Wales head coach Mike Ruddock has demanded improvements "across the board" ahead of Sunday’s Six Nations Championship clash with Scotland at the Millennium Stadium.
Wales opened the defence of their title with a disappointing 47-13 defeat to England, while Scotland are on a high after stunning the pre-tournament favourites France 20-16 at Murrayfield.
Ruddock rated Scotland’s performance against France as close to perfect and, although Scotland have not won on the road in seven Six Nations outings, he is ready for a stiff challenge at the weekend.
"Scotland come to us on the back of a big win against France and now they have tasted success they will be hungry for more," he said. "Scotland are strong up front and at the set-piece and have the kind of backs that can hurt you if you don’t get your defensive lines right - but we will be playing our way and taking the game to them.
"I would rate Scotland 10 out of 10 against France at the weekend. They were excellent. I was really impressed.
"They are a very good all-round side and you could argue it is a much tougher task for us now than it would have been if they had lost.
"We need to play better than last weekend, we need to improve across the board, but we are not a million miles away. We have every confidence in our team, every confidence in our ability."
Ruddock has kept faith with the starting XV that was beaten last Saturday and never really considered making any knee-jerk changes.
His confidence in the squad, statistically at least, is well placed. In 18 months at the helm, only once have Ruddock’s Wales lost back-to-back Tests - against South Africa in the summer and then autumn of 2004.
Wales were beaten by a better team at Twickenham, even if they believe the scoreline was unfairly harsh, but Ruddock is determined his men will respond to that setback just as they have all the others - with a dashing performance and a win.
"The same 15 players have a chance to dispel the demons of that loss and show what they are really capable of," he said.
"Just as we were confident we could win last week, we think these players have the talent to put on a show against Scotland and get us back where we belong - on a winning run.
"I was very, very comfortable that that was my best selection going into the England game and despite the loss I don’t see any reason to change my view.
"This is our best selection and maybe needs just a bit more time to work through some of the errors they made at the weekend.
"The players we have at our disposal are capable of great things and we are maintaining our high standards of preparation in order to ensure that great things are achieved.
"We showed our fortitude in the autumn by coming back from two losses to beat Australia for the first time in 18 years. We know that when we lose a game we are more than capable of coming back."
