Wales host Scotland in the Six Nations in Cardiff on Saturday and after a fine win over England last week the Scots are firm favourites with the bookmakers to chalk up another victory.
Wales v Scotland, Saturday 21st February, Cardiff, KO 18:40 (South African time)
Referee: Matthew Carley (RFU)
Assistant Referees: Karl Dickson (RFU), Adam Leal (RFU)
TMO: Ian Tempest (RFU)
Weather Forecast – Cardiff, check to see if the roof will be closed
Wales:
Wales are rock bottom of the standings having suffered 2 heavy defeats.
In Round 2 they crashed to a 54-12 defeat to France in Cardiff, a margin of defeat that was greater than the bookmakers main handicap line which had seen Wales given 31.5 points start. Carre in the first half and Grady in the second were the Welsh try scorers whilst France went over 8 times in total.
Wales were given around 28.5 points start on the main handicap line for their opening 6N match against England at Twickenham and it was nowhere near enough as they crashed and burned 48-7. They conceded 7 tries in total and their only points came from a Josh Adams try on 51 minutes, converted by Dan Edwards.
In the Six Nations outright betting Hollywoodbets have Wales priced as 1 / 10 favourites to finish with the wooden spoon
Results and Fixtures: R1 England (a) lost 48-7, R2 France (h) lost 54-12, R3 Scotland (h), R4 Ireland (a), R5 Italy (h)
Scotland:
Scotland finished Round 2 in second place with 6 log points, 4 shy of France, 1 better off than England and Italy and 2 in front of Ireland.
Scotland were 7.5 point underdogs for their Round 2 clash with England at Murrayfield and they sprang something of a surprise with a 31-20 bonus point victory. They took advantage of England picking up a re card with first half tries from Huw Jones and Jamie Ritchie and then Ben White went over to make it 24-10 at half time. Jones scored his second ty after the break to make it 31-13 and England scored a consolation try late on when the outcome was already clear.
Scotland began their campaign against Italy in Rome, they started as favourites at around 8.5 points on the bookmakers main handicap line but they finished beaten 18-15. The Scots conceded 2 tries in the first 13 minutes and although Jack Dempsey scored their first try they trailed 15-7 at the break. After the teams traded a penalty score each a George Horne try reduced the deficit to 18-15 on 66 minutes and that’s how it stayed with the Scots having to settle for a losing bonus point.
In the Six Nations outright betting Hollywoodbets have Scotland priced at 20/1 to win the title and 22/10 for the Triple Crown.
Results and Fixtures: R1 Italy (a) lost 18-15, R2 England (h) won 31-20, R3 Wales (a), R4 France (h), R5 Ireland (a)
Recent Head to Head
Mar 2025 6N Edinburgh Scotland 35-29 Wales
Feb 2024 6N Cardiff Wales 26-27 Scotland
Feb 2023 6N Edinburgh Scotland 35-7 Wales
Feb 2022 6N Cardiff Wales 20-17 Scotland
Feb 2021 6N Edinburgh Scotland 24-25 Wales
Team News
Wales: 15 Louis Rees-Zammit, 14 Gabriel Hamer-Webb, 13 Eddie James, 12 Joe Hawkins, 11 Josh Adams, 10 Sam Costelow, 9 Tomos Williams, 8 Aaron Wainwright, 7 Alex Mann, 6 Taine Plumtree, 5 Ben Carter, 4 Dafydd Jenkins, 3 Tomas Francis, 2 Dewi Lake (captain), 1 Rhys Carre.
Replacements: 16 Ryan Elias, 17 Nicky Smith, 18 Archie Griffin, 19 Freddie Thomas, 20 James Botham, 21 Kieran Hardy, 22 Jarrod Evans, 23 Blair Murray
Scotland: 15 Blair Kinghorn, 14 Kyle Steyn, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Sione Tuipulotu (c), 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Ben White, 8 Matt Fagerson, 7 Rory Darge, 6 Gregor Brown, 5 Scott Cummings, 4 Max Williamson, 3 Zander Fagerson, 2 Dave Cherry, 1 Nathan McBeth
Replacements: 16 George Turner, 17 Pierre Schoeman, 18 Elliot Millar Mills, 19 Grant Gilchrist, 20 Josh Bayliss, 21 George Horne, 22 Tom Jordan, 23 Darcy Graham
The Betting
Updated 20 Feb 09h53
Wales +18.5 points at 19/20
Scotland -18.5 points at 19/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
This Weeks Bets
BET: 3 units Wales +18.5 at 19/20 at Betxchange
BET: 0.5 unit Wales win at 9/1 at Pokerbet
Wales have been so poor of late but in a heavy defeat to France last week I feel there were glimmers of hope.
Scotland are coming off a brilliant win but it was mentioned on last nights show that they sometimes drop a level after beating the English. I had a look at stats from recent years and there is some merit to this statement.
There has been money for Wales from +21.5 to +18.5 and I think it is spot on. I am also going to have a speculative nibble on a Wales win (I promise I am sober as I write this).
The Oracle reckoned I must have used binoculars to see those glimmers of hope on last nights THE HANDICAP – click here to listen
The points line is 53.5 and if I get involved further I will post any additional bets in the forum thread closer to kick off.
Finally, all this week's rugby tips from members of the Goodforthegame community can be found on the weekly rugby thread on our brand new discussion forum. If you haven't done so already, register a forum account here.
