'Desperate' Wales on mission to show public they're better than Dublin flop
Wayne Pivac wants to see “an improvement across the board” when Wales face a crunch Guinness Six Nations clash against Scotland on Saturday.
Wales have not started a Six Nations campaign with successive defeats since 2007, and they must beat Scotland to revive any hope of a successful title defence following last weekend’s tame 29-7 loss in Ireland.
Scotland last won in Cardiff 20 years ago, losing eight Six Nations Tests, a World Cup warm-up game and an autumn international during that time.
But they will arrive at the Principality Stadium following a stirring Calcutta Cup victory over England last weekend that confirmed serious Six Nations title credentials.
“It is an improvement across the board, really,” Wales head coach Pivac said, after making four changes of personnel, including a Test debut for 22-year-old Ospreys flanker Jac Morgan.
“The players are very critical of themselves. They are very disappointed after the game last week.
“They are desperate to go out there and show we are a much better team than the display we put on last week. Across the board, everybody in the camp was very disappointed.
“We are at home, we are in front of 75,000 people, and we owe it to ourselves and our public to put on a better display, as simple as that.
“They (Scotland) are a very good side. They have got a number of British and Irish Lions.
“They showed last week (against England) that they fight for every blade of grass, and that is certainly what we have got to be doing on the weekend.
“We have to match that, and then bring some on top of that. It is going to be a very hard-fought game, we know that, and it is a Scotland team coming full of confidence.”
Morgan replaces Ellis Jenkins and lines up at openside flanker in a reshaped back-row that also sees Ross Moriarty start at number eight instead of Aaron Wainwright, with Taine Basham wearing the number six shirt.
Your teams for the clash in Cardiff ? #WALvSCO pic.twitter.com/Hfw9TR0dzF
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Elsewhere, Morgan’s Ospreys colleague – wing Alex Cuthbert – makes a first Six Nations appearance for five years, being preferred to Johnny McNicholl.
But Cuthbert’s fellow wing Josh Adams, who started at outside centre in Dublin, is sidelined because of a tight calf muscle, so Owen Watkin fills the number 13 position.
Pivac has resisted any temptation to make further changes, while captain Dan Biggar makes his 100th Test match appearance for Wales and the British and Irish Lions, becoming the ninth Welshman to achieve that feat.
And centre Jonathan Davies will join Biggar in reaching 100 Tests for Wales and the Lions if he features off the bench.
Pivac added: “Jac has trained very well. He is a very abrasive sort of player, and Ross we know is very strong in that area.
“It just goes to show. There are performances on the park in a Test match that obviously carry a lot of weight, but it is also what you do in training.
“And Jac has certainly done everything asked of him. We are all looking forward to seeing him out there.
“He has been throwing himself about, and I think you will see a big performance. He certainly won’t be lacking in effort.”
On Adams’ injury, Pivac said: “It is just one of those ones where we don’t think it is worth the risk.
“If it does worsen, then that would be him gone for the rest of the tournament and quite some time.
“There has been a lot of talk about that selection (Adams at 13). When you break down the performance, we certainly don’t think that him playing at 13 was the cause for certainly the tries they (Ireland) scored. He did a lot of good work at 13.”
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments