In-form Scotland will look to build on last week's historic win over England when they host Wales on Saturday.

Wayne Pivac's Wales bounced back from a disappointing 2020 to edge past 14-man Ireland in Cardiff last Sunday.

Both sides seem to be on an upward curve and that makes this Murrayfield meeting a mouth-watering match-up.

Jamie Ritchie, man of the match in Scotland's win in last October's meeting in Wales, is one of three injury absentees.

Winger Sean Maitland and centre Cameron Redpath have also been ruled out having started the 11-6 win against England.

Their replacements are back row Blade Thomson, centre James Lang and winger Darcy Graham, who also started October's win in Llanelli.

Wales have five players ruled out through injury, including George North.

North's unavailability, plus that of fellow centre Johnny Williams, means they will field a new-look midfield pairing of Nick Tompkins and Owen Watkin.

Liam Williams returns after a suspension to replace the injured Hallam Amos on the wing, while Gareth Davies comes in for Tomos Williams at scrum-half.

Josh Navidi, last weekend's early replacement for Dan Lydiate, is ruled out, meaning Aaron Wainwright will wear the number six jersey.

Commentator's notes

Andrew Cotter: Two unbeaten sides, but in seemingly different states of health. Scotland, growing in confidence after the impressive display at Twickenham, Wales, uncertain in the win against 14 men of Ireland.

One common problem for both sides is injuries to key players and for Scotland there is a real shame that new centre Cam Redpath is among the missing - James Lang takes his place in midfield. Similarly flanker Blade Thomson will find Jamie Ritchie a hard act to follow.

Meanwhile, Darcy Graham is a hugely exciting attacking talent but perhaps doesn't have the same experience or defensive nous as Sean Maitland. And opposite him will be Liam Williams, whose return is one of the few items of good news from a Wales squad deprived of so many, including Dan Lydiate and George North.

Of course, the encouragement for the visitors is that no away trip is as daunting in crowd-less days. And the pressure is now on Scotland, starting as unfamiliar favourites and knowing that one win, no matter how historic it might have been, will count for little if it is not backed up.

View from both camps

Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend: "It was a very encouraging performance at Twickenham and the squad performed to a level which has to be the benchmark throughout the tournament.

"Wales are also coming into this game after a win and will have the same objective, so it will be a tough challenge as always."

Wales head coach Wayne Pivac: "It is a quick six-day turnaround this week but we are looking forward to getting back out there. We have picked up a couple of injuries but we see it as more of an opportunity for those coming into the side."

Line-ups

Scotland: 15-Stuart Hogg (capt); 14-Darcy Graham, 13-Chris Harris, 12-James Lang, 11-Duhan van der Merwe; 10-Finn Russell, 9-Ali Price; 1-Rory Sutherland, 2-George Turner, 3-Zander Fagerson; 4-Scott Cummings, 5-Jonny Gray; 6-Blade Thomson, 7-Hamish Watson, 8-Matt Fagerson

Replacements: 16-David Cherry, 17-Oli Kebble, 18-Willem Nel, 19-Richie Gray, 20-Gary Graham, 21-Scott Steele, 22-Jaco van der Walt, 23-Huw Jones

Wales: 15-Leigh Halfpenny; 14-Louis Rees-Zammit, 13-Owen Watkin, 12-Nick Tompkins, 11-Liam Williams; 10-Dan Biggar, 9-Gareth Davies; 1-Wyn Jones, 2-Ken Owens, 3-Tomas Francis; 4-Adam Beard, Alun Wyn Jones (capt); 6-Aaron Wainwright, 7-Justin Tipuric, 8-Taulupe Faletau

Replacements: 16-Elliot Dee, 17-Rhodri Jones, 18-Leon Brown, 19-Will Rowlands, 20-James Botham, 21-Kieran Hardy, 22-Callum Sheedy, 23-Willis Haloholo

Match facts

Head-to-head

Scotland

Wales

Match officials

Referee: Matthew Carley (England)

Touch judges: Pascal Gauzere (France) & Andrea Piardi (Italy)

TMO: Karl Dickson (England)

Wales wing Louis Rees-Zammit speaks on how he has settled into the squad and the steps he has taken to improve his game after scoring his first Six Nations try against Ireland last week.

Watch Scotland v Wales on BBC One, BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport website & app on Saturday, 13 February (kick-off 16:45 GMT) -full coverage details here

WATCH MORE: What a finish! Rees-Zammit dives in for winning Wales try

Available to UK users only.

