Edinburgh // Wales will be seeking to repeat their Six Nations championship recovery mission of 2013 when they meet the challenge of a vastly improved Scotland side at Murrayfield on Sunday.
Having opened their 2015 campaign with a 21-16 defeat against England at Cardiff, Wales want to emulate the turnaround they achieved two years ago when they were beaten 30-22 at home to Ireland on the opening day only to then win on the road against France at Paris, which set them on course to claim the title.
“Every game is a must-win game for us now,” said Wales captain Sam Warburton.
“We have three away games out of the four, which makes it difficult, but we did it two years ago after losing our first game at home to Ireland.”
Wales launched their 2013 championship comeback with a 16-6 success at Paris, secured with a try by George North, who has been rested for the trip to Edinburgh after two bouts of concussion against England.
The Northampton wing has been replaced by Liam Williams, the former steelworks scaffolder who helped to construct a record 51-3 victory at Cardiff last season with the first of seven Welsh tries against a Scotland side reduced to 14 men after full-back Stuart Hogg was red carded.
“Our performance last week wasn’t good enough,” Wales head coach Warren Gatland said.
“We let ourselves down and we let a lot of the fans down. We’ve got to go up there and get back on the horse.”
Wales have not lost to Scotland under Gatland’s stewardship.
Their last defeat was a 21-9 reverse at Murrayfield in February 2007, nine months before his appointment as head coach.
The New Zealander will be wary of the threat posed by a Scottish team whose performances have been transformed since the arrival of fellow Kiwi Vern Cotter as head coach in May last year.
“Warren Gatland’s record speaks for itself,” Cotter said.
“We’re playing against a team who consider it just a day in the office to come up and beat us.
“I think the players would like to be able to measure themselves against this Welsh group – to see what we need to do so we can develop and improve our game – it will be a great exercise just to see how we measure up.”
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