White wants Scots to perform away

Scotland captain Jason White has urged his team to replicate their good home form in recent matches when they hit the road this weekend for their Six Nations Championship clash with Wales.

Jason White: Wants home form away

The Scots are flying high after a thrilling 20-16 victory over France last Sunday in the opening weekend of the tournament - which came after an encouraging autumn Test series.

White led his team-mates last year to victory over Samoa, a narrow defeat against Argentina and an heroic second-half comeback against Tana Umaga's all-conquering All Blacks.

All those matches were played at Murrayfield in front of less-than full houses, so Sunday could prove to be a bit of a culture shock for the young Scots as the Millennium Stadium will be packed to its 72,500 capacity.

"I'm quite conscious that the last four games have been at home, so to go away is another big test," said White.

"The stadium will be going bananas and Wales will be looking to play well in front of their own crowd.

"They'll be looking for a bit of pay back after a hard game against England last week, but we just need to do the same things as we did well against France and improve on the few things that we didn't do so well. If we do that we should be fine."

White also took the opportunity to express his confidence in Scotland debutant Ben MacDougall, even though he admitted he is yet to see the Australian-born centre play in a competitive match.

MacDougall was yesterday called into the team at outside-centre as a direct replacement for Marcus Di Rollo, who has not managed to recover from a hamstring injury picked up against the French.

"To be honest it is a slight disruption," admitted White.

"Marcus played very well in the November games and he played well during the time he was on the pitch last Sunday, but we can't really dwell on that.

"Ben's form at training has been very good. I personally have not seen him play because I play down south, but the guys up here say he has gone very well for the Borders recently. As a squad we are confident that he will come in and do very well."

Meanwhile, MacDougall said he was ready to repay his captain's confidence, and promised he would not be overawed by the occasion.

"I've played a lot of big games," he said. "I think the biggest game I have ever played in was for the Brisbane Broncos in front of a packed house in Queensland, so I know what the score is. You just have to turn up in the right frame of mind and ready to play - that's all you can do.

"I don't think you can prepare for an occasion like this until you are there. It's a big match and there is going to be a lot of pressure and a lot of excitement. It's just going to come down to doing the basics well. All the other variables don't really matter."