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Jones welcomes Scotland challenge

Stephen Jones during training

Jones welcomes Scotland challenge

Stephen Jones is looking forward to the challenge of facing Scotland in Llanelli on Saturday as Wales prepare to return to Guinness Six Nations action.

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Wayne Pivac’s side warmed up for the Parc y Scarlets match with a clash against Paris in France last weekend and attack coach Jones wants to see improvements from that encounter.

“We’ve spoken about the break we’ve had, but now we’ve got eight weeks of coaching which is like gold,” said Jones.

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“That’s a brilliant amount of time and then it’s a short turnaround to the Six Nations so I’m excited by the block of coaching I’m going to have with the players.

“It’s important during the course of that period we see development and improvement.

“The way I see it is Scotland is a must-win game for us and we are excited for it. We’ve highlighted the areas we have to focus on from the hit-out against France. Our job as coaches is to nail that.

“The key is that as a team we are smart and manage the ball in certain areas of the pitch so we don’t put ourselves under pressure and manage our energy.

“They all have a knock-on effect on defence. There are some areas we’ve highlighted that we’ve fixed already in training.

“It’ll be good post-Scotland to see what has been fixed and what is on point.”

Liam Williams (left) and Dan Biggar in training ahead of facing Scotland

Wales scrum-half Rhys Webb is being assessed for a knee injury ahead of the Scotland game.

Webb came off in the second half of the game in Paris and Wales have called up Lloyd Williams of Cardiff Blues as cover.

Prop Samson Lee is undergoing the return-to-play protocols after being replaced against France with a head injury. Dan Biggar and Nick Tompkins are in full training.

“Rhys is getting continually assessed. He’s had his bump to the knee and we will be guided by the medical guys on this. It’s a waiting game, but we’ll find out from them,” said Jones.

“We have called Lloyd into the squad as cover. Hopefully it’s not too serious with Rhys.

“We know Lloyd is an experienced scrum-half with a very good balanced game. He’s a very smart rugby player so we know he can pick up our game plan very quickly.

“We picked up a few bumps in France. Biggsy and Nick are back in full training which is great and Samson, with it being a head injury, he has got to go through the protocols.

“With Liam Williams we all know what a talented player he is. It was very important he got some game time with the Scarlets.

“Obviously, we would have liked him to have more ball in hand in that game against Benetton, but he came through unscathed.

“He has had a good couple of weeks with us as well in training so that has been a positive for us.”

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