North hopes record bid won’t go south

– George North and his Wales team-mates will have the chance to earn a place in the record books as they look to extend their winning run against Scotland today and so revive their Six Nations title hopes.

The giant Northampton wing missed Wales’s agonising 21-16 defeat by England in Cardiff two weeks ago but has recovered from a dead leg and will line up at Murrayfield seeking to become the first player to score tries in six successive games since the competition

Edinburgh

began way back in 1883.

North, whose return in place of stand-in Alex Cuthbert is the only change to the starting side, launched his hot streak with a dazzling solo score in a 27-23 victory against Scotland in February last year and Rob Howley, Wales’s interim head coach, warned: “We want George with ball in hand as often as possible.

“I suppose his try against Scotland 12 months ago sums up how he can change games and I’m certain he’ll be looking to have a huge influence against Scotland,” added Howley.

North, who has amassed 66 caps at the age of just 24, has scored three tries against Scotland but has yet to cross the opposition try-line for his country at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield ground.

Like all but one of his colleagues in Wales’s match-day 23, he has also yet to taste defeat against Scotland. Wales captain and second row mainstay Alun Wyn Jones is the only survivor of the country’s last loss to the Scots, home or away.

That came when Wales suffered a 21-9 defeat at Murrayfield on February 10, 2007, with Chris Paterson’s seven penalties accounting for all the Scots’ points (replacement hooker Ross Ford is the only survivor from Scotland’s 23 that day).

Wales have won a record nine in a row against Scotland since then, a feat beyond even their greats of the 1970s, who were beaten at Murrayfield in 1973 and 1975. –