Buckle up for another Six who can handle the injuries
ARE you sitting comfortably? Or are you in the brace position ahead of the visit of Gregor Townsend’s Scotland to the Principality Stadium this afternoon?
No-one in the Wales cockpit is suggesting anyone should panic.
No-one is suggesting anyone has borrowed the famed line from the stewardess in Airplane! You know, when she said: “There’s no reason to become alarmed, and we hope you enjoy the rest of your flight. By the way, is there anyone on board who knows how to fly a plane?”
Even so, there have been hints that unless extreme caution is exercised there could be a spot of turbulence ahead and even the odd mountain top clipped.
Attack coach Rob Howley installed the Scots as “favourites” against Wales and said they had been playing great rugby, while goal-kicking chief Neil Jenkins described them as “very talented and unpredictable”, adding that Wales needed to be prepared for anything.
And head coach Warren Gatland has also applauded Townsend’s team, observing: “Potentially, they are serious challengers for the Six Nations.” What is there to say? Every coach relishes his team being written up as underdogs. And it may be that Gatland will have quite enjoyed former Wales captain Gwyn Jones’s prediction that “Scotland will sneak a win in Cardiff”, as well as Austin Healey talking of Scotland potentially being involved in a threehorse race for the Six Nations title with England and Ireland, adding: “This is the perfect time to be playing Wales.” Let’s see. Wales are missing five Lions behind in Jonathan Davies, Liam Williams, George North, Dan Biggar and Rhys Webb and a complete Lions Test back row in Sam Warburton, Dan Lydiate and Taulupe Faletau.
It explains the bout of collective head-scratching among Ospreys supporters at the omission of Justin Tipuric from the starting line-up.
He is a Test Lion, after all, who has played more than 50 times for his country. Consistently, he has proven for the Ospreys he can do the physical stuff as well as the flashy stuff. Last summer, respected judges in New Zealand were impressed by him. Yet he will have to bide his time before joining the fray against the Scots.
James Davies’ form for the Scarlets has also counted for only so much.
But Gatland presumably has a plan and the suspicion is that it involves trying to use the likes of Ross Moriarty and Josh Navidi to carry directly and strongly behind a front five under orders to do a number on the visitors, especially at the scrums. Ah, the scrums. Cut to 1987, when a small knot of supporters from Maesteg arrived belatedly in an Edinburgh hotel to watch Wales take on Scotland, having earlier failed to find a way into Murrayfield without tickets.
They cheered and chanted loudly as the Old Parish’s then prop, Peter Francis, an excellent player at club level, ran on for his Test debut.
But the afternoon proved calamitous for Francis and indeed for the Welsh scrum against a Scottish eight in which props David Sole and Iain Milne reigned supreme. Sole, in particular, dished out a scrummaging lesson, watched by the increasingly subdued lads from the Llynfi Valley.
It transpired that amid the carnage referee Keith Lawrence had said to Wales lock Bob Norster: “I’m not happy with your tight-head prop.”
Norster’s reply? “You’re not happy? How do you think I feel?”
The surprise was Wales lost that game by just six points, given the setpiece smashing they received.
But lose they did, confirming once again the old adage that if you haven’t got a scrum you haven’t got a hope in hell of winning.
Have Scotland got a scrum this weekend?
They seem to think so, with head coach Townsend saying: “We believe we’ve got a really strong scrummaging unit, with two players that can scrum and also add impact off the bench.”
No surprise there: Townsend was never going to come up with his best Private Frazer impression and lament: “We’re doomed! Doomed, I tell you!”
But these are the facts: the visitors are missing hookers Ross Ford, Fraser Brown and George Turner, while props Zander Fagerson, WP Nel, Darryl Marfo, Allan Dell and Al Dickinson are all injured. And the tight-head Simon Berghan is banned.
Jon Welsh, who features at No.3, last started a Test in 2015, and Gordon Reid has begun only one in 10 months.
However you paint it, that is some casualty list at the sharp end.
And, if they are to win, Wales need to take advantage of it, with their allScarlets front row to the fore.
The hosts have powerful scrummagers in reserve, too, in the shape of Wyn Jones and Tomas Francis.
This, then, is a strength-in-depth challenge for both sides.
Wales opted not to risk George North and Hallam Amos behind, but they do run with Moriarty up front, despite the big man having played just three games in nine months after leaving the Lions tour early with a back problem.
No doubt Gatland will have told him: “Give me absolutely everything for 50 minutes to an hour. Be fero-