Brown braced for stiff Wales test

Wednesday 6 March 2013

Scotland captain Kelly Brown believes champions Wales will pose his team the toughest challenge of their RBS 6 Nations campaign so far.

But the Scots are not looking to complicate preparations for Saturday's Murrayfield clash following wins over Italy and Ireland.

Interim head coach Scott Johnson led Scotland to consecutive Six Nations victories for the first time in 12 years on the back of intense work on the fundamentals of the game, following his anger at the way his side approached the collision area in their opening defeat against England.

And Brown believes more repetition is the key to challenging the Welsh as he expects his side could be under even more pressure than in their backs-to-the-wall display against Ireland.Brown said: "If you look at their squad, it's absolutely filled with Lions and world-class players."I would say it will be our toughest challenge in the championship so far but as a sportsman you want to be challenged by the top teams and there is no doubt Wales are one of those."Scotland have not won three successive games in the tournament since it was the Five Nations - a 16-14 win over Wales in 1996 set up a Grand Slam chance against England, which they lost as their opponents clinched the title on points difference.Victory over Wales on Saturday would again leave them in with a chance of winning the trophy on the final weekend but Brown is not getting carried away."Everyone in the squad is very grounded," he said. "There is no doubt we take a lot of confidence from the last two wins but we know the performances were far from perfect."We have looked at those and identified the things we need to improve."We have been working hard to make sure that, when we take the field on Saturday, we are as well prepared as we possibly can be."Rugby is a relatively simple game. If you can do the basics exceptionally well when you are under pressure, then you will do pretty well."We sat down and we spoke about four key areas that we need to get right and we have been working on these every day in training."And you can see all of the guys becoming more and more accomplished in these areas."The flanker played through a broken nose in the gritty 12-8 victory over Ireland, with blood smearing his face for much of the contest following a collision with visiting hooker Rory Best.And Brown got no initial respite as he recuperated the following day."It was a little bit smashed when I got home and my daughter accidentally whacked it with her head on the Monday night as well, and it started to bleed again," Brown said."But it's absolutely fine - it's one of these things that happen in rugby."

Contextual targeting label:

Families

Commenting & Moderation

We moderate all comments on HeraldScotland on either a pre-moderated or post-moderated basis. If you're a relatively new user then your comments will be reviewed before publication and if we know you well then your comments will be subject to moderation only if other users or the moderators believe you've broken the rules, which are available here.

Moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours. Please be patient if your posts are not approved instantly.

Brown braced for stiff Wales test

Commenting & Moderation

MOST READ

SPONSORED LINKS

MOST COMMENTED