Cardiff winger Jamie Roberts will make his debut against Scotland © Getty Images

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Matches: Wales 30 - 15 Scotland

Players/Officials: James Hook

Cardiff Blues winger Jamie Roberts will make his Wales debut in Saturday's RBS 6 Nations Championship clash with Scotland after head coach Warren Gatland made three changes to the side that beat England last weekend.

Roberts has been preferred to Mark Jones, who has dropped out of the matchday 22, while Tom Shanklin replaces Sonny Parker at outside centre and Ian Evans starts in the second row after Alun-Wyn Jones was ruled out with an ankle injury.

Jonathan Thomas, who was considered doubtful after taking a heavy blow to the head in a tackle from Jonny Wilkinson, has been cleared to play and starts at blind-side flanker. Shanklin's inclusion was expected after he made an impressive impact off the bench as Wales came from 19-6 down to win at Twickenham for the first time in 20 years.

But Gatland has made the surprising decision to drop Llanelli Scarlets loose-forward Alix Popham from the squad altogether, while prop Gethin Jenkins remains among the replacements. Gloucester back-row Gareth Delve takes Popham's place on a bench which also features Cardiff lock Deniol Jones, who was called into the squad yesterday, and fit-again scrum-half Dwayne Peel.

Gatland said: "When you beat England at Twickenham you don't feel the need to make changes to a winning side, but there are areas we think we can improve. After reviewing last week's match we've given Mark Jones and Alix Popham a few things to work on and are pleased to offer both Jamie Roberts and Gareth Delve an opportunity.

"Both have been in fine form so far this season. Gareth is capable of coming off the bench to make an impact and we have been pleased with Jamie in training. Impact from the bench was important for us last week and we are blessed again with the ability to use the likes of Gethin Jenkins and Matthew Rees if needed. We've also been able to name Dwayne Peel there with that thought in mind.''

The inclusion of Shanklin ahead of Parker takes the number of Ospreys in the starting line-up down to 12 from the record 13 that took the field at Twickenham. Victory over England lifted Wales two places in the world rankings - but Gatland's decision to drop Jones and Popham shows a clear determination that there is work still to be done.

Wales were poor for an hour at Twickenham before pouncing on a series of English mistakes to score 20 unanswered points and snatch a 26-19 win. Gatland said: "Scotland will be hurting from their defeat to France last week and they will come to Cardiff targeting a win. They may feel they will find us in complacent mood after such a great result at Twickenham, but nothing could be further from the truth.

"We enjoyed the win, but 24 hours later we were straight back to business. We know we need to improve, Scotland will want to bounce back and we need a better performance this weekend if we are to achieve what we want from the game.''

Scotland initially made two changes to their starting line-up for Saturday's Millennium Stadium clash. Frank Hadden insisted it will take more than one poor performance to alter his opinion that Scotland can have a successful campaign in the RBS 6 Nations. The Scots were well beaten by France at Murrayfield on Sunday but there has been little time to dwell on the 27-6 defeat.

Hadden's side are back in action against Wales on Saturday, and Chris Paterson returns to the starting XV in one of two changes. He intially replaced the injured Rory Lamont at full-back before moving to the wing when Simon Webster was injured in training on Friday.

Eleswhere, Kelly Brown steps in for the dropped Dave Callam at number eight and Hugo Southwell comes into the side at fullback. Ulster's Simon Danielli is drafted onto the bench. Head coach Hadden resisted the temptation to make wholesale changes and insisted it was too soon in the championship to be making radical selections.

"We stand by the team we selected last week, although we were very disappointed with the performance - and we stand by the team we've picked this week,'' said Hadden. "You're always tempted to make changes after a defeat, but you talk about it rationally, have sensible discussions about this, that and the next thing, you look at everything in the minutest detail, and then make your decision.

"We've had a very honest debrief this week. It was very clear that the performance wasn't good enough last weekend and we'll have to make some progress on that during this Six Nations. We think this is the right team, the best team, and we feel we've made some sensible decisions. We're expecting an improved performance.

