WARREN Gatland wants ‘Lazarus’ Dan Biggar to bring Wales’ attacking game back to life against Scotland by helping them be more direct.

The fly-half has made a miracle recovery from the injured left ankle that forced his early withdrawal in the 16-16 draw with Ireland on opening weekend.

Biggar will pull the strings against the Scots in Cardiff and is charged with helping them up their attacking game after a frustrating afternoon in Dublin when pressure inside enemy territory was not converted into points, the sole try coming from number eight Taulupe Faletau from a five-metre scrum.

“We went out to play a little bit in the wider channels and try and develop our game a bit. We didn’t execute that well enough,” said head coach Gatland.

“If you look at the stats, we probably should have been more direct. Jonny Sexton made two tackles in the game and both of them were covering tackles on George North.

“If we’d been much more direct with Jamie or Jonathan his tackle count probably would have been 10 or 12. It’s just about us getting the balance right.

“We’ve looked at the game closely. We made over 200 passes and put two of them down. I thought the handling of both teams was pretty good in the conditions.

“We’ve identified that by being a bit more expansive we’ve still got to be a bit more accurate and a bit squarer because we were probably a bit lateral running across the field and not picking off or executing threes on twos, as well.

“It’s about making sure we get the balance right and the mix between what our 10 does in terms of his kicking, running and passing.

“It wasn’t quite so good in terms of the balance that we’re looking for, with probably too much pass, pass, pass. We just need to get that right in terms of being direct.”

While Rhys Priestland did a steady job off the bench it comes as a relief that Biggar is back when it had been expected he would be watching on from the Principality Stadium Stands.

Gatland said his miraculous recovery had seen him labelled as Lazarus by his teammates and now he wants his fly-half to bring the best out of their strike runners.

“He’s developed really well as a 10 in terms of his understanding and the variation he brings to deciding how to play – whether we set a close target followed by a wide target; whether we use our kicking strategy in terms of slowing line-speed down and turning opponents around; and potentially being an attacking, running threat himself by playing flat and wide, too,” said Gatland.

“He’s important to us and he’s really developed in the last couple of years. A lot of players have confidence in him as a 10 because he does communicate and speaks well, with a lot of confidence. “Players realise how competitive he is as well. He’s incredibly well-respected in that role.”

Gatland makes one change to his matchday squad with Gareth Anscombe, a late withdrawal from the XV for Ireland, coming onto the bench for Alex Cuthbert. Scotland bring in Saracens’ Duncan Taylor for injured centre Matt Scott.

Wales: Liam Williams, G North, J Davies, J Roberts, T James, D Biggar, G Davies, R Evans, S Baldwin, S Lee, L Charteris, A W Jones, S Warburton (captain), J Tipuric, T Faletau. Replacements: K Owens, G Jenkins, T Francis, B Davies, D Lydiate, Lloyd Williams, R Priestland, G Anscombe.

Scotland: S Hogg, S Maitland, M Bennett, D Taylor, T Seymour, F Russell, G Laidlaw, A Dickinson, R Ford, WP Nel, R Gray, J Gray, J Barclay, J Hardie, D Denton. Replacements: S McInally, G Reid, Z Fagerson, T Swinson, B Cowan, S Hidalgo-Clyne, D Weir, S Lamont.

Referee: George Clancy (Ireland)