Barry John

O NE week on, that agonising loss to England still hurts, but Alun Wyn Jones and his team will have put it to bed as they focus upon Scotland at Murrayfield this coming Saturday.

Wales may have been defeated, but there really were so many positives to take from from the game – namely the first 75 minutes, or so.

Alun Wyn led a formidable forward unit and definitely put down his own marker for the Lions Test captaincy. Next to him Jake Ball was magnificent, having grown so much as an international player in the past season.

Behind them Sam Warburton, Justin Tipuric and Ross Moriarty produced the best back row unit performance I’ve seen from a Welsh trio for quite some time. Taulupe Faletau is a world class player who I’ve talked up more than most, but for me Rob Howley needs to leave well alone with his team selection for Murrayfield, other than George North’s return.

Which brings us nicely onto the errors which ultimately cost us the England game, have been well documented in the days since and are the areas Howley needs to address most for Scotland.

The first are those substitutions and, in particular, Howley’s decision to take off Moriarty so early in the match.

While I understand Howley’s need to back himself in public and defend his decisions, in his quieter moments he has probably reflected more honestly in the past week as to whether he was right or wrong.

At best, in those quieter moments, the jury must be out for the coach. He will have a very hard time trying to convince himself he made the correct calls.

In particular, the decisions to replace Moriarty and Rhys Webb baffled me at the time and still do today. The whole team was amazing, but those two were the catalysts and suddenly they were not there. No wonder the side lost momentum and England were able to sneak it.

I really don’t think we will see that again at Murrayfield. Faletau will be available from the bench again, but ONLY if needed. Let’s see how the game pans out, rather than make a change for what seemed to many like change’s sake.

Even more important than that, there has to be evidence Wales have also learned with their kicking game. It was bad enough being punished by Elliot Daly when Jonathan Davies failed to find touch, but gift easy possession like that to Stuart Hogg and he will really make Wales pay again.

You simply cannot do that with a full-back of Hogg’s quality ready to capitalise on anything wayward. He is the player of the tournament thus far and is very much dangerman number one for Wales.

Hogg has always been a fantastic footballer, but these days he seems to have control of his temperament which has been suspect before. He seems to have grown up as a player and is really a class act.