"We believed before we went into last week's game that we could win the game down in Wales and we still believe that to be the case.''

They head to the Millennium Stadium to face a side whose confidence will be soaring after Saturday's thrilling victory against World Cup finalists England at Twickenham. Graeme Morrison and Allister Hogg have been added to the Scotland bench, while Paterson will be winning his 83rd cap, taking him past Gregor Townsend to become Scotland's most capped back of all time.

Lock Nathan Hines will be making his 50th appearance for Scotland having recovered from a calf injury sustained against the French. Hadden said: "We're aware of the size of the challenge, and we're very aware of what we need to do to get the result this weekend.''

The Scotland coach accepted he had perhaps made a miscalculation last week by fielding too many players with a shortage of recent game time. "There were eight people who hadn't played for three weeks, and on balance that was too many,'' Hadden said. "What do you do? Do you pick a player just because he's had more games than somebody else, even though you don't necessarily think he's the right guy?

"There are a lot of tough decisions to make, there's no doubt about that. Last weekend, we definitely didn't get the balance right. You'll always have this problem at international level. You'll get situations where you have some guys who have possibly played a touch too much through the heavy weather spell of November, December and January and come into the Six Nations a bit sluggish, and you've got others who haven't played enough - and it is very, very difficult to get that balance on the button.

"We possibly tired in the last 30 minutes and maybe that was the reason for some of the problems. I'm hoping with another match under their belts that we'll get a better performance this week.''

The set-piece was also identified by Hadden as an area in which Scotland must improve this week to stand a chance of defeating Wales, who roared back in the second half against England to achieve a famous victory in London.

Hadden said: "Rest assured that we've spent a lot of time this week working on the problems after the first 50 minutes, namely at the set-piece. "Considering how well it had gone up to then, it was a huge disappointment that it failed to function in the last 30 minutes, and therefore didn't give us the platform we need at that stage to chase the game.

"We had a couple of really clever sequences of play in the first half against France, but they came from quality set-piece, and unless you get that bit right it is really difficult to make progress. You have to play what is in front of you. Wales will be employing a rushing defence this week, and there are certain things you need to do to counter that and the key to being able to do that is the slickness of the set-piece.

"Being slick in that area is really important to our performance. We've made a lot of progress there over the last couple of years, and we're confident that we can rectify that by this weekend.''

Wales: L Byrne (Ospreys); J Roberts (Cardiff Blues), T Shanklin (Cardiff Blues), G Henson (Ospreys), S Williams (Ospreys); J Hook (Ospreys), M Phillips (Ospreys); Duncan Jones (Ospreys), H Bennett (Ospreys), A Jones (Ospreys), I Gough (Ospreys), I Evans (Ospreys), J Thomas (Ospreys), M Williams (Cardiff Blues), R Jones (Ospreys, capt).

Replacements: M Rees (Llanelli Scarlets), G Jenkins (Cardiff Blues), Deniol Jones (Cardiff Blues), G Delve (Gloucester), D Peel (Llanelli Scarlets), S Jones (Llanelli Scarlets), S Parker (Ospreys).

Scotland: H Southwell (Edinburgh); N Walker (Ospreys), N De Luca (Edinburgh), A Henderson (Glasgow Warriors), C Paterson (Gloucester); D Parks (Glasgow Warriors), M Blair (Edinburgh); A Jacobsen (Edinburgh), R Ford (Edinburgh), E Murray (Northampton Saints), N Hines (Perpignan), J Hamilton (Leicester Tigers), J White (Sale Sharks, captain), J Barclay (Glasgow Warriors), K Brown (Glasgow Warriors).

Replacements: F Thomson (Glasgow Warriors), G Kerr (Edinburgh), S MacLeod (Llanelli Scarlets), A Hogg (Edinburgh), C Cusiter (Perpignan), G Morrison (Glasgow Warriors), S Danielli (Ulster).

Referee: Bryce Lawrence (NZ)