Edinburgh: Wales will be seeking to repeat their Six Nations championship recovery mission of 2013 when they meet the challenge of a vastly improved Scotland side at Murrayfield on Sunday.
Having opened their 2015 campaign with a 21-16 defeat against England in Cardiff, Wales hope they can emulate the turnaround they achieved two years ago when they were beaten 30-22 at home to Ireland on the opening day only to then win on the road against France in Paris and proceeded to claim the title.
“Every game is a must-win game for us now,” said Wales captain Sam Warburton. “We have three away games out of the four, which makes it difficult, but we did it two years ago after losing our first game at home to Ireland.”
Wales launched their 2013 championship comeback with a 16-6 success in Paris, secured with a try by George North, who has been rested for the trip to Edinburgh after suffering two concussions against England.
The Northampton wing has been replaced by Liam Williams, the former steelworks scaffolder who helped to construct a record 51-3 victory in Cardiff last season with the first of seven Welsh tries against a Scotland side reduced to 14 men after full back Stuart Hogg was red carded.
Wales head coach Warren Gatland has also been forced to make a change in the front row, Samson Lee having failed to recover from the concussion he suffered against England. He is replaced at tighthead prop by Ospreys’ Aaron Jarvis, with Scott Andrews on bench duty.
“Our performance last week wasn’t good enough,” said Gatland. “We let ourselves down and we let a lot of the fans down. We’ve got to go up there and get back on the horse.”
Wales have yet to lose to Scotland under Gatland’s stewardship. Their last defeat was a 21-9 reverse at Murrayfield in February 2007, nine months before his appointment as head coach.
The New Zealander, however, will be wary of the threat posed by a Scottish team whose performances have been transformed since the arrival of fellow Kiwi Vern Cotter as head coach in May last year.
Cotter’s Scots gave France a tough game before losing 15-8 in Paris last Saturday, outscoring the hosts on the try front, 1-0.
They have been forced to make two changes to their starting fifteen. Geoff Cross comes in at tighthead prop for Euan Murray, who is unavailable to play on Sundays because of his religious beliefs. Sean Lamont replaces his injured Glasgow team-mate Tommy Seymour on the right wing, taking his haul of caps to 92.
“Warren Gatland’s record speaks for itself,” said Cotter. “We’re playing against a team who consider it just a day in the office to come up and beat us.
“I think the players would like to be able to measure themselves against this Welsh group — to see what we need to do so we can develop and improve our game. It will be a great exercise just to see how we measure up.”
Asked whether his players were on a mission to avenge last year’s 51-3 defeat in Cardiff, Cotter replied: “They do have a recollection, a memory of that game. They’ll be using it solely to stay focused as long as possible in what will be a very tight contest.”
