Scotland’s welcome Wales to Murrayfield in the fourth round of the 2025 Six Nations Championship.
After getting their campaign off to a winning start against Italy in Edinburgh, Gregor Townsend’s men suffered a 32-18 home defeat by Ireland at Murrayfield.
They will be hoping to get their campaign back on track on 22 February when they take on England at Twickenham, where they are aiming to win the Calcutta Cup for a fourth consecutive year.
Wales are enduring a miserable campaign, which began with an opening-night mauling at the hands of France. Their 43-0 humbling in Paris was the first time they had failed to score in the Six Nations for 18 years. Arguably worse was to follow.
The following week in Rome, Warren Gatland’s side were beaten 22-15 by Italy as they plunged to a record 14th consecutive Six Nations reverse, which raised questions about whether or not they deserve to be taking part in the tournament at all. It also prompted speculation about the future of Gatland, who left his post three days later to bring a sorry close to his second term at the helm.
The prospect of facing an Ireland side with their sights set on taking their next step towards a historic Six Nations ‘threepeat’ of titles on February 22 must be a sobering one for proud Wales supporters, who only four years ago were celebrating winning the Triple Crown.
When is Scotland v Wales?
Scotland host Wales on Saturday, March 8. The match will kick-off at 4.45pm (GMT).
In the other round-four matches, Ireland play France in Dublin at 2.15pm and, the following day, Italy host France at the Stadio Olimpico at 3pm.
Where is Scotland v Wales taking place?
At Murrayfield. The match will be Scotland’s third home game of the championship.
Supporters planning to attend the match might be advised to where possible take pre-emptive action as Murrayfield’s toilet facilities have been rated as the worst of all six home venues in the Six Nations, according to a survey conducted by Boyle Sport. The only other venue that comes close to Murrayfield’s 10.79 per cent of negative reviews is Twickenham, which received 1,649 negative reviews out of 19,433 combined reviews across Tripadvisor and Google. Wales’ Principality Stadium, the Stade de France, Ireland’s Aviva Stadium and Italy’s Stadio Olimpico by contrast all returned less than 5 per cent of negative reviews.
How to watch Scotland v Wales on TV?
It will be on BBC. BBC and ITV once again share coverage of the Six Nations in the UK: ITV has the rights for the home games of England, Ireland, France and Italy while the BBC has all the matches at Murrayfield and the Principality Stadium.
Who is the referee?
Italy’s Andrea Piardi will take charge of proceedings at Murrayfield, where compatriot Gianluca Gnecchi and Nic Berry, of Australia, will run the line.
Eric Gauzins of France will perform TMO duties and Mike Adamson from the Scottish Rugby Union will be the Foul Play Review Officer.
Piardi made history last year when he became the first Italian match official to referee a Six Nations Match, taking charge of Ireland v Wales in Dublin.
Born in Brescia, the 32-year-old was introduced to the game by a friend with whom he would embark on a long refereeing career, the very same Gianluca Gnecchi who ran the line for his Six Nations debut at the Aviva Stadium last February, and who will be doing so again at Murrayfield on 8 March.
What is the team news?
Scotland and Wales will not name their revised squads for the match until after the third-round fixtures have been played on February 22 but Darcey Graham is a major doubt to play in his side’s Calcutta Cup showdown at Twickenham.
Graham will follow concussion protocols after being taken to hospital following an accidental collision with Scotland team-mate Finn Russell in the Six Nations defeat to Ireland.
The Edinburgh winger was carried off the pitch on a buggy after he and fly-half Russell clashed heads midway through the first half of the 32-18 defeat at Murrayfield.
After being taken to hospital Scottish Rugby confirmed Graham had been discharged later that evening, but the 27-year-old is unlikely to be deemed fit to face England in the Calcutta Cup a week on Saturday.
Russell may return for the England match despite also not returning to the fray at Murrayfield following head clash. “Finn fine,” said Townsend afterwards. “He passed his HIA [head injury assessment] but our staff sensed he wasn’t totally aware of what was going on, so we made the call to not put him back on.”
Stafford McDowall replaced Russell in the backline, while Jamie Dobie came on to take Graham’s place on the wing. Whether those replacements get the nod against Twickenham remains to be seen.
Scotland are already without their influential captain Sione Tuipulotu, who will miss the entire tournament due to a pectoral injury picked up with Glasgow Warriors, while Max Williamson, Scott Cummings and Dylan Richardson will also play no part, with Kyle Steyn in a race against time to feature in the final two rounds.
Wales will be hoping Liam Williams and Dafydd Jenkins return for the trip to Edinburgh. Williams, the veteran full-back, played on with a knee injury during the defeat by France and he failed to recover in time to face the Azzurri. Jenkins was sorely missed during the Italy reverse. The Exeter lock had made the most tackles of any player in the Six Nations in the opening round but was sidelined for the trip to Rome by illness.
What are the teams’ world rankings?
The defeat by Italy dropped Wales to 12th place in the rugby world rankings, where they now lie between Georgia and Japan.
South Africa lead the way above Ireland, with New Zealand in third place, France fourth and Argentina in fifth. England have risen to sixth, swapping places with Scotland, who have fallen to seventh. Italy, meanwhile, are 10th.
Scotland’s current squad
Forwards: Ewan Ashman, Jamie Bhatti, Gregor Brown, Dave Cherry, Luke Crosbie, Rory Darge (co-captain), Jack Dempsey, Matt Fagerson, Zander Fagerson, Euan Ferrie, Grant Gilchrist, Jonny Gray, Patrick Harrison, Cameron Henderson, Will Hurd, Euan Johnson, Jack Mann, Alexander Masibaka, D’Arcy Rae, Jamie Ritchie, Pierre Schoeman, Rory Sutherland, Marshall Sykes.
Backs: Fergus Burke, Matt Currie, Jamie Dobie, Darcy Graham, George Horne, Rory Hutchinson, Huw Jones, Tom Jordan, Blair Kinghorn, Stafford McDowall, Finn Russell (co-captain), Arron Reed, Kyle Rowe, Duhan van der Merwe, Ollie Smith, Ben White.
Wales’ current squad
Forwards: Keiron Assiratti, James Botham, Elliot Dee, Taulupe Faletau, Dafydd Jenkins, Evan Lloyd, Kemsley Mathias, Jac Morgan (captain), Sam Parry, Taine Plumtree,Tommy Reffell, Will Rowlands, Nicky Smith, Gareth Thomas, Freddie Thomas, Henry Thomas, Christ Tshinunza, Aaron Wainwright, Ben Warren, Teddy Williams.
Backs: Josh Adams, Ellis Bevan, Dan Edwards, Josh Hathaway, Eddie James, Ellis Mee, Blair Murray, Joe Roberts, Tom Rogers, Ben Thomas, Nick Tompkins, Liam Williams, Rhodri William,s Tomos Williams.
When did Scotland and Wales last win the Six Nations?
Scotland have never won the Six Nations – they did, however, win the last iteration of the Five Nations in 1999. Wales, by contrast, won the Six Nations relatively recently, taking their sixth title in 2021.
What was the score last year?
Scotland clung on to edge a dramatic victory against Wales last year winning 27-26 after having been 27-0 up in Cardiff. With Finn Russell pulling the strings and Duhan van der Merwe scoring two tries a first win at the Pricipality Stadium looked to be a formality. However, the hosts roused themselves to reel off 26 points in 20 minutes as the maul produced three tries and Rio Dyer scampered over for another. Scotland wobble, but somehow held firm to earn a long-awaited win in Wales.
