Key events
AWAY WE GO! Wales kick off and Scotland secure the ball…
Forgot to mention that 25-year-old Gabriel Hamer-Webb is making his Test debut for Wales on the wing.
Hope he goes well.
Right then. Almost ready for kick-off. Scotland in blue. Wales in red. A stunning venue. Loads of pride on the line. It doesn’t get better than this, does it?!
Yes, we know the team is struggling, but the Principality Stadium looks incredible!
If you are a rugby fan and you’ve not visited this cathedral, get your accountant on the line and book yourself a trip.
The whole thing is amazing. St Mary Street. The songs. The pubs. The daffodils. The closed rood. It’s amazing.
Speaking of, time for the anthems. Two of the best in our sport.
We’ve got out first correspondence for the afternoon:
This is from Matthew Dony:
I am not a confident Welsh fan. There are so many issues at the moment, it’s hard to know where to start. The WRU is spectacularly badly run. We were fortunate to have a couple of generations of genuinely World Class players between the mid 00’s and 2020ish, and considering the resources available, population, player base etc, that was always likely to drop off at some point. But I don’t think anyone expected the drop-off to be quite so drastic. We kept being told that it was a young side who would gained experience and improve. But that’s been a stuck record for 4 years or so. There’s no identity to the team. When you watch them, you often cant see what they’re trying to achieve. The basics, the flipping basics(!), are repeatedly falling apart. The first quarter against England was as bad a spell of international rugby as you’re ever likely to see. I don’t know where to go from here. It’s hideous.
Forget the result. I just hope they give you a performance to feel proud of.
Luke McLaughlin heard from Wales’ skipper, Dewi Lake, who has urged the home fans to give his boys a lift:
Scotland’s skipper, Sione Tuipulotu, knows that he can’t take Wales lightly:
I put pressure on the group to be desperate out there and show desperation.
It also makes me a little bit frustrated because the week before we couldn’t against Italy for a lot of reasons. So that feeling is still there for me and I hope it stays with me for the rest of the tournament, because I think it’s needed.
I’m still very desperate. I just know you can’t lose two games in this tournament and think you’re going to be there at the back end for anything.
In order for us to stay in this tournament, we’ve got to be just as desperate, just as emotional, just as clinical as we were last week.
Keen to see how Sam Costelow gets on for Wales at fly-half.
This will be his first start under coach Steve Tandy.
Dan Edwards started the next seven Tests but does not make the matchday squad today.
The Opta Supercomputer has crunched the numbers and the results are in…
Wales have a 12.3% chance of winning. To be fair, I think most Welsh fans would take that.
According to the machine, we can expect a score of Wales 13-36 Scotland.
With England currently getting a pasting from Ireland, Scotland have a golden opportunity to finish in the top two for the first time in Six Nations history.
Of course a lot needs to go their way, let alone the fact that they’d need to beat Ireland – as well as Wales this afternoon. But who could have predicted that England would be out of the running after three rounds?
Point I’m trying to make is that Scotland’s route to a top two spot is shaping up rather nicely.
Scotland team
How do you improve on a team that just stuffed England? Bring in Blair Kinghorn at fullback!
The Tolouse man is fit and ready to let rip from the backfield. In the pack, Townsend has brought in Dave Cherry, Max Williamson and Matt Fagerson in place of George Turner, Jamie Ritchie and Jack Dempsey.
Oh, a certain Duhan van der Merwe also returns to the wing.
Scotland: 15 Blair Kinghorn; 14 Kyle Steyn, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Sione Tuipulotu, 11 Duhan van der Merwe; 10 Finn Russell, 9 Ben White; 1 Nathan McBeth, 2 Dave Cherry, 3 Zander Fagerson, 4 Max Williamson, 5 Scott Cummings, 6 Gregor Brown, 7 Rory Darge, 8 Matt Fagerson.
Replacements: 16 George Turner, 17 Pierre Schoeman, 18 Elliot Millar Mills, 19 Grant Gilchrist, 20 Josh Bayliss, 21 George Horne, 22 Tom Jordan, 23 Darcy Graham.
Wales team
Louis Rees-Zammit starts at fullback while Steve Tandy has made two changes to the pack.
Adam Beard and Olly Cracknell make way for Ben Carter and Taine Plumtree, with Aaron Wainwirght moving from blind-side flanker to his usual spot at No. 8 (where I think he is a superstar).
Wales: 15 Louis Rees-Zammit; 14 Gabriel Hamer-Webb, 13 Eddie James, 12 Joe Hawkins, 11 Josh Adams; 10 Sam Costelow, 9 Tomos Williams; 1 Rhys Carre, 2 Dewi Lake, 3 Tomas Francis, 4 Dafydd Jenkins, 5 Ben Carter, 6 Taine Plumtree, 7 Alex Mann, 8 Aaron Wainwright
Replacements: 16 Ryan Elias, 17 Nicky Smith, 18 Archie Griffin, 19 Freddie Thomas, 20 James Botham, 21 Kieran Hardy, 22 Jarrod Evans, 23 Blair Murray
Preamble
Daniel Gallan
While hanging out with my five-year-old son in the park this morning, I sparked a conversation with a bloke in a Welsh jersey.
“You’re not shy wearing that,” I said, attempting light banter.
“I’m confident,” he shot back. “Playing Scotland after they beat England is the perfect game for us.”
It got me thinking. The logical part of my brain dismissed this as a mix of Welsh cockiness and Welsh hopefulness. After all, if Scotland had no problem swatting aside England, and England had no problem swatting aside Wales, then wisdom would dictate that this match between the two Celtic nations would be a forgone conclusion.
But rugby doesn’t always deal in logic. International sport often throws convention out the window. And as my day has progressed from the chaos at the park to an impromptu playdate to some much needed TV time with the wee fella, I’ve started buying into the possibility of an unlikely Welsh victory.
Look, it probably won’t happen. Wales are a basket case and Scotland are on a high. But, as we all know, stranger things have happened. Perhaps that Welsh bloke in the playground was right.
We’ll find out together once things kick off in Cardiff at 4:40pm.
If you’re a Welsh fan who shared that confidence (or not) or you’re a Scottish fan who is supremely assured (or not) or you’re just a regular ol’ rugby fan, do write in. I’d love to hear from ya.
Team news and other bits to come.