Well beaten in Dublin last weekend, Wales return to Cardiff on Saturday seeking to put things right after a sub-par performance. Here is how Wales plan to bounce back and prevent a first Scottish Six Nations win in Cardiff for 20 years.

More physicality

Wales left Dublin last week with not only their bodies battered and bruised but their pride too, having convincingly lost the physical battle upfront against Ireland. Their 6ft 8in lock Will Rowlands, unsurprisingly given his stature, took that personally.

“It’s always a focus for me to try and improve on, and to try and bring a bit of that to the team,” Rowlands admits. “I do take it personally when we’ve come second best in that area, and I did a bit on the weekend.”

“I don’t want to say on the back of last weekend’s result that the guys are fired up to perform well this weekend, because it’s a Six Nations game at home at the Principality Stadium in front of 75,000 of our fans. Everyone is fired up for those occasions all the time – but it definitely does add an edge.”

Frankly, Wales were lucky last Saturday to only be 10-0 down at half-time. Ireland’s phenomenal clean-out work at the ruck to generate quick ball had Wales’ defence grafting from one breakdown to the next at a rapid and unsustainable pace, given they were unable either slow down or pilfer Ireland’s possession.

The additions of uncapped Jac Morgan and No 8 Ross Moriarty to the back row, combining with Taine Basham, should hopefully fix that issue, giving Wales more possession and sapping less energy away in defence. Morgan, the 22-year-old Ospreys flanker, by the sounds of things has been ripping up trees in training, and leads the United Rugby Championship in tackles and turnovers won this season. 

Moriarty meanwhile is edging back to full power since recovering from injury. Alex Cuthbert’s return on the wing for a first Six Nations game since 2017 adds another powerful carrier back into the mix.

Rowlands, who spoke well about Wales’ shortcomings and how to correct them, outlined the work that Wales have put in since Dublin to come out on top in those confrontations.

“Our footwork patterns, individual stuff, and then as a team just talking about communicating early, get our spacing so we are in a position to then get off the line and bring some momentum into the collisions.”

Better scrum outcomes

Pivac and Wales certainly hope for a better return out of the scrum. At least one set-piece penalty surprisingly went against Wales at the scrum in the eyes of Jaco Peyper against Ireland, something which Wales’ management raised with World Rugby in their usual report this week.

“We’ve had a very, very rapid response,” Pivac explained. “We don’t need to tinker too much with the scrum because we felt we were going very well in that area of the game, but probably didn’t get the decisions we felt we should have. We’ve been told to keep going and we feel we’re on the right track there.”

That should give Wyn Jones and Tomas Francis, Wales’ starting props, some confidence heading into their confrontation with Pierre Schoeman and WP Nel.

Some calm in midfield

Nick Tompkins must feel like there’s a revolving door in the centre berth alongside him whenever he plays for Wales. As highlighted by statistician Russ Petty, Owen Watkin becomes the fifth consecutive different centre partner that Tompkins has played with for Wales.

The Josh Adams experiment at 13 was not as much of a failure as many suggested, but even so, a tight calf for Adams means Wales can go with another more obvious option. Watkin hasn’t played a Test for Wales since the win over Scotland last year in the Six Nations, with Pivac outlining why the Ospreys centre had been sent away to work on his game.

“It was getting his hands on the ball more and expressing himself in attack. We know he is a very solid defender. He has worked hard, shown glimpses in attack at 13 a few weeks back,” Pivac explained.

“What we do know is when we go down to training as coaches, it’s the work he is putting in behind the scenes that is catching the eye. The Ospreys coaches are happy with him and we’re seeing that now in our training sessions.”

Providing Watkin with more front-foot ball to work with would certainly help.