WHEN Frank Hadden was appointed coach of Scotland, Mike Ruddock, the Wales coach, sent him a letter of congratulation. “You are going to cause a few problems for us and for others,” Ruddock wrote, a prescient remark in the light of Scotland’s victory over France last Sunday.
Ruddock receieved a reply from Hadden, which congratulated him on the way Wales had been playing. “It has been an inspiration to a lot of teams,” Hadden wrote.
Such mutual admiration will be suspended when Wales face Scotland tomorrow afternoon. All the signs point to a fast and furious match between teams wanting to move the ball away from the point of contact and to keep it in play as long as possible. “We have seen what they can do; they have seen what we can do. It will be a question of who can impose their will on the other,” Michael Owen, the Wales No 8, said.
Last year’s match at Murrayfield set a Six Nations record for the time the ball was in play and the Wales players, who had made 250 tackles, were delighted when the final whistle blew, even though they had won 46-22. Owen said it was “a really tough game”. Martyn Williams, the open-side flanker, said it had been “a test of our lungs”.
Expect more of the same. Just as Wales’s bulk, strength and fitness have risen, so have Scotland’s. Neither team have an outstandingly muscular pack and though Scotland are supposed to have a strong lineout, they lost four of their throw-ins against France. Wales’s own lineout is rarely outstanding. Indeed, it is sometimes downright poor. Ruddock says “it’s a complex area” of the game, but one that his men have addressed this week.
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Ruddock and his players point out that after losing to New Zealand in the first of last year’s autumn internationals, they recovered to record a famous victory over Australia. What they have done once they believe they can do again.