Conversation with change was made
good chat around a lot of things. There’s the technical, tactical side of things and how we feel as people in our roles. It was a very mature discussion and that’s the result we came up with.
Q: Did any players have any issues with Byron or his methods and were complaints raised on that front with you or the WRU?
A:
I am continually talking to players on a daily basis over what we do in terms of the attack, the defence, the whole lot.
We are constantly talking and reviewing training sessions, classroom sessions. All those things are done on a daily basis, regardless of which coach we are talking about.
The decision in relation to Byron was one that he and I sat down and discussed and it was a decision that I took.
Q: So, it was ultimately your call, not a WRU decision taken above your head?
A: It was my decision and I informed the necessary people at the appropriate time.
Q: What would you say to those Welsh fans who see this as a bit of a panic move?
A:
It’s a case of looking at what do we want to be doing in 2023. That’s the big goal and we have made a decision that we weren’t heading in the right direction with the defence, so we made the decision to make the change now rather than wait a bit longer.
Q: Has Byron been made a scapegoat for the losing run? A:
No, look, it was a discussion between the two of us and we agreed it was the right thing to do for the team.
One of the things we talk about on a regular basis and we ask the players to do is always put the team first and that’s certainly what we have done.
At the end of the day, we are just custodians in our roles and the Union will be here for a long, long time and we have to do what we think is best at the time. This is a very, very hard decision, a tough decision to make, but we have made it and we stand by it.
Q: You have lost five games in a row, one of your coaches has gone. Can you understand how people may look at it and think this is a bit of a mess?
A:
Certainly, but what really counts from our point of view is making sure we stay focused on what we are doing on a daily basis.
It’s about where we think we are at with our game, talking to the coaches and senior players.
Even though we lost to England and France, we were pretty happy that with the changes we were making – which do take a bit of time – that we were heading in the right direction. It’s certainly very disappointing coming out of Covid with the two games we have had.
What we need to do is make sure we get back to where we were, play a bit more rugby and back ourselves. I think we just went into our shells a little bit in that Scotland game.
Q: Why do you think the transition from the Shaun Edwards era has proved so problematic in terms of the defence?
A:
Pre-Covid, there was a lot of work going into the attack side of the game and that is going to put pressure on the defence because we are playing closer to our own half and inside our own half. Turnovers are going to put pressures on you. Clearly that has happened.
We haven’t been as good as we would have liked in attack as well, so that has put pressure on our defence. As a result, it has been more difficult.
Q: Will it be Gethin Jenkins who leads the defence from now on? A: We have got 12 training sessions to get through, four games of rugby, so we will manage from within the group.
Gethin will step up and take some more responsibility with the defence.
But we have got a very experienced person in Mark Kinnaird, who has worked along with Shaun Edwards for a number of years in that department as the head analyst for the defence.
So, it will be a collection of thoughts going into that process.
Q: Are you definitely looking to recruit a new defence coach or might you share it between the coaches you have for the Six Nations?
A:
I will certainly be looking and seeing what is out there, what’s available, the sort of people that may be interested. With this sort of thing, a few names have come across the desk already.
That’s something we’ll be looking at come the end of this competition.
Q: What’s the news on the injury front ahead of Friday’s game against Ireland?
A:
Justin Tipuric is back training fully, Ross Moriarty has been back training and Josh Navidi has trained this morning and will have another run this afternoon. It might be a bit of a 50-50 for him.
Samson Lee has trained very well and ticked all the boxes, so he is looking good.
Dan Biggar and Louis Rees-Zammit are both training fully, so are both available.
Q: What is your feeling about the upcoming weeks?
A: We’re very excited. Obviously we are disappointed with how we’ve come out of Covid.
Pre-Covid, we were three tries all with England, three tries all with France, a game that we could have and should have won. We were playing some decent rugby.
So, I don’t think going into the break we were too far off where we wanted to be with the changes we were making.
Clearly we are very disappointed with how we have come out of Covid.
If we look at the Welsh clubs and some of the players, some are in very good shape and some aren’t where they need to be. So, there’s a lot of work to be done to get everyone up to speed as quickly as possible.
We were certainly disappointed with the Scottish game. It’s something we need to rectify. We have talked about it as a squad.
Just seeing training in the last day or two, the guys are in pretty good spirits. They get to put that behind them now and have the opportunity to go out and put their best foot forward.
Certainly we’ll look to make sure we have improved performances over this series and then the acid test will be on in terms of the Six Nations, because we have to on our game, as simple as that.