Howley backs Faletau to rise up and prove himself
Despite being a near ever-present Bath No.8 facing battle for jersey
WALES head coach Rob Howley has backed No.8 Taulupe Faletau to thrive amid the intense pressure created by a fierce battle for back-row places.
Faletau has missed out on a Wales starting berth for the second successive RBS 6 Nations game, with Howley retaining a back-row trio of Sam Warburton, Justin Tipuric and Ross Moriarty against Scotland at BT Murrayfield on Saturday.
Bath forward Faletau has won just three of his 63 caps off the bench, underlining what an integral figure he is in the Wales set-up, but Moriarty’s performance in defeat to England 12 days ago made an irresistible selection case.
“Any player will tell you that they want to be put under pressure and they want competition for places,” Howley said.
“We’ve got four world-class back-row forwards there, and it is genuinely a great headache to have, to have a world-class player on the bench.
“I am sure it will drive Toby [Faletau] on. He hasn’t missed many games and has been a constant in the national team.
“He will be a constant in the [match-day] 23 for the future, and has a huge challenge with Ross, who has been outstanding.
“There is more growth in Ross and another level in him. He has shown deft skill, his work-rate and he emptied the tank against England if you look at the GPS data.”
Wales’ bench for Edinburgh is reinforced by the presence of Faletau’s Bath colleague – experienced lock Luke Charteris – and Howley wants more of an impact from his substitutes this weekend than was the case against England.
“You learn off the best as players and coaches, and you look at the All Blacks, in particular, when they go to the bench on 50-55 minutes and [those players] make a difference,” he added.
“That is what didn’t happen against England, and hopefully it will be different at Murrayfield.
“When you make changes, you expect impact. We feel that we’ve got a strong bench, and need to develop competition. Players coming on have to make a better impact than they did against England.”
Wales will face a Scotland side showing five changes from the one beaten by France, with injuries sidelining key players like Greig Laidlaw, Josh Strauss and Sean Maitland.
And Howley’s team are also chasing a 10th successive victory over their opponents, having not lost in the fixture since seven Chris Paterson penalties condemned them to a 21-9 defeat 10 years ago.
Howley believes the contact area and subsequent back-row battle will be critical, while Wales will also look to apply pressure on Scotland’s new number eight and scrumhalf combination of Ryan Wilson and Ali Price, who makes his first Six Nations start.
But the return after injury of George North could also be crucial to Wales’ victory hopes, with the giant Northampton wing hoping to increase his Test try t ally of 28. “He just missed out against England, and he is a player who gets supporters off seats whenever he gets the ball,” Howley said.
“We want him with ball in hand as often as possible, because he is very athletic and powerful.
“His try against Scotland 12 months ago summed up how he can change games, and he will be looking to have a huge influence.
“Scotland have a strong back-three with ball in hand with Stuart Hogg, [Tim] Visser and [Tommy] Seymour working hard off the ball.
“It will be a good contest within a contest because they are all players who want to get their hands on the ball and make people enjoy the game.”
Wales captain Alun Wyn Jones, meanwhile, accepts his team must be on guard, especially as Scotland caught Ireland out earlier this month with some unexpected, pre-planned attacking options.
“We’ve seen the willingness Scotland have to use the ball, and marry that with some of the funny things they’ve displayed from set-piece, then we have to be on our guard and expect the unexpected,” Jones said. SCOTLAND WOMEN Scotland Women now have more inner belief that they can win a Six Nations match, according to captain Lisa Martin.
Her side takes on Wales this evening at Broadwood (6.20pm) and the performance of the current crop of players against Ireland in this year’s opener earlier in the month was impressive.
They went down 22-15 in the end and took great heart from that showing.
That same weekend, Wales laboured to a 20-8 away win in Italy while both sides lost heavily last time out, Scotland 55-0 in France and the Welsh 63-0 at home to England.
Centre Martin said: “Ireland was a massive game for us. On the face of it we lost the game, but for us to be in it for 80 minutes I think has really given the girls a bit more inner belief that we can compete with these sides.
“The France match was tough, they just got their offloading game going and some of our girls had not played in front of such a big crowd before.
“However, the pleasing thing for me is that nobody went into their shells after it and there was no blaming each other. We have stuck together and come up with a game plan that we think can trouble the Welsh.”
Rollie; Gaffney, Thomson, Martin, Lloyd; Nelson, Law; Balmer, Skeldon, Smith, Wassell, McCormack, Forsyth, McMillan, Konkel. Park, Lockhart, Dougan, Bonar, O’Donnell, Maxwell, Sinclair, Harris.
Hywel; Joyce, Lake, De Filippo, Evans; Snowsill, Parker; Hale, Phillips, Evans, Rowe, Clay, Butchers, Taylor, Harries. Harries, Pyrs, Thomas, Lillicrap, Davies, Moore, Wilkins, Rowland. SCOTLAND UNDER-20s Scotland Under-20 stand-off Josh Henderson says the influence of his mentor Finn Russell has been crucial in allowing him to strike a better balance between his natural attacking instincts and the need to play the percentages.
The 19-year-old has come straight back into the team for tonight’s clash against Wales at Broadwood Stadium in Cumbernauld [kick-off 8.30pm] after missing the France match two weeks ago with a bug, and he has been instructed to get the ball wide to the likes of Darcy Graham and Ross McCann on the wings whenever possible. But the Glasgow Hawks youngster also knows that there will be times when a more disciplined approach is necessary.
“In the first two games of this Six Nations we’ve kept things quite tight, we’ve been pretty conservative, but that’s a positive because that’s what we’ve been practicing,” he said.
“Hopefully on Friday night you’ll see us chucking the ball about a bit more.
“My main feedback all the time is that I need to improve my tactical control.
“Finn Russell is my mentor at Glasgow Warriors and we speak about that a lot because he gets the same feedback, and I met with him on the Wednesday before the Ireland game and went through things he’s done in the past to help himself out.
“The main thing I took out of it is not playing what is in front of me but planning two phases ahead to give myself time on the ball, which has helped me a lot.”