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Dan Biggar claims the pressure is all on Scotland when Wales attempt to burst their Guinness Six Nations bubble for a third successive season.
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And Biggar says there would have been no point in the Wales squad catching their flight to Edinburgh if they had been engulfed by apparent media hype surrounding “the best team in the tournament”.
Wales have been here before.
Two years ago, they went to Murrayfield and beat Scotland a week after the Scots toppled England at Twickenham, then last season Biggar and company triumphed in Cardiff seven days on from this weekend’s opponents retaining the Calcutta Cup.
The identical scenario preludes Saturday’s latest meeting, with Scotland aiming to win their opening two Six Nations games for a first time in the tournament’s 23-year history.
Biggar, meanwhile, was also keen to highlight Wales’ overall Six Nations record of six titles, four Grand Slams and five Triple Crowns, a total that no other country can match.
“Scotland played well last week against England, but according to you guys they are the best team around aren’t they?” Wales fly-half Biggar said.
“We will have to see how they go on Saturday, see if they can back it up. The pressure is all on them.
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“They are red-hot favourites, best team in the tournament, so we will see how they go (on) Saturday.
“We don’t seem to get any credit and other teams seem to get a lot of praise for probably not quite the success we’ve had, but that’s how it goes.
“It is a really difficult ask, but I think this country and this group of boys tend to respond really well when our backs are against the wall and we have got to come out fighting.”
Wales have won on six of their last seven visits to Murrayfield, with an overall success-rate of 85 per cent across the countries’ last 20 encounters, home and away.
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And Warren Gatland has never been on the losing side against Scotland as Wales head coach, posting an unblemished record during his first stint as Wales boss between 2008 and 2019.
“They will fancy their chances, they have picked a strong side, lots of good players who played well last week and they will be full of confidence,” Biggar added.
“But it was the same last year. We got off to a really slow start in Ireland and then played Scotland, you guys wrote us off before the game was played and we rolled our sleeves up and did a job.
“If you listen to everyone – which is what is great about this game – we might as well not have bothered catching the flight.”
Despite a 34-10 loss to Ireland in their Six Nations opener, Wales know that victory at Murrayfield would set up an intriguing encounter against England later this month.
“I think our record is as good as anyone’s in this competition over the previous 10 years or whatever,” Biggar said.
“Medals are important when you look back at your career and we have been lucky enough to fill the cabinet a few times.
“It is up to other teams to try and replicate that, really. Hopefully, if teams do that then they will deservedly get praise.
“They (Scotland) are a fantastic team at the minute playing with confidence, lots of good players.
“In Wales, you lose a game, you get criticised; you win, it is just sort of brushed over.
“It is one of those things where we just try and control what we can, but we do have a bit of a laugh that there are other teams around who get a fair bit of praise without really backing it up, I suppose.”
Comments on RugbyPass
It’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
2 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
24 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
1 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
1 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
2 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to commentsAnd the person responsible for creating a culture of accountability is?
3 Go to commentsMore useless words from Ben Smith -Please get another team to write about. SA really dont need your input, it suck anyway.
264 Go to commentsThis disgraceful episode must result in management and coach team sackings. A new manager with worse results than previous and the coaching staff need to coached. Awful massacre led by donkeys.
1 Go to commentsInteresting article with one glaring mistake. This sentence: “And between the top four nations right now, Ireland, France, South Africa, and New Zealand…” should read: And between the top four nations right now, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand and France…”. Get it right wistful thinkers, its not that hard.
24 Go to commentsHow did Penny get the gig anyway?
3 Go to commentsNice write up Nick and I would have agreed a week ago. However as you would know Cale & co got absolutely monstered by the Blues back row of Sotutu, Ioane and Papaliti and not all of these 3 are guaranteed a start in the Black jumper. He may need to put some kgs before stepping up, Spring tour? After the week end Joe will be a bit more restless. Will need to pick a mobile tough pack for Wales and hope England does the right thing and bashes the ABs. I like your last paragraph but I would bring Swinton, Hannigan into the 6 role and Bobby V to 8
24 Go to commentsThe Crusaders can still get in to the Play Off’s. The imminent return of outstanding captain Scott Barrett and his All Black team mate Codie Taylor will be a big boost.There are others like Tamaiti Williams too. Two home games coming up. Fellow Crusader fans get there and support these guys. I will be.
2 Go to commentsCant get more Wellington than Proctor.
2 Go to commentsWhy not let the media decide. Like how they choose the head coach. Like most of us we entrust the rugby system to choose. A rugby team includes the coaches. It's collective.
14 Go to commentsHi NIck, I have been very impressed with him and he seems a smart player who can see opportunities which Bobby V _(who must be an international 6_) doesn’t see or have the speed to take advantage of. If he continues to improve and puts on 5kgs then he could be a great 8. He is a bit taller than Keiran Reid at 1.93m and 111 kgs, so his skill set fits his body size and who knows where it will lead. I hope the spate of Achilles tendon issues have been dealt with by the S&C people. It’s been a very long time since Mark Loane and Kefu stood out at 8. The question is will we be able to hold onto him, if he does make it he will be pretty hot property. I disagree with the idea of letting them go to the Northern Hemisphere and then bring them back.
24 Go to commentsBilly Fulton 🤣🤣🤣🤣 garrrmon not even close
14 Go to commentsDoes the AI take into account refs? hahaha Seriously why not have two on field refs to avoid bias?
24 Go to comments