Wales flyhalf Dan Biggar claims that the pressure on Scotland to perform after defeating England in round one of the Six Nations.
Scotland have won the opening game of the last three Six Nations tournaments, and Biggars says that the pressure is on the Scots when Wales attempt to burst their bubble again.
‘Best team around’
The veteran playmaker says there would have been no point in the Wales squad catching their flight to Edinburgh if they had been engulfed by the apparent media hype surrounding “the best team in the tournament”.
Scotland secured the Calcutta Cup two years ago by beating England at Twickenham before Wales came away with a victory at Murrayfield a week later. Last year, Wales triumphed in Cardiff seven days on from this weekend’s opponents retaining the Calcutta Cup.
Speaking ahead of the clash with Scotland, Biggar was keen to highlight Wales’ overall Six Nations record of six titles, four Grand Slams and five Triple Crowns, a total that no other country can match.
“Scotland played well last week against England, but according to you guys, they are the best team around, aren’t they?” Biggar said.
“We will have to see how they go on Saturday, see if they can back it up. The pressure is all on them.
“They are red-hot favourites, best team in the tournament, so we will see how they go (on) Saturday.
“We don’t seem to get any credit, and other teams seem to get a lot of praise for probably not quite the success we’ve had, but that’s how it goes.
“It is a really difficult ask, but I think this country and this group of boys tend to respond really well when our backs are against the wall, and we have got to come out fighting.”
‘The same last year’
Wales head coach Warren Gatland has never last to Scotland while taking charge of Wales. Meanwhile, Wales have won on six of their last seven visits to Murrayfield, with an overall success rate of 85 per cent across the countries’ last 20 encounters, home and away.
“They will fancy their chances; they have picked a strong side, lots of good players who played well last week, and they will be full of confidence,” Biggar added.
“But it was the same last year. We got off to a really slow start in Ireland and then played Scotland, you guys wrote us off before the game was played, and we rolled our sleeves up and did a job.
“If you listen to everyone – which is what is great about this game – we might as well not have bothered catching the flight.”
Wales’ record
Despite going down to a 34-10 defeat to Ireland in round one, Biggar was keen to drive home Wales’ record in the Six Nations while his side know that a win over Scotland will set up an intriguing encounter against England later this month.
“I think our record is as good as anyone’s in this competition over the previous ten years or whatever,” Biggar said.
“Medals are important when you look back at your career, and we have been lucky enough to fill the cabinet a few times.
“It is up to other teams to try and replicate that, really. Hopefully, if teams do that, then they will deservedly get praise.
“They (Scotland) are a fantastic team at the minute playing with confidence, lots of good players.
“In Wales, you lose a game; you get criticised; you win; it is just sort of brushed over.
“It is one of those things where we just try and control what we can, but we do have a bit of a laugh that there are other teams around who get a fair bit of praise without really backing it up, I suppose.”