England found flashes of attacking flair to bounce back from last weekend's Scotland defeat and claim a six-try Six Nations win against Italy.

Wing Jonny May closed out the first half in style, leaping out of a tackle to touch down in spectacular fashion.

After the break, Watson's impressive intercept try sealed a bonus point for the defending champions.

Substitute back row Jack Willis scored from short range but was almost immediately carried off the pitch on a stretcher after sustaining a knee injury.

Replacement back Tommaso Allan added a second try for Italy before Elliot Daly crossed for England to seal victory and offer some solace to fans after last weekend's unexpected loss.

England will now be hoping for a Wales win against Scotland or Irish victory over France in the weekend's other two fixtures to get their title bid back on track.

Spectacular May try ends first half on a high

All the talk pre-match was about England needing to put in a performance as they looked to recover from a poor showing in defeat to Scotland, with a 28th consecutive win against Italy taken as a given.

Italy head coach Franco Smith is building for the future with a youthful team centred around 19-year-old scrum-half Stephen Varney and 20-year-old fly-half Paolo Garbisi.

England head coach Eddie Jones looked to have different plans, having dropped centre Ollie Lawrence for the game and avoided giving scrum-half Harry Randall or centre Paolo Odogwu a debut in the easiest of the Six Nations fixtures.

Initially it looked as though youth would win the day as, after a few phases of lively attack with Welsh-born Varney in the eye of the storm, the Italians took an unexpected lead.

Garbisi sent the ball left to full-back Jacopo Trulla, who drew in Daly to allow Ioane to cross in the left corner after just three minutes.

After the restart England looked woken from a slumber and they sped the ball left, but room for May on the left wing was wasted as Daly's pass flew into touch.

Owen Farrell trimmed Italy's lead to two with a penalty in front of the posts then centre Henry Slade entered the fray, keen to cement his place in Jones' changing midfield.

His grubber kick was gathered by George Ford and Itoje took the ball to within metres of the tryline but eventually it was fellow lock Hill who went over from close range for his first international try.

England did not make any line breaks against Scotland last weekend and Watson looked fiercely motivated to single-handedly change that this time around, coming in from the wing on an angle to scythe through the wall of blue.

His efforts were wasted as hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie - starting in place of Jamie George - was penalised at the breakdown and Garbisi evened the scores.

Slade injected a bit of fire into the Twickenham chill once more as he chased his own kicks along the floor and across the tryline, but he did not manage to finish the job.

England did eventually get a second try as fast hands from May released Slade on the left wing, then the hosts hurried the ball to the opposite flank where Watson stepped past Varney to score.

And Jones' side finished the half with aplomb as Daly found May with space on the left and the wing jumped over Luca Sperandio's tackle for a spectacular touchdown to add to his already packed showreel.

More to follow.

OCALA, Fla. — New engines, new cars, new crew members and a new shop. That is among the inventory Justin Grant has had to adapt to for the start of the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car Series season.

But what isn’t new for the Ione, Calif., driver is finding victory lane early and often with the series, which he did once again Friday night in the second round for the Winter Dirt Games XII at Bubba Raceway Park.

Grant chased down fellow Californian Jake Swanson for the lead eight laps from the finish.

Grant has now won each of his three USAC National Sprint Car features at the Ocala, Florida three-eighths-mile dirt track on a Friday night in an odd-numbered year, previously doing so in both 2017 and ’19.

The latest triumph gave Grant his 21st career USAC National Sprint Car feature victory.

Grant hopes that this victory is an omen of sorts, one that will carry on the tradition of successive drivers who’ve won at Ocala, then parlayed that achievement into a USAC National Sprint Car championship six times in the past 11 years.

“Getting through Florida with some confidence is huge,” Grant stated.  “With a month off, there’s almost like another offseason after this weekend, so just being able to go home and feel good is awesome leading into the year.  If you run good down here, your car owners are excited, and are wanting to spend money.  The crew guys are excited, and they’re wanting to go the extra mile.  Good success early just really snowballs, and I’m really looking forward to the rest of the year.”

Grant is grateful for the faith that team owner Kevin Birchmeier has put in him, allowing Grant to take the reins of the team and move it to his own shop in Indianapolis. Two new Maxims were constructed, and two new Kistler engines were installed.

