Wales endured a tough time up-front in Dublin as they went down to a strong Ireland side. But Humphreys is confident Wayne Pivac’s side will be better by the time Scotland rock up at the Principality Stadium this Saturday.
“We talked a lot about physicality on both sides of the ball and we came up second best there,” said Humphreys. “It certainly wasn’t attitude.
“There are a few things structurally we’ve looked at that will give us a little bit more momentum, to help our ball carriers. But it’s a tough place to go in terms of the physicality that they bring.
“It’s a big work-on for us we need to improve before we play Scotland. We can say we need to be more physical but how are we going to do that? That’s what we’re working on.
“We don’t just want people to run harder or tackle harder, they are throw away words. We’re on about, technically, how do we get into those positions to be able to get dominance.
“That’s been a big focus for us this week. It comes around to that physicality and Ireland were on the front foot carrying ball and it’s a lot easier to get momentum.
“We’re working hard this week in terms of trying to create that momentum, to allow us to move forward onto the ball rather than be static as we were on the weekend. It’s definitely an area we recognise as something to work on.”
Humphreys knows this weekend’s opponents only too well having coached Scotland’s forwards for several years, while his wife and children still live up there. Scotland are riding the crest of a wave at the moment having beaten England at Murrayfield last weekend.
Humphreys is expecting a very difficult assignment this weekend, and is also full of respect for Welshman Steve Tandy who is in charge of Scotland’s defence. “They’ll be pretty confident,” said Humphreys. “Over the last period of time, they seem to be making big strides forward.
“They’re a good team and they’ve got a lot of Lions there now with a lot of experience. We’re expecting them to come at us physically and that’s where our improvement has to be.
“I’ve known Steve a long time and he’s doing an outstanding job there, as everybody can see. They’re very well organised and they’ll put a lot of heat over the ball, try to slow it down for us.
“They’ll try and bring us into those physical confrontations. He’s a good coach and we’re well prepared for that.”
