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| Dates: 2 February-16 March |
| Coverage: Selected matches on BBC TV and BBC iPlayer, with live text on BBC Sport website and app, and BBC Radio 5 Live commentary on every match. |
In the epic tale of woe that is Scotland in Cardiff, I played a bit-part along the way.
Looking back, my one game at the Millennium, as it was then, makes me feel embarrassed about what happened on the field and makes me giggle about what happened off it.
It was 14 years ago, which is incredible in itself. Thom Evans suffered a potentially fatal injury and had his life saved by our doctor, James Robson. Chris Paterson suffered a horrible injury to his kidney. It was, you might say, eventful.
We were 10 points ahead in the 77th minute and then naivety – and Shane Williams – came for us. We capitulated and lost by seven. Even now it’s excruciating to think about it. I wince and I smile.
The humour comes from afterwards when I sat down beside Andy Powell, the Welsh back-row, at the post-match dinner and the first thing he said to me was, “what do you bench-press, bud?”
I somehow knew then that it was going to be a heavy night, a night that ended with Andy, a cracking bloke, infamously whizzing down the M4 in a golf buggy in search of a service station and a packet of cigarettes. So, embarrassment and entertainment are my abiding memories.
We were a poor side then and that’s what gives me pleasure watching this Scotland team. They’re far more capable than my group ever were. They fill me with hope as we go into a new Six Nations, starting in Cardiff.
In a run of 11 defeats in a row down there, mine was number five. It’s mad that the failure has carried on this long.
‘Scots nothing if we can’t get the physical dominance’
I want to talk about power because for all the fantastic ball-players we have in our backline we’re nothing if we can’t get the physical dominance to allow those ball players to play.
We have the tools and the intelligence to unlock most defences we come up against, but my question is do we have the engine under the bonnet, the power to break gain lines and generate front foot ball to knock over the big boys?
On occasion we’ve shown we absolutely have. We’ve beaten France home and away, beaten England home and away. You don’t do that unless you have the requisite grunt.
Last season we put a record score on Wales. People remember the excellence of our attacking rugby that day, but our aggression up front and dominance of Wales was the thing. The power game gave Finn Russell the platform. It was a complete performance on both sides of the ball. Five games like that one and Scotland won’t be far away come mid-March.
The cruelty of the World Cup was that we were paired with two of the three most physical teams on the planet. We didn’t survive. That physical piece was missing, but nobody finds it easy against South Africa and Ireland.
Just remember how little time and space Finn had at the World Cup. I was part of a blitz defence under Fabien Galthie at Montpellier and I’ve played as a back-row into a blitz and there is nothing worse. You’re standing outside nine and you know the opposition is not respecting anything on your outside, they are coming out-to-in taking away your time and space.
That’s what Scotland came up against the last time we saw them. A blitz defence and a hard press and everything we had was nullified.
We’ll see different types of defence put in Scotland’s way in this Six Nations and everything goes back to your power, your physicality on the gain line, your ability to create a little extra time for your creative players.
I’m looking at Pierre Schoeman and Zander Fagerson here, two huge men. I’m looking at Matt Fagerson and others. They all have to be dominant in Cardiff.
How many times have we gone down there in good heart to face a Welsh team not in great form or damaged by huge amounts of injuries only to lose? Too many times.
Last year, in Edinburgh, Wales were blown away. The way Scotland deconstructed that Welsh team was incredible to watch live. There was almost a disbelief at how easy they made it look. Can they deliver the same type of performance on Saturday in what is a graveyard for Scottish rugby?
Ronan O’Gara said recently that numbers 1-10 decide who wins a Test match and numbers 12 and beyond decide by how much.
Through power, what penalties can we squeeze at scrum-time? Through power, what impact can our maul have?
Rugby is a game of pressure. Vern Cotter always spoke about that. Pile it on and pile it on. Everybody talks about how good the Scottish backline is, but backlines can be stopped, as we saw in France in the autumn.
Finn, Blair Kinghorn, big Duhan van der Merwe and Huwipulotu (Huw Jones and Sione Tuipulotu) will be ones who will dominate most of the build-up to Cardiff, but if Scotland allow themselves to be beaten up the way they were in this fixture two years ago, then we won’t see those guys – or enough of them.
Everything goes back to power. And all our roads lead to Cardiff.
Beattie was talking to BBC Scotland’s Tom English