With a dedicated crew on his TOPP Motorsports/NOS Energy Drink – MPV Express – TOPP Industries/Maxim/Kistler Chevy, it’s an entire atmosphere, situation and climate that Grant embraces, and he wouldn’t have any other way.

“I’m having so much fun,” Grant said.  “We’ve been going to the car wash every night afterwards, hanging out, laughing, pressure washing cars, cleaning things up, and then going out for dinner afterwards, then getting up in the morning, doing maintenance; we’re sprint car racing and it’s just a ton of fun.”

Grant started eighth and steadily worked his way to the front as Swanson set the pace.

Making his way to second by lap 10, Grant stalked Swanson through several mid-race yellow flags and restarts.

But on the 23rd lap, Grant found a lane underneath Swanson for the lead exiting turn four.  The two drag raced side-by-side to the bottom of turn one with the pair banging wheels, Grant’s right rear and Swanson’s left front.

“(Swanson) left the door open off of four and he was beat down the front stretch and into one,” Grant explained. “He tried to dog me down in there and just wasn’t in a position to be able to do it. We made contact, but I was far enough up under him that he knew what was coming; he knows the game. He’s a good friend of mine, he’s at my house all the time and he’s a good dude. We’ll be fine but I’m sure he might be mad tonight.”

As Swanson regathered himself to stay in front of Thorson for the runner-up spot, Buddy Kofoid stepped up to the topside to race around both Swanson and Thorson, then immediately began to threaten Grant’s supremacy at the head of the pack with six laps remaining.

“Buddy was up there,” Grant remembered. “We got to Davey Ray to lap him, and I’m idling the bottom, so the motor’s really quiet, but I hear this motor just screaming down the frontstretch, pretty close. I’m like ‘Ooh, that guy ain’t coming off the bottom. He’s blazing the top.’ I cleared Davey into one, then in the middle of two, I thought to myself, ‘Do I bail off the bottom, do I go to the top,” and then the yellow lights came on. I remember thinking, ‘Whew, thank god. Now I’ve got a few laps to roll around and think about that decision.'”

On the restart, Grant had no qualms establishing a presence at the topside of turns three and four and began to distance himself from the field while the battle raged for second with Brady Bacon racing around the outside of Kofoid for second just three laps from the finish.

Grant beat Bacon to the checkered flag by 1.164 seconds with Kofoid, Thorson and C.J. Leary rounding out the top five.

To see full results, turn to the next page.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Georgia’s Drew Dollar led a sweep of the front row for the ARCA Menards Series season-opening Lucas Oil 200 during group qualifying Saturday morning at Daytona Int’l Speedway.

Dollar, from Atlanta, set the mark with a lap of 49.489 seconds (181.859 mph) with his No. 15 Venturini Motorsports Toyota Camry. It was his first career General Tire Pole Award in his 23rd series start.

The 20-year-old made his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut on Friday night with Kyle Busch Motorsports and finished 10th after challenging for a top-five finish on the final lap. He’s hoping to deliver Venturini Motorsports’ fifth straight ARCA victory at Daytona.

Dollar’s teammate, Gracie Trotter, will join him on the front row Saturday afternoon after a best lap of 49.499 seconds (181.822 mph) in the No. 25 Toyota Camry.

She’ll make her first ARCA national start at Daytona after running three races in the series last season, all with Bill McAnally Racing. Trotter was third in ARCA Menards Series West points in 2020.

Veteran Greg Van Alst, a past ARCA/CAR Super Series champion in late models, returned to the ARCA Menards Series for the first time since 2002 and qualified third on Saturday morning. He’ll be joined on the second row by fellow veteran Rich Bickle, with rookie Jack Wood completing the top five.

Sixth through 10th were Derek Griffith, Sean Corr, Chuck Hiers, Corey Heim and Tanner Gray.

Reigning ARCA Menards Series champion Bret Holmes, sharing his ride this year with Sam Mayer, rolls off 15th for the 80-lap race that kicks off the ARCA Menards Series season.

Coverage of the Lucas Oil 200 driven by General Tire kicks off at 1:30 p.m. ET, live on FS1 and the Motor Racing Network.

