'Scotland will definitely be favourites but I think Wales have to win'

Wales and Scotland will arrive in Cardiff on Saturday in vastly different states of mind after the first round of the Guinness Six Nations delivered misery and joy in equal measure.

Wayne Pivac’s men suffered a humbling loss to Ireland in Dublin while Gregor Townsend’s enjoyed a memorable Calcutta Cup triumph. Scotland are now on the brink of their best start of the Six Nations era, while Wales are on the brink of their worst in over a decade.

When, where and how to watch the match
The match will kick-off at 14:15 (UK) on Saturday February 12th at the Principality Stadium and will be broadcast live on the BBC in the UK and S4C in Wales, RTÉ in Ireland, Stan Sport in Australia and SuperSport in South Africa.

Head-to-head
Wales have got the better of Scotland on 74 occasions since their first match in 1883, losing 50 times and producing three draws. They have also won eight of their last ten contests, and 17 of their last 20. Scotland, however, won the last time the two sides met in Wales, in an empty Parc y Scarlets in 2020, but have not won in Cardiff since 2002.

Match odds from bet365
bet365 have the handicap on Scotland at +2, with 5/4 odds that Wales win. There are also 20/1 odds that the two sides achieve their fourth draw in their history.

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Prediction
Former captains of Wales and Scotland, Sam Warburton and John Barclay, joined Ugo Monye on the BBC’s Six Nations Rugby this week, where they both looked ahead to the weekend.

Warburton conceded that Scotland are favourites, but sent a stern message to his compatriots. “Wales can only focus on the next game and Scotland are coming down to Wales in the best place they’ve been in since I can remember,” he said.

“Scotland are favourites, Scotland will definitely be favourites. I think Wales have to win, because I think if they don’t win against Scotland they go to Twickenham in round three, where if they don’t win they could be zero from three. And then they go into play France and they finish off with Italy. They don’t want to go into Italy zero from four. They don’t want to put themselves under that pressure, so huge game next week to beat Scotland.”

While history may not be on Scotland’s side when they arrive at the Principality Stadium, Barclay looked at Scotland’s win at Twickenham last year for the first time since 1983 as a reason why Stuart Hogg and his side will be buoyant. He said: “It’s not been a happy hunting ground, but they hadn’t won at Twickenham until last year. They’ve backed up results and the pressure is on them and I think that is the difference with this Scotland team, they’re backing up results when people are expecting them to win. So huge game for Scotland next week 1oo percent.”

*Odds accurate as of 08/02/22.