2020 Six Nations Championship – Wales vs Scotland Preview & Prediction
THE FACTS
When is Wales vs Scotland taking place? Saturday 31st October, 2020 – 14:15
Where is Wales vs Scotland taking place? Parc y Scarlets, Llanelli
Where can I get tickets for Wales vs Scotland? This match will be played without spectators
What channel is Wales vs Scotland on? BBC 1
Where can I stream Wales vs Scotland? Wales vs Scotland can be streamed via BBC iPlayer
THE TEAM NEWS
WALES
- Wales suffered a comprehensive loss away to France in last Saturday’s warm-up match, though the game was open-ended in producing a 38-21 result and they were in the match at half-time.
- Reigning Six Nations champions Wales had suffered a poor defence of their title before the pandemic halted proceedings as a 33-30 loss to England in their last match all but ended their chances of back-to-back titles.
- Captain Alun Wyn Jones will break the test world record for international appearances when he leads the team out to face Scotland for his 140th Wales cap and his 149th overall, including British and Irish Lions caps.
Starting line-up: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Liam Williams, 13 Jonathan Davies, 12 Owen Watkin, 11 Josh Adams, 10 Dan Biggar, 9 Gareth Davies, 8 Taulupe Faletau, 7 Justin Tipuric, 6 Shane Lewis-Hughes, 5 Alun Wyn Jones, 4 Will Rowlands, 3 Tomas Francis, 2 Ryan Elias, 1 Rhys Carre
Replacements: 16 Sam Parry, 17 Wyn Jones, 18 Dillon Lewis, 19 Cory Hill, 20 James Davies, 21 Lloyd Williams, 22 Rhys Patchell, 23 Nick Tompkins
SCOTLAND
- Scotland’s warm-up match over Georgia last Friday came in at a blistering 48-7 and, while their final fixture against Wales will be a much tougher prospect, they will be greatly encouraged by a strong offensive and defensive performance.
- Scotland had an outside chance at winning their first championship since 1999, and the first ever in its Six Nations format, but the best they can now muster is a respectable third place, unless Italy provide a miracle in beating England to send the Scots into second.
- The Scots will line-up against Wales in the first fixture on Halloween with the tournament’s meanest defence having conceded just 49 points in four games, 18 fewer than the current leaders Ireland.
Starting line-up: 15 Stuart Hogg (c), 14 Darcy Graham, 13 Chris Harris, 12 James Lang, 11 Blair Kinghorn, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Ali Price, 8 Blade Thomson,7 Hamish Watson,6 Jamie Ritchie,5 Jonny Gray, 4 Scott Cummings, 3 Zander Fagerson, 2 Fraser Brown,1 Rory Sutherland
Replacements: 16 Stuart McInally, 17 Oli Kebble, 18 Simon Berghan, 19 Ben Toolis, 20 Cornell du Preez, 21 Scott Steele, 22 Adam Hastings, 23 Duhan van der Merwe
THE PREDICTION
It has been a Six Nations tournament of missed opportunities for this exciting but sometimes naïve Scotland squad and they will have spent the suspended season rueing many chances that could have seen them win this trophy for the first time this millennium. However, they will take heart from the fact that so far they are the only tea to have beaten an inspired France, to whom their opponents here lost to just last week in a warm-up game. Wales have struggled throughout this tournament and while this will be a career-day for Alun Wyn Jones, reason enough to celebrate, he could well be on the wrong end of the result here. While Scotland have not won in Wales since 2002, the lack of fans makes the Principality Stadium an altogether less intimidating arena and the Scots can use this to their advantage to back-up their impressive display against Georgia with a tight victory here.