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Biggar: 'I would rather people were criticising me than praising me'

By PA
Dan Biggar /Getty

Dan Biggar described Wales’ 20-17 Guinness Six Nations victory over Scotland as one of his finest wins in the Welsh shirt.

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The Wales captain and fly-half, despite suffering an issue with his right knee, kicked four penalties and a clinching drop-goal 10 minutes from time.

It meant that he marked his 100th Test match appearance for Wales and the British and Irish Lions in style as the defending Six Nations champions revived their title challenge following a tame 29-7 defeat against Ireland last weekend.

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But Scotland have now lost 11 successive Tests to Wales in Cardiff – a sequence that stretches back 20 years – as they failed to build on victory over England seven days ago.

“This is one of the best victories I have had in a Welsh shirt,” Biggar said.

“We didn’t get it right last week, and when you don’t get it right – certainly in this country – you take a fair bit of flak for it.

“For me, (it is) a brilliant day. The family are here, my little boy was able to come out on the pitch afterwards. It doesn’t get a huge amount better than that.

“We’ve got a couple of days out of camp, so I will be driving home and having a family evening, I think. I am taking the little one to watch Sing 2 tomorrow – that is my afternoon, really rock and roll!

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“It is a little bit of relief as well because we knew we were coming into the game under pressure, having not performed last week.

“We had taken a fair bit of flak, but for me, I absolutely love that. I would rather people were criticising me than praising me, because it brings out a different side of me and maybe more of a focus.

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“It was very much a territory-based game and not wanting to play too much in a tight match. One moment wins or loses you the game, and we are pretty pleased we came out on the right side of it and managed the second-half.

“It was quite an emotional day, actually – a lot of heat flying around – and we just stuck together internally.

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“But we also have to make sure we don’t get ahead of ourselves. We know we were very poor last week and played a lot better this week and got a result.

“It is about building on this now, rather than thinking we have cracked it and take our foot off the gas. It is really important we knuckle down and prepare for England (in two weeks) as well as we can.”

On his injury, meanwhile, Biggar added: “It’s just a bit of an issue with the right knee. It shouldn’t be too much of a problem, just a little niggle.”

Wales’ victory has revitalised a campaign that next takes them to Twickenham, which is followed by home games against Italy and France.

A successful title defence remains a tall order, but they have at least put themselves back in the mix.

Wales head coach Wayne Pivac said: “The disappointment was evident from every single person in the squad last week.

“I’ve known these boys long enough now to know that wasn’t the Wales team that we know. There was a big improvement today.

“From our point of view, we won’t be getting too far ahead of ourselves except to say we were pleased with the performance and certainly improved in the areas we wanted to.

“Now, we’ve got two weeks before the game with England. Our priority is to recover from this performance and get back in next week, work hard, and make sure there is more improvement to come.”

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TI 4 hours ago
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Rieko took literally years to turn from a defensive liability at 13 into a guy, who’s defensively sound as it befits the position. And it all came at the cost of him being much less of an offensive threat, than what he used to be. Proctor is a natural 13, he handles, passes, and kicks way better than Rieko ever will, he just isn’t as fast.


It’s unfair to judge Tupaea on the handful of games he’s had in 2022 before he got nearly crippled by a Wallaby lock. What could Tupaea/Proctor pairing be, if they got the same amount of chances as Jordie/Rieko?


Because no matter how you spin it, playing a player outside of his natural position is a poor asset management. No matter how talented he is, he still competes against players who had years and years of practice at the position. And if said guy is so talented that he actually CAN compete against specialists, imagine how much better still he could have been, if he had all those years to iron the toothing issues at the position. It just drives me mad.


Two things I hate in rugby union beyond description: aping after league, and playing players outside of their natural position. Especially considering, that they all admit they hate it, when they’re allowed to speak freely. Owen Farrell spent 80% of his international career at 12, saying every time when asked, that he is a 10 and prefers to play at 10. Those players are literally held at a gunpoint: play out of position, or no national jersey for you.

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