Warren Gatland has made one change to the Wales team to play Scotland this weekend, with Liam Williams coming onto the wing in place of George North, who, while not showing any symptoms of concussion, has been rested to ensure a full recovery, especially in light of the concussion he suffered in the autumn.
Scott Williams takes namesake Liam’s place on the bench – otherwise the squad is unchanged from the one that lost to England at the Millennium Stadium.
“The response from the players has been very positive in training this week and we are looking forward to having the opportunity to right last weekend’s wrongs,” said Gatland.
“Scotland started the tournament well against France, building on their autumn campaign and they will be looking forward to welcoming us to Edinburgh this weekend. We know what we need to do and we hope our performance can reflect that.”
WALES TEAM TO PLAY SCOTLAND:
Leigh Halfpenny (Toulon), Alex Cuthbert (Cardiff Blues), Jonathan Davies (ASM Clermont Auvergne), Jamie Roberts (Racing Metro), Liam Williams (Scarlets), Dan Biggar (Ospreys), Rhys Webb (Ospreys), Gethin Jenkins (Cardiff Blues), Richard Hibbard (Gloucester), Samson Lee* (Scarlets), Jake Ball (Scarlets), Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys), Dan Lydiate (Ospreys), Sam Warburton (Cardiff Blues, CAPT), Taulupe Faletau (Newport Gwent Dragons).
Replacements: Scott Baldwin (Ospreys), Paul James (Bath Rugby), Aaron Jarvis (Ospreys), Luke Charteris (Racing Metro), Justin Tipuric (Ospreys), Mike Phillips (Racing Metro), Rhys Priestland (Scarlets), Scott Williams (Scarlets).
Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images
36 replies on “Six Nations 2015: Wales team named to play Scotland”
Mixed feelings about this squad…. Glad to see Liam Williams there but would have hoped that if injury hadn’t come in he’d have replaced Cuthbert who is starting to become a bit of an unlikable figure in Cardiff. Scott Williams on bench – would have liked to have seem him replace JD but my main criticism of JD was that he didn’t look sharp. Gats has a track record of playing these players into form during competitions so we could well see JD back to his best this weekend I suppose.
On the one hand I commend the desire to see these boys perform better than last week (and have to factor in the lack of options in lots of areas) as if we didn’t we may well be throwing out good stuff. Should be a great game. Pity it is a Sunday.
I was so disappointed with the game against England, the offensive game was terrible, no inspiration. I had the feeling that the players were simply running out of gas so I suspect a heavy physical preparation. I think that the tournament is not a priority at all for Wales
No international side, I don’t care what nation it is in what tournament under what circumstances, no international side goes into a test match not caring if they win or lose.
Fair point with one exception – the French (of course)
2011 WC pool stages against NZ and “nobody beats the All Blacks twice in a row”
DDD
I am with you on that but I was reading somewhere that the week before the Welsh players had a very intensive week of physical training and they were completely dry for the game.
If Gats really has prioritised the WC over the 6Ns then I’d be extremely annoyed. We can win the 6Ns and, despite what some think, it matters regardless of whether we then go on and totally cock up in the world cup. Can we win the WC? Pfft. We’re in there with the never-before’s in terms of chances. Some luck with injuries and some excellent performances and we know we can beat anyone but we know for a fact we can win the 6Ns if we play to our best. (Can, not Will. Can). So to prioritise a slim chance at a WC trophy over a decent chance of a 6Ns trophy is not on – IF that is what is going on.
No Welshman would ever play an international rugby game against England and not care about it. We had plenty of issues, but I don’t think that was the root of it.
There may be a point about the lack of gas, given the reported amounts of fitness training they’re doing which, perhaps, wasn’t timed very well.
This performance had less to do with effort (which just won’t have been less than 100%) and more to do where the effort was channelled. It’s no use putting all your effort into doing the wrong thing!
Hmmm. Yes. Given that this is the team that beat SA in the autumn there is clearly plenty of talent. As you say though, thought JD looked off the pace, and I would like to see Scott Williams play. Looking ahead as an England supporter I am quite happy for Wales to be slow starters and play themselves into form, as that gives us the best chance of beating Wales in the World Cup.
Wales fixtures before *that* match:
Aug 8th – Ireland
Aug 29th – Ireland
Sep 5th – Italy
Sep 20th – Uruguay
Sep 26th – England
If we can’t get warmed up over 4 matches then we never will….
I predicted and understood that whole sale changes were never going to happen. What worries me is number of times we allow certain players chances after playing badly. Go back 12 months after we`d been soundly beaten against Ireland, Gatland and staff gave players one last chance to improve. We beat a fairly average French side in Cardiff and we`re back to square one. Players feel to safe.
As ever Cementhead does a ‘same again lads’ selection after such a poor performance v England.
We need:-
A) Paul James at 1.
We all know that Gethin is a better player but not a better prop. It is like having a scrum half who cannot pass but tackles and wins turnovers.
Gethin has been found out too often now at the top level.
B) Tipuric at 7 (SW at 6). Let’s have 2 flyers and win the breakdown and get quick ball for the backs.
Lydiate needs to play more games at the Ospreys and prove he is up to it b 4 getting automatic selection just like Gethin J/Cuthbert are at the moment.
C) Scott Williams for JD as guys in form should play, not guys picked on reputation.
D) Any winger…any winger please for God’s sake anyone….. instead of Cuthbert.