STARTING LINEUP: ARCA Menards Series; Daytona Int’l Speedway; Feb. 13, 2021

1. Drew Dollar
2. Gracie Trotter
3. Greg Van Alst
4. Rich Bickle
5. Jack Wood
6. Derek Griffith
7. Sean Corr
8. Chuck Hiers
9. Corey Heim
10. Tanner Gray
11. Andy Jankowiak
12. Nick Sanchez
13. Ty Gibbs
14. Derrick Lancaster
15. Bret Holmes
16. Thad Moffitt
17. Willie Mullins
18. Kyle Sieg
19. Brittney Zamora
20. Dave Mader III
21. Jason Kitzmiller
22. Jason White
23. Scott Melton
24. John Ferrier
25. Howie DiSavino III
26. Richard Garvie
27. Owen Smith
28. Scott Reeves
29. Eric Caudell
30. Tim Richmond
31. Toni Breidinger
32. L. Wilson
33. Con Nicolopoulos
34. Benny Chastain

VERNON, N.Y. – After a winter of uncertainty, the 2021 plans for Utica-Rome Speedway have become much clearer.

Speedway owner Gene Cole has turned over operations of the half-mile clay oval, motocross track and adjacent speedway club to Brett Deyo of BD Motorsports Media LLC. Cole had reassumed ownership of the Vernon facility following a six-year run by Bill and Kim Shea as the speedway’s promoters.

The historic venue will now operate on Friday nights in lieu of the longtime Sunday niche. Friday night racing is expected to get underway at 7:30 p.m., with hot laps at 6:45 p.m. to allow travel time for teams and fans leaving work.

“Mr. Cole wants nothing more than to see Utica-Rome continue as a speedway,” Deyo said. “There were certainly other lucrative offers received which would have effectively ended auto racing at Utica-Rome. Mr. Cole put the legacy of auto racing at Utica-Rome first and afforded us this opportunity.”

Cole hopes the new promoters can carry the speedway into the future.

“I want this group to be around long enough to write the 75th anniversary book,” he said, referencing the Home of Heroes 50th anniversary book written by Bones Bourcier following the 2010 season.

Utica-Rome will operate in conjunction with Fonda (N.Y.) Speedway, located approximately one hour east, mirroring rules and pay structures with the historic Track of Champions also operated by BD Motorsports Media LLC.

Both American Racer Tires, through Lias Tire of Indiana, Pa., and Sunoco Race Fuels via Insinger Performance of Dushore, Pa., will service the speedway.

The new Utica-Rome Speedway management team will consist of Jamie and Denise Page of Bainbridge, N.Y., the current General Managers at Fonda Speedway and past promoters of I-88 Speedway in Afton, N.Y., and 25-year-old Chris Moore of Smyrna, Del., who will relocate to Vernon for race season. Moore will also serve as the announcer at both Fonda and Utica-Rome.

Regularly featured divisions will include Modifieds, Crate 602 Sportsman, Limited Sportsman, Pro Stocks and Four Cylinders with other classes expected to be included during selected events.

The 2021 season will get underway in May following a pair of Open Practice sessions.

Weekly racing will continue through Labor Day weekend with several special events penciled in.

In addition to Utica-Rome Speedway points, a Thunder on the Thruway mini-series will be contested between Utica-Rome and Fonda speedways in the Modified, Crate 602 Sportsman and Pro Stock divisions.

Both the Modified and Crate 602 Sportsman divisions will be eligible to compete for the American Racer Cup presented by Sunoco cash awards and complimentary tire certificates.

Weekly payouts will match those offered at Fonda, including $2,400 to win, $500 for 10th and $250 to start for the Modifieds, $1,000 to win and $100 to start for the Crate 602 Sportsman and $800 to win, $75 to start for the Pro Stocks.

A tribute to the late Richie Evans and a return of the New Yorker event are expected to highlight the 2021 Utica-Rome schedule, which will be released in the coming weeks.

BARBERVILLE, Fla. – Morning showers creating a high-water table and saturated grounds at Volusia Speedway Park, along with persistent rain throughout the day, have forced World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series, Super DIRTcar Series and track officials to cancel Saturday’s finale of the 50th DIRTcar Nationals at the speedway.

With the cancellation, a pair of first-time Big Gator champions have been crowned. Devin Moran is the champion for the Late Models and Max McLaughlin is the champion for the Super DIRTcar Series.

The World of Outlaws Late Models will continue their season on Friday, March 5, at Duck River Raceway Park and the Super DIRTcar Series’ season will continue on Saturday, April 10, at Can Am Speedway.

