Fear of missing out... why these aces should feel hard done by to miss Wales cut
ON the day when Star Trek icon William Shatner prepared to blast off into space, Wayne Pivac named the players he hopes will help Wales go where no Wales team has gone in 68 years.
For those in any doubt, that involves beating New Zealand.
There are matches against South Africa, Fiji and Australia to play as well this autumn, of course.
But the game with New Zealand on October 30 could set the tone for the entire series.
Prophets of gloom have lined up to predict a hammering for Wales against the reigning Rugby Championship title holders.
Still, there will be a number of Welsh players bitterly disappointed today that they won’t get a chance to bid for a crack at them.
They are the individuals who went close to squad selection for the upcoming Tests, only to be passed over.
Some of them are seriously unfortunate.
Others never quite found the form that was needed.
MARK ORDERS looks at the unluckiest players in Welsh rugby today...
Jonah Holmes
“Scandalous!”
That was the verdict of one social media user after Jonah Holmes’ omission from Pivac’s squad.
Someone else dubbed the call a shambles while a third labelled it “baffling”.
As an English monk from the Middle Ages once almost said, you can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but when it comes to Wales squad selections the only true guarantee is the coach in question will cop abuse on social media.
But Holmes is unlucky. He performed strongly for the Dragons at the back end of last season and two tries for the Dragons against Connacht last weekend suggested he was moving up the gears nicely once again, but with only five back-three men being picked he’s been squeezed out.
Lions Josh Adams, Louis ReesZammit and Liam Williams take three of the spots, with Johnny McNicholl, who’s been playing fullback for the Scarlets, deemed a form player.
So it came down to a shootout between Holmes and Owen Lane.
“Looking at the summer and the opening games, we just felt that Owen was doing a little bit more around the park. That’s not to say Jonah isn’t playing well, just that Owen has got the nod on this occasion.”
The call must have been fiendishly close.
Scott Williams
Troubled by injuries for so long, the Scarlet was bidding for selection from a long way back.
But it’s hard to think of another Welsh centre who played better over the opening two rounds of the new United Rugby Championship.
Williams’ ability to delay a pass for a split second and then pull the ball back for a supporting runner added creativity to the Scarlets’ early-season efforts, while the teaktough west Walian can also act as a target for his forwards with strong running.
“Form is everything,” said Pivac when discussing selection a couple of weeks ago.
But it hasn’t quite been enough for Williams. His cause wasn’t helped by the eye injury that forced him off early in the Scarlets’ home defeat by Munster.
Now he’ll just have to keep playing as well as he can in the hope that he’ll secure a spot for the Six Nations.
Sam Davies
Likened to Johnny Sexton by Premier Sports pundit and former Ireland international Mike McCarthy over the weekend, Davies still remains on the outside looking in.
Again, the dice haven’t rolled his way.
In form terms, he could be forgiven for feeling he was ahead of Callum Sheedy.
Certainly he looked the part for the Dragons against Connacht in Galway last weekend, guiding his team around the field and hurting the hosts at telling moments with his accuracy and creativity.
His 50:22 helped set up a try for the Welsh team and there was a deft kick behind the defence for another touchdown.
A thinker who can run a match, Davies also performed well in opposition to Gareth Anscombe when the Ospreys visited Rodney Parade.
His long wait for another cap, four years after he last played for Wales, goes on.
Jac Morgan
Like Scott Williams, he performed supremely well in the first fortnight of the season.
And he was far from the worst when the Ospreys came badly unstuck against the Sharks in Swansea last Friday.
His ability to snaffle opposition ball is high class and he is a Testquality defender who rarely misses a tackle.
Pivac evidently wants more from his opensides, though.
Taine Basham, Ellis Jenkins and Thomas Young are all creative sevens who have big carrying games as well being good at the breakdown and in defence.
It’s a work-on for Morgan.
At 21, he is a player who takes responsibility and has a big future.
He just needs to keep developing.
Tommy Reffell
Much of the above applies to Reffell.
A number of close observers of the Gallagher Premiership see the Leicester Tiger as one of the most underrated players in English rugby.
Reffell is adept at thieving possession and regularly returns high tackle numbers. He can be a nightmare to play against with his breakdown skills, toughness and stubborn refusal to go away.
Does he yet have the carrying game that Messrs Basham, Young and Jenkins have?
Probably not.
It’s likely to be a key reason why he’s missed out.
Rhys Davies
One performance counts for only so much – of course it does – but Rhys Davies’ display against Cardiff in round two of the United Rugby Championship was of such quality that many who witnessed it will find it hard to believe that the 6ft 6in lock has been omitted from Pivac’s 38-strong line-up for the autumn.
Davies locked over the ball in contact against Cardiff; he won line-outs; he put in 16 tackles without missing, pretty much all of the hits delivered with clattering impact.
Maybe Pivac feels the big man isn’t ready to face the cream of the southern hemisphere yet.
OK. But Davies can still feel a shade aggrieved. What to make of it all? The selection of Seb Davies shows Wales are after multi-skilled players who are capable of playing an all-court game. But after allowing a Bulls forward to drive through him for a try last week, the Cardiff player must have been sweating over his position.
Ultimately, all has worked out well for him.
But had Warren Gatland still been Wales’ coach he may not have been so fortunate, with Gatland placing such a high value on rock-solid reliability in defence.
The Cardiff lock will want to demonstrate that his bad moment last Friday was a one-off.
Aneurin Owen
He’s a talent who’s learning with every game. A flick of a coin between him and Ben Thomas?
That sounds about right.
Owen Watkin
His challenge fell away amid the glaring lack of creativity that laced the Ospreys’ midfield performance against the Sharks. In front of Wayne Pivac, the Welsh side were one-dimensional in the centre, with Watkin and Tiaan ThomasWheeler unable to get any change out of the South African team’s miserly defence.
Watkin did contribute some important tackles, as he always does, but when Pivac left him out for Wales’ summer defence he said he needed to see more out of him in attack.
Presumably, that’s still the requirement.