Dan Bigs Up Clash With Scotland
Six Nations: Wales v Scotland, Principality Stadium, KO 2.15pm
Dan Biggar is confident Wales can bounce back from last weekend’s defeat to Ireland against Scotland today.
Wales were comprehensively beaten in Dublin in the Six Nations opener, and now face a Scotland side fresh from a Calcutta Cup win over England. Biggar has been in and around the Wales squad since making his debut in 2008, and will win his 100th international cap today.
And the Northampton Saints playmaker has urged his teammates to draw on recent history where Wales have responded to defeat by coming out all guns blazing the following weekend. “We’ve taken a fair bit of slack this week, and rightly so because we didn’t play well last Saturday against Ireland, but people forget that we’ve been pretty successful in this tournament for a number of years,” said the 32-year-old.
“We’ve certainly been a lot more successful that other teams. We’ve taken a bit of flak this week, but we are hoping we can put that right today.
“No doubt we were second best last Saturday against Ireland but we were lucky to come second out there in 2014. We then reversed it against France for the next game, put in a good performance, and got the right result.
“History tells us that when we have a poor performance we tend to respond quite well. We are under no illusions, and we aren’t papering over any cracks.
“It’s easier when you’ve got experience in these moments when you know you’ve had a disappointing result but you know there’s the ability in yourself and the team to hit back in a positive manner. I think that’s what we’ve referenced, and said on Monday morning when we came in.”
Wayne Pivac has made four changes to his starting XV with uncapped Ospreys openside Jac Morgan replacing Ellis Jenkins, while Ross Moriarty takes Aaron Wainwright’s place at No 8. Behind the scrum Owen Watkin replaces the injured Josh Adams at centre, while Alex Cuthbert comes in in place of Johnny McNicholl.
Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend has selected a side with six British & Irish Lions including Hamish Watson, Ali Price, Finn Russell, Chris Harris, Duhan van der Merwe, and Stuart Hogg. Biggar has a lot of respect for Scotland, and is wary of the threat they will bring to the Principality Stadium.
“They’ve come off the back of a good win last week against England, and are playing some good rugby,” he said. “They’ve got some players in form. It’ll be interesting to see how the game pans out on Saturday.
“We are hoping to try and stifle that sort of momentum they built up, and confidence they’ve built. Their team looks strong on paper.
“They’ve got individuals in that team who can cause any team in international rugby problems. We’ve got to take the frustration of last weekend out on Scotland.
“We are hoping the frustrations, disappointments, and the lack of energy in our performance is flipped on its head.” Wales have been working hard all week on the physical aspect of their game after coming second best in this department against Ireland.
And second row Will Rowlands insists the forwards are fired up to make amends for last weekend’s performance. “I do take it personally when we’ve come second best in that area, and I did a bit last weekend,” said Rowlands.
“There’s a lot of stuff we tried to do against Ireland that we weren’t necessarily that successful in, and will be trying to do that more successfully against Scotland.
“In defence our footwork patters, individual stuff, and then as a team just talking about communicating early, get our spacing so we are in a position to then get off the line and bring some momentum into the collisions.
“On the other side of the ball attack is kind of more of the same stuff really with regards communicating early, getting to position early to understand where different players want to be on the pitch.
“For front five forwards like myself it’s the middle of the park to try and get some go forward there, and basically just being in motion, momentum, and similar on both sides.”