The guy is playing poorly in a poor Cardiff team but gets his Wale place like some sort of birth-right just like Jenkins/Lydiate do.
It is totally ridiculous that it is harder to get dropped for poor play than it is to get picked on form by this coach.
Whatever happens on the Sabbath it won’t put this season right as Wales again lost an opening fixture as in 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015. (and 2014 was against Italy in Cardiff so losing that would be a disaster)
Oncurrent performance and Cementhead’s stubborn refusal to change selection policies mid-table mediocrity in 2015 again awaits.
Whoa. What a brilliant, concise, witty and insightful post. Could we have more of these please?
If Cuthbert had a place by “Birth-right”, it would be England.
😉
I always think with our boys who could have played for England that it says a lot that they preferred Wales…. 😉
(PS. Thoroughly confused right now as there is nothing I find particularly objectionable in Enoch’s post…).
Brighty, care to explain what you meant by Cuthbert being an unlikeable figure in Cardiff? Is he acting up?
Yep. There are rumours that he has been agitating for a move away and a perceived air of “I’m too good for this lot” about him. His attitude on the pitch for the Blues has upset many fans. Always bitching and moaning. Never much effort seen, lots of muttering and moaning.
I second this. I went to watch the Ospreys Vs Blues as far back as April 2014 and he was exactly as Brighty describes. Nothing is ever his fault it seems, and as Brighty eludes to, given his success at International level, it seems to have given him an “I’m the most important player in this squad” attitude and thinks he can swan about doing as he pleases (which usually isn’t much in a Blues shirt).
Fans don’t appreciate it, and while everything appears fine to the outside world, I cannot imagine for one minute that its gone unnoticed by the rest of the squad. No likes a personality like that – we’ve all met them, whatever your profession.
That’s very sad. Perhaps a change of scenery will do him good. Sometimes it takes players a while to come round. But players do get full of themselves sometimes. Like you say, there’s one in every workplace.
Sadly so Brighty, if England had some of those available they might be world beaters now!
Re Wales prep for World Cup. My friend was with the Welsh group post-match and saw Gatland grin and say ‘we’re hoping they’ll keep Ford now’. There’s a lot of kidology going on isn’t there. I don’ think we can get complacent about those pool stages. Schmidt may be flavour of the month but gatland’s a cunning old fox,
if Gatland thinks England are worse off for having George Ford at 10 he’s nuts. Yet to be seen whether he keeps it up, but on the (admittedly minimal) evidence so far England look far more threatening
Huh, really? I find it hard to believe that we avoided targeting Ford through some sort of genius WC plan?
Hmmm… As a Welsh supporter I’d far rather see Farrell playing 10.
Nice as it is to think this was some sort of master-plan to guarantee success at the world cup, I think it’s more likely that they’d decided not to attack it thinking they wouldn’t get much change out of Barrett and didn’t change the plan when he was ruled out – either that or “well they’ll expect us to do this, so let’s surprise them by playing to our weaknesses”.
I’ll keep hoping that it was a master plan though!
Kingpin, yes I’ve heard about this too. As a Wales supporter I really object to treating 6 nations in this way! But Gatland is cunning, takes a long view and asked for a good start, nothing more. Hmmm……..
2 things strike me as a little odd with this;
Firstly, Gatland may have his cunning plans, but I cannot believe that any of the players were not trying their damnedest to win. One may surmise that the strict plan Gatland gave them stifled their ability to actually win BUT, they are not idiots (well some of them may be, but not all) and if they get a sniff that Gatland is undermining their efforts, then he will lose more than the odd game.
Secondly, why would they hope England keep Ford? The only reason would be because they suspect his kicking could be suspect, or that they have a different plan to attack him with the ball. Either way it strikes me as being just a little bit desperate.
Mind gameas. Gatland always likes throwing a little shade. In reality, it’s not like Ford was made or broken by this one game. It may be that the conditioning and suchlike are geared towards a top performance in the autumn, but I can’t believe for a second this result didn’t hurt him a bit.
Thinking it through for a mo – let’s imagine it was all a masterplan. If you were devious enough to think that one up you wouldn’t blow it by mentioning it in front of a bunch of outside people at some after match thing, would you?
That’s all part of the plan!
It seems he’s even more devious than we thought…
Wow – that is really amazing. I hadn’t thought of that. A plan within a spin with a plan. Genius stuff. I bet we tactically lose on Sunday as well just to keep up the pretence.
Jezus lads will you all relax – when you hear horses hooves don’t look for Zebras!
I shat out something this morning more cunning than Gatland.
DDD
DingDong – your brains by the sound of it! Gatland’s not stupid; he probably just about knows his rugby EVEN better than you do.
dingdongdenny
Well Ireland are still tying of course… & just for an iota of balance, NZ did put Fr out of 2 WC finals I believe.. altho not consecutively of course.
Anonymous
Agree.
At least we are in agreement that what I shat out this morning was more cunning than Gatland – the fact that it was my brains means at least I still have my heart for rugby – unlike (if what you say is true) the whole Welsh team!
Personally I wouldn’t defame such a great Rugby nation and team as Wales by pedaling such scurrilous rumours. And if there is any truth to them it just proves Gatland is a sore losing plank.
DDD
dingdongdenny
And I thought cunning lingus was an Oirish airline til I discovered Smirnoff.