Former Wales captain pours more scorn on Scotland

Scotland will start with Greig Laidlaw at stand-off against Wales in tomorrow’s RBS Six Nations match at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, replacing Dan Parks who retired from international rugby this week. Laidlaw came on as a replacement for Parks in last week’s Calcutta Cup defeat at Murrayfield, and although he appeared to bring a fresh impetus to the attack and almost broke Scotland’s try duck with an effort that was ruled out by the television match official, he was the subject of derision from Jonathan Davies, the former Wales player.

Davies, summarising for the BBC last week, said that Laidlaw had played like a “headless chicken” when he came on.

Now former flanker Jones, who won 13 caps for Wales, has added his voice to those who doubt that Scotland can make any progress in attack.

Asked whether he felt Laidlaw could be the man to fire the Scotland back line, the BBC Wales commentator said: “I’m not sure that Barry John could get that back-line firing, or Dan Carter or anyone. They’re inert. They’ve been so criticised and will feel embarrassed by the opportunities they had and squandered against England that they will be doing everything possible to show that they have some ability, some flair and that hunger to do it. But at the moment the way they are playing, they are so straight-up-and-down, and so lacking in the basic skills that I would be disappointed if they were to score tries against us.”