Taylor: Scots to be in sync with ref

Scotland believe they’ll be on the wavelength of match referee Pascal Gauzere against a Welsh side that has the best disciplinary record in the Six Nations, says defence coach Matt Taylor.

Taylor said they’d had a productive pre- match chat with the French referee, who was in charge a year ago in Cardiff when the Welsh routed Scotland 34-7, when asked how they would put pressure on the Welsh, who conceded just three penalties in the toe-to-toe battle with England two weeks ago.

“We’ve had a good chat with the referee,” said Taylor. “There are a few things around the game where we’re confident we might get results in terms of penalties and hopefully that comes to fruition.

“I won’t go into it (in detail) because it’ll give the opposition an idea of how we’re thinking, but we’ve seen one or two things which will hopefully give us an advantage.

“You can’t totally rely on those conversations you have with referees, all you can do is highlight areas of concern and hopefully you get the benefit.

“Refs want to give teams warnings before the game because they don’t want to catch them by surprise. But if Wales keep doing what they’ve been doing then you hope you get something out of it.”

It does seem slightly odd that the same referee should get a fixture two years in succession, but in any case Scotland are looking more at a game involving a Welsh referee last year – the Calcutta Cup game refereed by Nigel Owens – as an example of what they can do.

“Wales are on a bit of a run, very similar to what England were last year when they came here,” Taylor pointed out.

“So we’re looking forward to taking them on at Murrayfield. We’ve got fond memories of doing well against Wales two years ago and we’re pretty focused this week.

“Where they are at the moment means it would be a huge win for us.

“I think about the wins over the last couple of years, the England win, the Welsh win and Irish win, and France who we’ve beaten at home the past two times.

“It would be huge for us, where they are, and where they sit in the championship. It’s important for us to go out and put a performance on. We’re highly motivated to do that because we’re at home and I think we’ll do well.”