Wales and Scotland may be facing each other in Cardiff on Saturday outside the Six Nations but it will be no friendly if the words of Warren Gatland at his team announcement come true.
The Wales coach has named a strong side for the visit of a team who have not won in the Welsh capital since 2002. The Ospreys wing Luke Morgan will win his first cap after making only five starts for his region since switching from the sevens circuit in the summer.
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“It will be a proper Test, I can tell you that,” Gatland said when asked if the crowd was likely to be treated to an exhibition. “We are not going out there to play festival rugby. We want to play attractive rugby but in a smart, winning way.
“Scotland are talking about how they got the preparation wrong last February [when Wales won 34-7 at the start of the Six Nations]. It was not about a good Wales performance but how poorly they had prepared. That puts it into perspective for us. We will have to be on our game mentally and bring the right sort of physicality for a Test match against a tier-one nation.”
Gatland, who has entered the final year of a Wales stint that started 11 years ago, was in waspish mood. He took aim at the Scotland forwards coach, Danny Wilson, who made the move north in the summer having been the Cardiff Blues head coach, when asked about his choice at tighthead prop, Dillon Lewis.
“Samson Lee has a hamstring and back problem,” Gatland said. “We were very pleased with Dillon in the summer [against South Africa and Argentina]. He has got a point to prove to someone like Danny Wilson who, unfortunately, did not rate him that highly.”
Wales’s starting lineup contains seven Test Lions, led by Alun Wyn Jones, but their bench is largely made up of less experienced players who impressed during the summer when Gatland rested a number of his leading performers. Morgan is the one surprise, less than two months after he made his first Pro14 appearance at the age of 26.
“I back myself to find my way to the tryline and beat the first defender,” Morgan said. “I look to bring flair in attack and like to get the ball in my hand. The World Cup is a long-term target but I am just concentrating on this moment, which I did not think would come so soon.”
Wales team to play Scotland
L Halfpenny; G North, J Davies, H Parkes, L Morgan; G Anscombe, G Davies; N Smith, K Owens, D Lewis, C Hill, AW Jones (capt), D Lydiate, J Tipuric, R Moriarty. Replacements E Dee, R Evans, L Brown, A Beard, A Wainwright, T Williams, J Evans, S Evans.