BACK TO BASICS FOR FANCY DAN
Biggar and Co face toughest test in Dublin
WALES and their fly- half might have been the fancy Dans last week against Italy, but it will be back to basics for Biggar & Co in Dublin today.
With two of the Six Nations’ three remaining unbeaten teams facing each other, and stormy weather forecast, this might be a day to revert to type.
Wayne Pivac, the new Wales coach, is keen for his team to become more fluid and attacking. But that can wait a week.
Because if Wales are to win in Ireland in this tournament for the first time since 2012, it is going to take all the Test-match nous and grit that the team learned under their previous coach, Warren Gatland.
‘Hopefully we are not talking and dwelling too much about the weather after the game,’ Alun Wyn Jones, the Wales skipper, said. ‘Hopefully, Michael Fish isn’t around either!’
Jones explained how the team would need to adjust expectations to suit the opposition and the conditions. ‘There’s the platinum game, and you’ve got to be able to step down sometimes and adjust to the bronze game,’ he said.
Dan Biggar agreed. ‘It’s probably going to be one for the purists,’ said the fly-half who epitomised the new free-flowing Wales with his flick between-the-legs assist for a try last week.
‘The weather isn’t going to be great, so it’s going to be a case of rolling your sleeves up.’
Biggar may be buoyed by his move to Northampton and his release from one- dimensional shackles, but he has not lost his love for the fight.
Today’s game looks a day for the old desperate Dan.
‘It’s great, isn’t it?’ he added. ‘This is what the tournament is all about, going away from home and trying to pick up an away win and keep the game alive.
‘It’s still a Test match so it’s about playing in the right areas, winning as many collisions as possible, dictating play.
‘When you do that you’re able to flick the ball and play some expansive rugby.’
Opposite Biggar in the green corner for the seventh — and maybe one of the last — times in matches between these two is Johnny Sexton.
When both are wearing No 10, Wales have won three times to two, with one draw.
If there is a more vocal battler at No 10 than Biggar, it is Sexton. ‘Whoever is reffing the game must be pulling their hair out,’ Biggar said. ‘It’s all in good jest with Johnny.’ For Sexton there is a different dimension now he is Andy Farrell’s captain. He has chatted to Paul O’Connell and studied opposite number Jones, to learn how to approach referees more calmly.
‘I spoke to Paulie about one time he was playing against the Ospreys and Romain Poite was also referee,’ Sexton said.
‘He took his gumshield out and he had no teeth in and he spits through his teeth! Paulie looks angry at the best of times, even when he’s happy, and he was just standing over Poite.
‘What he was saying was probably perfectly acceptable but the way it looked was maybe not quite right.
‘Alun Wyn is a great example, he has that balance right, where he has a good relationship with the referees, but is able to apply pressure at times.’
Having played on the same side as Sexton with the Lions in 2017, Biggar has respect for his opposite man. ‘He’s not satisfied with how something is run until it is absolutely spot on. It was interesting being on the same team and not just seeing the combative side of him, which I’m sure we’ll see today. It’s great to play against Johnny, one of the best blokes around.
‘He’ll be driving them around the field, and it is up to us on Saturday to try and make life as uncomfortable for him as possible.’
Today is a big day for the everevolving Wales. Pivac is under no illusions this is the biggest challenge of his career. In this competition Wales have only beaten Ireland away three times in 20 years. The last fixture they lost at all in the Six Nations was to Ireland in Dublin in 2018.
Nick Tompkins, who starts for Wales for the first time at centre, needs to prove he can step up yet again. If he and Wales win, the Pivac era will start to look back to the future.