Wales are facing humiliation

WALES are staring their first Six nations whitewash in the face after going down to their third successive Championship defeat against a fired-up Scotland at Murrayfield on Saturday.

Only once before - in 1990 - were Wales whitewashed in the Five Nations tournament but they are now facing fresh humiliation.

Setbacks at the hands of Italy, England and Scotland leaves only Ireland and France standing between Wales and not just the wooden spoon but that dreaded whitewash as well.

Judging by their form so far, Wales can't expect any joy against Ireland in Cardiff a week on Saturday or in France the week after.

It will need something special to halt the Irish and their Grand Slam showdown with England at the end of the month.

At the moment, Wales just aren't up to it. They were devoid of passion in Italy, not strong enough against England and tactically naive against Scotland. Always, it seems, something isn't right.

This time, it was Argentinian referee Pablo Deluca who frustrated Wales though, to be fair, the Welsh camp didn't make too much of their chances anyway.

But he effectively stopped Wales from functioning at the line-outs by preventing more than one player extending beyond the 15-yard line.

Wales were so rattled that new hooker Gareth Williams couldn't find his men and five of the first six line-outs were lost on their own ball.

When Englishman Tony Spreadbury took over from the Argentinian for the second-half, it became a different story and Wales won ball at the tail through Dafydd Jones as well as from Robert Sidoli elsewhere to get into the game.

The snag was that by then they had too much leeway to make up as the Scots, who had Jason White as a third jumper to augment Scott Murray and Stuart Grimes, profited from early Welsh disarray.

They stormed into a 17-3 lead and as the match entered injury time, were 30-10 ahead before two Welsh tries at least resotred some respectability.

Wales also let themselves down in midfield where they were too predictable and even pedestrain at times.

The platform up front wasn't good enough but Gareth Cooper disappointed at scrum-half while Stephen Jones had no spark and his early return after breaking his thumb was not justified.

Centres Tom Shanklin and Mark Taylor were too similar in style which meant there was no inventiveness which was unfortunate because the Welsh back three did possess plenty of menace.

Kevin Morgan, until cruelly suffering a recurrence of his knee injury and being carried off on a stretcher, Rhys Williams and Gareth Thomas all looked threatening as did Matthew Watkins when he came on as a second-half replacement for the third game in a row.

It's a pity France aren't next because under-pressure Wales coach Steve Hansen could throw Ceri Sweeney, Jamie Robinson and Watkins in from the start.

But Ireland come first and as they have power and pace to burn, Hansen could well stick with the defensive qualities of Jones, Taylor and Shanklin.

How he must wish for the kind of good fortune opposite number Ian McGeechan enjoyed on Saturday, not just with the first-half line-outs but with the elevation of Chris Paterson to first-choice kicker.

The Scottish player, converted from full-back to wing, couldn't go wrong as he kicked everything - three penalties and three conversions and scored a try for a 20-point haul.

He found the target after just five minutes and never looked back, suitably inspired by probably the most phenominal pre-match spectacle ever staged - it was that good.

Scottish fortunes took another turn for the better as prop Bruce Douglas scored his first try for his country from a line-out drive after Grimes secured possession.

It got worse for Wales when Gregor Townsend, back in his outside-half position, threw a long pass out to his left and though the ball went to ground, number eight Simon Taylor picked up and shot through on the inside for another try.

A Jones penalty was Wales' only reply until they scored the best try of the match with Shanklin breaking out of a tackle on the righ and then Stephen and Dafydd Jones combing to send Cooper lunging out of Glenn Metcalfe's tackle and over for his second Welsh try.

Though Jones converted, Paterson kicked penalties either side of the interval for Scotland to keep them in the drivng seat before his try settled it.

Hansen, unusually, used all seven replacements, one of them enforced after Morgan's injury, in a effort to shake things up.

Wales were also aided by the sin-binning of centre James McLaren for killing the ball though though they failed to punish the Scots with any points.

But ironically they did on his return by scoring two tries in injury time so the try count was actually shared at three apiece.

But it was too little, too late, the horse had bolted and now Ireland and France are looking to batten down the Welsh hatches.

Scotland: G Metclafe, C Paterson, J McLaren, K Utterson (A Craig 51), K Logan, G Townsend (G Ross 83), B Redpath (captain. M Blair 72), T Somith, G Bulloch (R Russell 76), B Douglas (G Kerr 60), S Murray, S Grimes (N Hines 74), J White (J Petrie 83), S Taylor, A Mower. Scorers. Tries: Douglas, Taylor, Paterson. Pens: Paterson (3), Cons: Paterson (3)

Wales: K Morgan (M Watkins 63), R Williams, M Taylor, T Shanklin (I Harris 71), Gareth Thomas, S Jones, G Cooper (D Peel 71), I Thomas, G Williams (M Davies 71), B Evans (G Jenkins 45), R Sidoli, S williams (G Llewellyn 58), D Jones, Gavin Thomas (C Charvis 58), M Williams (captain). Scorers. Tries: Cooper, Taylor, R Williams. Pen: Jones. Cons: Jones (2)