Scotland vs Wales: Gregor Townsend looking to smash Warren Gatland's dominance over Scots

Gatland is unbeaten against Scotland since becoming Wales coach

Gatland's record against Scotland is remarkable (Getty)

Gregor Townsend is under no illusions about the uphill battle ahead of his team as they try to stop the Welsh juggernaut from running them over en route to a Six Nations Grand Slam.

That won’t stop Townsend trying to rouse his men to an unexpected win at Murrayfield, a win that would help the auld enemy, sure, but a win that is much-needed to restore some pride into a team who have been too much of a walkover for Warren Gatland’s Wales in recent years.

Scotland only boast three home wins against the Welsh in Six Nations history. One of those came in 2017, their last game against those red invaders at Murrayfield but also a fixture where Rob Howley was interim boss of the Welsh. Gatland’s record against the Scots remains unblemished.

They are big favourites for it to stay that way, with the 34-7 win over the Scots last year representing their second-biggest victory ever over the wildlings in the north and Gatland’s men currently on a run of 12 consecutive Test wins. ‘Be afraid’ is the message, but Townsend isn’t listening. He wants Scotland to rise like they did against the English a year ago and has made some changes in search of a spark, benching captain Greg Laidlaw and handing Ali Price and Finn Russell starts at 9 and 10.

"Wales have a very good record against us and are in excellent form,” he said.

"It's a similar challenge to the one we faced last year against England, who had also been on a very good run of results in their preceding games.

"We rose to the challenge that day and found a way to win and I firmly believe we can reach that level of performance once again on Saturday."

For Gatland, this win is all about momentum heading into a final-week showdown with Ireland. Scotland could be a banana skin but his side have shown their ability to lock opponents down, strangling England’s kicking game and generally showing the hallmarks of a well-coached team defensively.

On that run of 12 wins in a row, Wales have conceded just 13.9 points per game. They have won all eight Tests that Gareth Anscombe has started at fly-half too, which might be why Gatland said his selection headache this week was, well, not so much of a pain.

"It was a fairly straightforward selection,” he said, making only one injury-enforced change to his line-up b bringing in Adam Beard to replace lock Cory Hill.

“After that performance against England they deserved the opportunity to back it up.

"There is no doubt that their record at Murrayfield has been very impressive, and they are hard to beat there for any team.

"They will be disappointed and hurting from that performance against France in Paris. We are well aware of their threat.

"The maturity in the team, not panicking and having that belief that they can come through and win a game; that's been massive for this team.

I don't see any fear in their eyes or any trepidation."

Teams

Scotland: 15. Kinghorn; 14. Seymour, 13. Grigg, 12. P Horne, 11. Graham; 10. Russell, 9. Price; 1. Dell, 2. McInally (capt), 3. Nel, 4. Gilchrist, 5. J Gray, 6. Bradbury, 7. Ritchie, 8. Strauss.

Replacements: 16. Brown, 17. Reid, 18. Berghan, 19. Toolis, 20. Watson, 21. Laidlaw, 22. Hastings, 23. McGuigan.

Wales: 15. L Williams; 14. North, 13. J Davies, 12. Parkes, 11. Adams; 10. Anscombe, 9. G Davies; 1. R Evans, 2. Owens, 3. Francis, 4. Beard, 5. AW Jones (c), 6. Navidi, 7. Tipuric, 8. Moriarty.

Replacements: 16. Dee, 17. Smith, 18. Lewis, 19. Ball, 20. Wainwright, 21. A Davies, 22. Biggar, 23. Watkin.