Zinedine Zidane has admitted that coaching France "could be a possibility one day" after the president of the French Football Federation identified him as his preferred successor for Didier Deschamps.

There has been persistent speculation about Zidane's future in charge of Real Madrid in recent weeks as they trail Atletico Madrid in the La Liga title race after being knocked out of the Spanish Supercopa and Copa del Rey.

- Insider Notebook: Varane on Man Utd's defensive shortlist
- Stream FC Daily on ESPN+

The 48-year-old coach has insisted he's focused on the Madrid job and has no plans to quit but has also refused to confirm that he intends to continue next season.

"My relationship with [FFF president Noel] Le Graet is good. We've known each other since 1998," Zidane said in a news conference on Saturday ahead of Real Madrid's La Liga match with Valencia.

"It could be an objective one day. I've said it before, when I started coaching 10 years ago, that it's something that could be a possibility one day."

"Right now I'm here," he said. "I'm enjoying what I'm doing here. In the future we'll see, you never know. But my mind is on the day-to-day here at Real Madrid."

Zidane was questioned about the France job after Le Graet named him as the leading candidate for the position in an interview with French radio station RTL on Saturday.

"If Didier leaves and I'm still here, the first person I'd see would be Zidane," Le Graet, who has been in charge of the FFF since 2011 and is running for a fourth term, said. "I have a really good relationship with him."

Deschamps -- a former teammate of Zidane at club and international level -- has managed France since 2012, winning the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

His contract was extended in 2019 to run until the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the same year that Zidane's Madrid deal ends.

Zidane would not be drawn on whether a resolution to the Sergio Ramos contract saga -- with the Real Madrid captain's deal expiring in June, and talks over a renewal deadlocked -- was a condition for him staying in charge at the Bernabeu for 2021-22.

"I'm the coach of Real Madrid today and what I'll do is make the most of every moment I have," he said. "The rest, the future we don't ever talk about and we won't. It's the present, what we're doing now."

Madrid will have both Dani Carvajal and Lucas Vazquez back from injury for Sunday's match with Valencia, while Zidane also confirmed that the recovery of Eden Hazard -- who had been expected to be out for six weeks with a muscular problem -- is ahead of schedule.

Another Alisson howler saw Leicester City beat Liverpool 3-1 on Saturday with Jamie Vardy, James Maddison and Harvey Barnes all scoring.

Mohamed Salah scored Liverpool's only goal early in the second half.

- Stream FC Daily on ESPN+
- Olley: Liverpool's 'mentality monsters' have become tortured souls

"We know, when we play Liverpool, it's going to be tough, because they can build and pass, and be direct as well," Maddison said after the game.

"It's a case of staying in the game. We're a top team now, we've got quality, and if we get chances we can put them away. It showed, because in 10 minutes we turned the game on its head.

"Alisson is obviously having a bit of a tough time at the moment, but I'm sure he'll be back. I'm just glad we could take advantage of his mistake."

The best chances of the first half fell to Vardy and Roberto Firmino, with both teams lucky that their goalkeepers were on top form to leave it 0-0 heading into the break.

Trent Alexander-Arnold was denied by the crossbar before the hour mark before Salah broke the deadlock on 67 minutes.

Alexander-Arnold's shot was blocked by the Leicester defence but only ricocheted as far as Firmino who, without looking to see if he was there, tapped the ball back to Salah. He then calmly slotted the ball past Kasper Schmeichel.

Leicester had a double VAR review on 77 minutes which saw them lose a penalty but score the resulting free-kick.

Harvey Barnes was brought down by Thiago on the edge of the box and referee Anthony Taylor awarded a penalty, which was overturned to a free kick following a VAR review, and Maddison curled it into the corner of Alisson's goal.

There was a VAR review for offside but the goal stood.

Moments later Vardy scored Leicester's second after Alisson stormed out of his goal and missed the ball, leaving an empty net for the Leicester striker to score in.

Barnes completed Leicester's win with a creative run down the left and into the box where he guided the ball past Alisson.

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp told BBC Sport afterwards: "It was a clear game that we should win. We played good football, dominated possession, took the game out of Leicester but apart from that we were really top in the game.

"We scored a goal, could have and should have scored more, whatever. Everything fine and then penalty, free-kick, offside, not offside, goal. That had a proper impact. That is something that has to change. The first goal for me is offside. The difference is we think it's an objective thing but it's not."