The Scottish Lion who presents a 'massive challenge' to Wales
Wales boss Wayne Pivac has described Scotland flanker Hamish Watson as “a fantastic rugby player” ahead of an intriguing back-row battle in Saturday’s Guinness Six Nations clash.
Watson, last season’s Six Nations player of the tournament and a British and Irish Lion in South Africa, will be part of a Scotland team chasing a first victory in Cardiff since 2002.
And he will encounter a reshaped Wales breakaway trio that includes two openside specialists in Taine Basham and new cap Jac Morgan.
“It is a massive challenge, isn’t it?” Wales head coach Pivac said.
“Hamish Watson is a fantastic rugby player and has been at the top of his game for a number of years.
“No matter who we have put out over the last couple of years, Watson has been right in the thick of a Scotland-Wales game.
“It will be a big test for young Jac, but one I know he and we are looking forward to.”
The teams meet following contrasting opening-weekend displays, with Wales soundly beaten by Ireland in Dublin and Scotland jubilant after an impressive Calcutta Cup victory over England.
“Clearly, we weren’t happy with last week and we don’t want to go away having the same conversation two weeks in a row,” Pivac added.
“Each individual player has worked really hard in the week and is prepared to go that extra mile.
“We are going to need the crowd behind us, and it is a big help which lifts the players. We are expecting a better performance, and we will have to wait until Saturday to see if it is big enough.
“The players are certainly motivated to put that performance behind them. They know they have to work hard, and they have worked hard to improve the areas we need to.
“That is why we haven’t made wholesale changes, because we know a lot of the players – who were by their own admission below their own standards – deserve another opportunity.
“I certainly believe there will be more to come from this team. One thing about this group is they are not hiding from anything.
“A lot of it is not rocket science. It is getting our techniques right and making sure we apply ourselves in the game.”
Wales felt that some scrummaging decisions by referee Jaco Peyper did not go their way in Dublin, and Pivac confirmed that clarity was sought from World Rugby.
“If we think there are areas which didn’t go our way, there is a channel we use which is through to Joel Jutge (head of match officials) at World Rugby,” he said.
“We did that on Monday and we had a very, very rapid response. We don’t need to tinker too much with the scrum because we felt we were going very well in that area of the game, but probably didn’t get the decisions we felt we should have.
“We’ve been told to keep going, and we feel we are on the right track there.
“We think a couple of decisions should have gone our way early on in the game. If the response back was different, we would be looking to make some change, but we are not making change, so that probably answers that one.”
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 …
26 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!😭😭😭 !!!
26 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
26 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.
26 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.
26 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