Preview: Wales vs Scotland (Saturday, 4:45pm)
Wales’ George North and Scotland’s Blair Kinghorn will both be absent from the two countries’ opening game of the Six Nations in a highly-anticipated showdown in Cardiff.
North has not recovered in time from a shoulder injury picked up against the Lions in the EPCR Challenge Cup last month, while Kinghorn has picked up a training injury to his knee this week.
In addition to the notable absentees both countries have named inexperienced fullbacks, with Wales giving Cameron Winnett a cap in what will be only his 16th game of professional rugby, while Scotland hand Kyle Rowe a first international start.
On North’s absence, Warren Gatland said: “George got quite a big stinger in terms of his shoulder and didn’t take part in full training last week, so Owen Watkin comes into the midfield.”
Watkin will partner inside centre Nick Tompkins, with Josh Adams on the right wing and Rio Dyer the left.
Sam Costelow gets the big responsibility of filling Dan Biggar’s shoes in the number ten shirt, and is accompanied by the experience Gareth Davies in the half-backs.
Wales change both props from their defeat to Argentina that ended their World Cup at the quarter-final stage with Corey Domachowski and Leon Brown heading the scrum, with James Botham making a first appearance since July 2021 at blindside in place of the injured Jac Morgan.
Captain Dafydd Jenkins is joined by Adam Beard in the second row, with Botham and Winnett’s uncapped Cardiff teammate Alex Mann in the replacement back row role.
On his new caps, Gatland said: “Cameron Winnett is just a lovely footballer, and I think he is going to develop into a quality international player in the future.
“He is young and there will be no pressure on him. It is also great that Alex Mann is on the bench, and will hopefully get his debut as well.”
As well as Kinghorn, Scotland also have Darcy Graham absent from their preferred back three, so Kyle Steyn joins fellow South-African born Duhan van der Merwe on the wings.
Huw Jones and Sione Tuipulotu continue their hugely successful centre pairing, with Finn Russell skippering the side from fly-half alongside Ben White at scrum-half.
Russell captains on his own as co-captain Rory Darge is unavailable, paving the way for Jamie Ritchie to retain his place on the starting teamsheet in between Luke Crosbie and Matt Fagerson – who both came off the bench in Scotland’s defeat to Ireland that ended their World Cup in the pool stage.
Scott Cummings is also elevated from the bench in that game to join Richie Gray in the second row, and though the front row is unchanged props Elliot Millar-Mills and Alec Hepburn – who was capped six times by England in 2018 – are both in line to make their Scotland debuts off the bench.
“It’s been a real positive reaction to the challenge,” said Scotland coach Gregor Townsend of Ritchie. “He’s just gone out and trained really well.
“Part of the reason he is no longer captain is not so much his performances but the performances of others. We have so much competition in the back row. It wasn’t guaranteed he’d be in the starting team.
“But we know how well he has played for Scotland and we believe he’s getting back to that form.”
Ritchie and new captain Russell will be hoping to play a key part in ending Wales’ 11-game, 22-year stranglehold over their Celtic counterparts in Cardiff.
“Scotland haven’t won here in a long, long time,” Gatland added “And it is an opportunity for us to continue with that record.
“Scotland want the roof open, which I think is a little bit disappointing from an atmosphere point of view because when that roof is shut it does tend to create a lot more atmosphere and noise in the stadium. But that is the decision that they made.”
Scotland did beat Wales on their own turf in 2020, but that was a game played in front of an empty Parc Y Scarlets due to Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.
Though Scotland have been forced into some late changes, they head into the tournament with perhaps the most settled squad of the Six Nations whilst Wales will have to move into a new era without the likes of Alun Wyn Jones, Louis Rees-Zammit, Liam Williams, Dan Biggar and Justin Tipuric.
Despite this, Townsend is taking no chances and openly acknowledged he wanted the roof open to dilute the intensity of the atmosphere in the stadium.
“I looked at the forecast and it looked quite nice, I’d much prefer playing with the roof open if we can,” he said.
“It’s noisier when the roof’s closed, that’s why they’re disappointed. They don’t get that (advantage).
“If the pitch is greasy it’s not great conditions, but it would be better playing in heavy rain. When we looked, it was good weather with 20 to 30 per cent chance of rain in the morning.”
Wales: Winnett; Dyer, Watkin, Tompkins, Adams; Costelow, G Davies; Domachowski, Elias, Brown, D Jenkins (capt), Beard, Botham, Reffell, Wainwright.
Replacements: Dee, Mathias, Assiratti, Teddy Williams, Mann, Tomos Williams, I Lloyd, Grady.
Scotland: Rowe, Steyn, Jones, Tuipulotu, Van der Merwe, Russell, White; Schoeman, Turner, Z Fagerson, R Gray, Cummings, Crosbie, Ritchie, M Fagerson.
Replacements: Ashman, Hepburn, Millar-Mills, Skinner, Dempsey, Horne, Healy, Redpath.
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