And although the defeat means there is no chance of another Grand Slam this season, Wales U21 Head Coach Chris Davey is adamant “there is still a championship title to play for. England have to go to France and the French have to come to Wales so the Championship is very much alive and we have plenty to play for over the coming weeks.
“Martin came off the bench against England and we will start with him this time with Liam among the replacements in what is essentially a vote of confidence in the side. That said, we were not happy with the performance against England and we did not play anywhere near our potential. We did not have a warm-up match and that showed – we certainly looked a bit ring-rusty.
“Hopefully we can iron out a few of the problems in training this week and, while Scotland did lose to France last weekend, the Scots were probably the most imporved team in the tournament last season and we certainly will not be underestimating them.”
Wales U21: Jamie Roberts (Cardiff/Blues Academy); Darren Daniel (Llanelli/Scarlets Academy), Andrew Bishop (Ospreys), Dafydd Hewitt (Cardiff/Blues Academy), Chris Czekaj (Cardiff Blues); James Hook (Neath/Ospreys Academy), Martin Roberts (Neath/Ospreys Academy); Rhys Gill (Cardiff/Blues Academy), Duane Goodfield (Pontypridd/Blues Academy), Phil Osborne (Newport), Alun Wyn Jones (Swansea/Ospreys Academy), Dominic Day (Carmarthen Quins/Scarlets Academy), Craig Everett (Worcester Academy), Rhys Shellard (Pontypridd/Blues Academy), Tom Smith (Neath/Ospreys Academy, captain)
Replacements: Ed Shervington (Neath), Ian Jones (Llanelli/Scarlets Academy), Will jones (Newport/Dragons Academy), Ben Lewis (Swansea/Ospreys Academy), Tom Riley (Pontypridd/Blues Academy), Aled Thomas (Newport/Dragons Academy), Liam Davies (Llanelli/Scarlets Academy)
