TOMPKINS’ ARRIVAL COULD BE CENTRAL TO WALES’ FUTURE
IF Cory Hill joining Cardiff Blues was the worst-kept secret in Welsh rugby, then Nick Tompkins heading on loan to the Dragons was probably the second. It was widely known that the breakthrough star of the Six Nations would be swapping life in London for a year at Rodney Parade while Saracens spend their weekends facing the likes of Jersey in the Championship.
Now, how much time Tompkins spends in a Dragons jersey during his time in Gwent remains to be seen. When rugby returns, there’s likely to be a fair bit of Test rugby to be played.
While that might not favour the Dragons in their use of Tompkins, for the man himself, it’ll be another chance to set out his stall on the international stage.
And the stakes are, perhaps, higher for the 25-year-old than they were a few months ago.
Whereas he was parachuted in to the Six Nations as injury cover, there’s now a starting spot in the Wales XV up for grabs.
Hadleigh Parkes has upped sticks after six years with the Scarlets and left a vacant spot at inside centre in the Welsh side.
For Wayne Pivac and his coaching ticket, finding the man to fill it is likely near the top of his to-do list.
Owen Watkin – who missed the Six Nations through injury, allowing Tompkins to get his chance in the red jersey – will no doubt be in contention, as will others such as Willis Halaholo and Scott Williams.
Speaking earlier this week, fullback Liam Williams asserted that the Ospreys man would likely be front of the queue to replace Parkes in midfield.
It’s a fair assessment and Watkin has done a good job as part of the Wales squad since his debut in 2017. During last year’s Grand Slam, he developed a niche of coming off the bench and closing things out defensively.
If anything, he’s been a little typecast in his role of cameo-maker. Twelve of his 22 caps have started with him beginning the match on the bench.
His potential as a starter is evident, although much less proven than his worth off the bench. Time and opportunities to prove that are on his side.
But regardless of where you sit on Watkin’s credentials as a starter, the impact Tompkins made in his first four Wales appearances arguably has moved him to the front of the queue.
Some numbers posted on Twitter by statistician Russ Petty show just what a find Tompkins was.
In the 279 minutes he has played for Wales, he’s beaten 24 defenders.
The nine defenders beaten in the same match only trails behind Liam Williams’ 11 beaten against Fiji in 2014 when measured in the same period of time.
And the 21 carries he made in the defeat to France is the joint most by a Welsh player in a single Test since 2009 – in fact, only Scott Quinnell has carried more in an individual game for Wales since the turn of the century, albeit on four separate occasions.
Sure, there were some learning curves.
Defensively, he was exposed in Ireland a little – but he also showed his sharpness around the breakdown throughout the Six Nations. Given how referees are likely to be more stringent on the tackle area, that will be music to the ears of Sam Warburton and Byron Hayward.
But the positives outweighed the negatives.
The try on his debut against Italy and how he read the play unfolding and got himself into a position where he could score from first-receiver. Or the incredible work he did to conjure Justin Tipuric’s try against England at Twickenham.
And moving forward, it’s the man Tompkins was filling in for during the Six Nations that he should partner.
Sure, Jonathan Davies is 32 and coming off another serious injury, but no-one is putting the Scarlets man out to pasture. His defensive prowess alone ensures that.
And just as the partnership of Jamie Roberts and Davies largely defined the midfield of Warren Gatland’s era, a centre partnership of Tompkins and Davies defines the ideology of how Pivac wants to play rugby.
Under Gatland, Roberts and Davies leaned towards hammering their way over the gainline time and time again. Under Pivac, you’d expect the outside backs to thrive on space more – either from an offload or transition ball.
With the Scarlets, Pivac’s backline was packed with smart rugby players who could interchange and interlink to devastating effect when it clicked.
The likes of Paul Asquith and Tom Prydie were hardly superstar names or even particularly specialist in a certain position, but that mattered little. Their ability to be all-rounders and ball-players wherever they popped up in the backline was one of the keys to the Scarlets’ success.
Going back to that try against Italy and you see how Tompkins reads the play as it progresses and steps out of structure. How often have we talked about playing what’s in front of you here in Wales?
One of the things this Wales coaching staff will want to do is have the players making more decisions on both sides of the ball. That’s why the way Tompkins works a try-scoring opportunity is so pleasing.
And he’d be alongside Davies, who played some of his best rugby in Pivac’s Scarlets side that scored counterattacking tries for fun with simplistic draw-and-passes based on the confidence that everyone can play flat and commit a defender before giving a pass.
Just look at two stunning tries Davies was involved with in close succession in 2017. There was the score he set up for Steff Evans in the Scarlets’ PRO12 final victory over Munster and then the part he played in Sean O’Brien’s stunning try for the Lions in the first Test against the All Blacks.
Both showed how Davies thrives on the open spaces created created by high-tempo, offloading games. So too does Tompkins.
Another rugby writer described Tompkins as Wales’ ‘Swiss army knife’. It’s a fitting analogy. The man, much like Davies, doesn’t go missing often and can turn his hand to almost anything he’s asked to do.
When rugby does resume, there’s only one centre partnership in my mind Wales should be pursuing for the way they want to play the game.
How long that lasts, who knows? At some point, Wales have to blood Davies’ replacement. Watkin and countless others will be waiting in the wing.
But while he’s still here, the thought of Tompkins and him in midfield seems to be perfectly suited to Pivac’s rugby ideologies.
And that’s pretty exciting.