Williams: Wales are reluctant favourites

SHANE WILLIAMS insists Wales will display confidence, not arrogance, in their quest to land a second successive RBS 6 Nations title.

The bookmakers’ tournament favourites face a testing opener against Scotland at Murrayfield on Sunday.

Some punters have suggested Wales need only to turn up to guarantee silverware following a year when they won the Grand Slam, became Europe’s top ranked team and claimed the scalp of Tri-Nations heavyweights Australia.

But Williams has been around long enough to know Wales must handle such expectation in the right fashion.

“A lot of emphasis has been put on us from outside about being favourites and so on,” he said.

“But we’ve taken that with a pinch of salt. We know we have got to approach this tournament the same as we approach every Six Nations, and that’s being full of confidence and fully prepared. We’ve trained really well. We are there or thereabouts in terms of our preparation for the first game.

“But Murrayfield is a tough place to play and we know it is a very good Scotland side. We will need to be on top of our game.”

Meanwhile, Scotland veteran Jason White admits he is haunted by a fear of failure every time he plays for the national side.

And the 30-year-old flanker will use that to ensure he does not let his country down when he makes a rare start at lock in Sunday’s clash with Nathan Hines suffering a knee injury.

It will be the first time he has started a Scotland match in the role for more than six years and only the fifth occasion since his debut in 2000.

“I suppose I’ve been lucky to encounter most things,” he said.

“But I still have the fear of not playing well enough for Scotland and not being as good as I can be.”

At the same time, White is confident of rising to the challenge on Sunday.

“Am I worried about playing Wales at the weekend? No,” he said.

“I’ve got a strong belief in my ability and a strong belief in the other seven forwards in the forward pack and the rest of the players in the team.”

He did play most of his junior rugby in the position and has filled in there for Sale this season. Yet he admits he is not in the ideal shape to play the role.

“In terms of conditioning, I’d say primarily you want to be heavier,” he said. “That’s the down side obviously. I’m not quite as heavy as Nathan is in terms of scrummaging. Hopefully, I’m naturally strong. So I’m going to get in there and ruck as hard as I can.”