u20s.
They did not play particularly well, made a lot of basic errors, but played with a lot of heart and found a way to win.
The ref was ok, but, I did not understand why he let the Wales team fanny around at the lineouts, by delaying their joining of the line, but, he clearly asked Scotland to get a move on pre-lineout.

Just watching Eng v Ita now, and a really bad tip tackle by the England winger was only given a yellow. Really poor decision. It should have been a red, imo.

In case anyone wants to see that game:

Looks like we're ignoring forward passes in this match too ...

That one actually was forward.

Meh, Wales fluffing it in the Scottish 22 quite often.

Zander seems to have forgotten how to scrum while he’s been injured

Very scrappy so far

Turner did really well to get that ball down!

How didn't Brace see it was down?

How forwards show they care, that was funny. Good try, too.

Oofff. Ouch on first look.

Red card incoming for Turner.

North doesn't need another clatter to the head

No no no not another card against Wales.

Clear swinging arm into his jaw, that’s a bad call.

YC for Turner, George North already on his way down

Not a swinging arm...blooming close if it isn't.

mikey_dragon wrote:Clear swinging arm into his jaw, that’s a bad call.

Yeah...

Fair call. North dropped.

No no no not another card against Wales.

Try Wales, game on

Is it me or do they seem to be dialling back from what would have been red cards normally for some reason?

Heaf wrote:Is it me or do they seem to be dialling back from what would have been red cards normally for some reason?

Yeah, too many complaints about Wales’ 16th man .

I have to admit my understanding of what constitutes a swinging arm must be different to the officials ..

Heaf wrote:Is it me or do they seem to be dialling back from what would have been red cards normally for some reason?

You could well see a citing for that one I reckon.

I can see the RWC being an absolute lottery on card colours at this rate ...

Jez, Wales should have scored there

Rio should have caught that.

That's a try gone begging that Wales can't afford ...

No 7&1/2 wrote:

Heaf wrote:Is it me or do they seem to be dialling back from what would have been red cards normally for some reason?

You could well see a citing for that one I reckon.

I don't know, kind of seemed like a reasonable call to me.  North bent way down, and not sure what Turner could do.  his tackle height would have been around North's waist.  

On the other hand, North doesn't need any knocks to the head...

doctor_grey wrote:

No 7&1/2 wrote:

Heaf wrote:Is it me or do they seem to be dialling back from what would have been red cards normally for some reason?

You could well see a citing for that one I reckon.

I don't know, kind of seemed like a reasonable call to me.  North bent way down, and not sure what Turner could do.  his tackle height would have been around North's waist.  

On the other hand, North doesn't need any knocks to the head...

Talking about the swinging arm. If he considers it to be so then the dip doesn't matter.

North’s knee was on the floor when the tackle was made, if he hadn’t dropped in height it’s a normal legal tackle all day long. Refs really can’t win, folk moan about overuse of cards ruining games then when they try and apply reasonable mitigations in response folk cry bloody murder then too

Oof what a nervy half.

Wales are playing exactly how I expected them to. They've turned this match into a messy scrap and that is helping them wrestle the momentum from Scotland. Scotland look miles better in attack (sorry Wales fans) but they are letting Wales aggravate them, bully them and quite frankly it's working very well. If Scotland don't figure out a way to get the momentum back from Wales they will lose the lead and probably the match. Poor half from Scotland, not a great half from Wales either but they're playing with a lot of heart and grit.