Warren Gatland has made one change to his Wales starting lineup for Saturday’s Six Nations match against Scotland at Murrayfield.

The Ospreys lock Adam Beard replaces Cory Hill, who will miss the rest of the tournament after suffering an ankle injury during Wales’s 21-13 victory over England 10 days ago. The Scarlets forward Jake Ball, meanwhile, takes Beard’s place on the bench. Gatland was announcing the team 48 hours earlier than had initially been planned.

Although the full-back Leigh Halfpenny continued his comeback for the Scarlets three days ago after suffering concussion in November, Gatland has retained the Ospreys centre Owen Watkin as the outside back on replacement duty.

“It was a fairly straightforward selection,” said Gatland. “After that performance against England they deserved the opportunity to back up. It’s a little bit unfair on Owen Watkin to leave him out as he’s been doing a good job for us. It was a very simple selection meeting in terms of not a lot of discussion around selection. We’ve picked the same team apart from the two enforced changes. We didn’t talk about other players potentially coming in.”

Wales are chasing a 13th successive victory, having not been beaten since the midway point of last season’s Six Nations when Ireland toppled them 37-27 in Dublin. If they beat Scotland – then defeat Ireland in Cardiff seven days later – it would secure the title and a grand slam in Gatland’s final Six Nations campaign as head coach.

Although they lost to Scotland in Edinburgh on their last visit two years ago, Wales won the four previous Murrayfield encounters and they will face a Scotland side defeated in their last two Six Nations games this season, losing to Ireland and France.

“There is no doubt that [Scotland’s] record at Murrayfield has been very impressive, and they are hard to beat there for any team,” added Gatland. “They will be disappointed and hurting from that performance last week against France in Paris. We are well aware of their threat.”

Wales last won the Six Nations in 2013, with their latest grand slam being clinched the previous season.