BRAVE NEW WORLD
After 11 glorious years with Gatland, Wales are ready to embrace a…
With victory all but guaranteed — if you put £ 30 on Wales today you will gain £1 if they win — fans who have gorged on Gatland gold are gagging for signs the good times will continue to roll.
On Six Nations Saturdays in Cardiff, the hordes have come to know what they are getting. there will be daffodil hats, an impossibility of finding a seat on the train, dragons, goats, a 100-strong malevoice choir singing those same songs and a team in red able to produce equally predictable performances.
in this Championship they have not lost at the Principality Stadium since 2017, and have won 10 of the last 11 in the ground made great by Warren Gatland.
Wales often overachieved, pulled performances from nowhere... galvanised by Gatland they showed heart and fire. But now that former flame has gone all that is left of him here is his name on the gate the bus will come through.
in the front seat is Wayne Pivac, with a host of inherited players sitting behind him, all but three of whom have never been coached in an international by anyone other than his predecessor.
the majority are Grand Slam winners — some multiple — and aside from Nick tompkins, Johnny McNicholl and Alun Wyn Jones, they were all made as test men by the old guy.
So while Wayne wants to wed himself to his new nation he will need plenty of the old and borrowed to start anew by throwing out those in blue.
‘i’m really looking forward to it,’ said Pivac. ‘A year has gone down to months, down to weeks and now it’s just a matter of hours.
‘My two sons (Matthew and Bradley) are over from New Zealand and one has brought his partner.
‘they’re pretty excited about being here. My wife and step- daughters will be here so it will be a great occasion. it is business as usual but it will be a special moment.
‘i’m sure i will enjoy it internally and i’ll have a smile on my face. it will be a very proud moment.’
Alun Wyn Jones, the captain playing his 135th test under a third Welsh coach, is embracing the newness of it all.
‘Obviously it was a long period that Gats was here, 11 years,
with the success he had,’ said the lock. ‘But it’s the first one for Wayne and i’m conscious that we are not going to look back.’
After italy — who have a new coach themselves in Franco Smith — the honeymoon is over.
Pivac beat the Barbarians, following a useful preparation week in November, and the Azzurri will be easily vanquished — they have not won a Six
Nations game since 2015 — but what signs will there be of a glorious new marriage between Wayne and Wales?
‘We’ve been really drilling down on the way we want to play the game,’ said Pivac on his approach to the italy opener.
‘the whole focus has been on evolving the attack, making sure we’re strong defensively, that we have an attacking defence, where we want to get the ball back.
‘So it’s an attacking mindset across the park.’
that suits new cap McNicholl. the converted Kiwi only qualified last autumn, having been brought to west Wales in 2016 by Pivac.
he knows all about the swashbuckling style the coach wants to play and repeated the buzzwords of the week — that Wales are not here to defend, but to win their title again.
‘As you can see from the team that’s been picked we’re going to play some expansive rugby and want to score a lot of tries,’ said the winger.
‘We want to win this trophy back. i’m sure there’ll be some mistakes, but we’ll all have the same goal and that’s to win the game and score loads of tries.’
Some might look at McNicholl, whose selection has forced George North into the centres, as a tricky one to digest. At 29, and born in Christchurch, is he really what the Welsh want to see?
that would be an unfair accusation though, as the Scarlet, like hadleigh Parkes, has set a new life up here and is bringing up his daughter in his new homeland.
‘Age is just a number,’ he said ahead of his test bow today.
‘it’s about how you feel. You know if someone’s old when you watch them train or play.
‘You see the brittleness of them. i’m still like a spring chicken out there, flying around.
‘When that day comes when i feel too tired to get out of bed and train i’ll know that i won’t be making myself available.’ McNicholl fell in love with Wales and the Principality Stadium when watching them sneak past Japan 33-30 from up in the gods in 2016.
But everyone will be hoping it does not take a late drop-goal to win it today.
McNicholl wishes that his stepfather, a schoolteacher in New Zealand, and his mother, who helps at an old people’s home, could be here for his debut.
‘i said i’ll fly them over, pay for the tickets and everything, but they have a holiday later on in the year and can’t take time off work,’ he said.
But there will be plenty of expectant eyes on him, coach Wayne and Wales in Cardiff today. A fleeting romance, or a match made in heaven?
it is time to find out.