Gatland 2.0 doesn’t who his best players was the hallmark of
IT’S fair to say that expectations were not high when we began this year’s Six Nations tournament.
And it always felt like it could come down to the Italy game to avoid the wooden spoon.
Wales started the campaign as a team in transition, post world cup retirements and regional rugby in a parlous state didn’t help.
There have been moments that have hinted at a brighter future, but in the end the unforgiving nature of Test match rugby has overwhelmed this inexperienced side at some point in each of the four games thus far.
In order to win at this level you need to be able to grab a game by the scruff of the neck and impose your will on the opposition.
The teams that have won matches have X-factor players, such as England’s Ben Earl, Ireland’s Bundee Aki or Scotland’s Duhan van der Merwe, who have the ability to change the course of a match.
The nearest thing Wales has to this is Rio Dyer.
He has been a handful against most teams but he is not consistent enough yet.
Wales’ finest player in the championship has been Tommy Reffell. His turnovers have been vital in scuppering the opposition attack and as a result teams have had to work hard for their points against Wales’ gutsy defence.
But it’s in attack that Wales has looked second rate.
If a side lacks star players to make the difference then they have to rely on their pattern of play to break teams down.
Italy have been the best exponents of this. They have been able to open defences up largely through being able to maintain their attacking structure in phase play.
Italy have committed to a carrying game, they trust their skills to win the contact area efficiently so that they can keep their shape for the next phase.
Ireland were the only team that did not succumb to this plan. If anything Italy are getting better and better at it too.
The contest for the Wooden Spoon may well come down to whether Wales, and Tommy Reffell in particular, can prevent Italy getting from into full flow.
Considering the way they play it should not surprise anyone that Italy have been a second half team. When legs get tired the gaps open up.
Like Italy, I would have hoped that by the end of Wales’ campaign we would see the emergence of an attacking strategy coming through.
Not a fully functioning and complete pattern but the semblance of an underlying philosophy of how Wales are going to score tries.
I haven’t been convinced of anything yet.
It has been difficult because Wales has struggled for parity in the collisions therefore it’s hard to get any attacking momentum.
But the reality is that Wales simply don’t have the power to win those collisions for the foreseeable future so we need to find a way of playing that’s less dependent on that. Precisely as Italy have done. Having seen the way Wales capitulated in the final quarter against France, it is bewildering that Gatland has chosen to field such inexperience on the bench this weekend.
Both Domachowski and Assiratti have started matches in this campaign. They are promising young props breaking into Test rugby but they have both been discarded for more peripheral players.
I agree with blooding players and seeing where they stand but this is an opportunity for the Cardiff props to show how much they have developed in the last two months.
Neither can I get my head around the return of Tompkins and North in midfield.
What was the point of giving Watkin and Roberts one game? How can they show they have learned from that experience?
Team selection was the hallmark of Gatland’s tenure in his first stint in charge.
He knew who his best players were and he stuck with them almost without exception. The team rarely changed, win or lose.
Gatland 2.0 doesn’t know who his best players are.
Wales will have fielded five different tight-heads in five matches.
It was utterly perplexing that Tomos Williams was on the bench for the first match.
And why Will Rowlands is not starting again on Saturday is a mystery. He should be on for 60 minutes and Beard on the bench.
Two years ago Wales devalued the match against Italy by making it about Alun Wyn Jones’ 150th cap.
He had not played a game for five months but was brought in for this game.
It was a sobering experience. George North closes a chapter in his career today too.
He can look back with great pride at his glittering achievements, but not until he has put in his shift against the impressive Italian centres.
Wales will have to produce their best performance of the tournament to avoid the wooden spoon.
Anything short of that and they will lose.
Gwyn Jones is part of S4C’s coverage of the Six Nations. Wales v France is live on S4C today.