Willis should take centre stage against Wallabies
AHEAD of Wales’s game against Fiji, there was a lot of talk about how much Wayne Pivac has tinkered with the back row during his reign.
The all-openside unit he selected for the third of four autumn internationals was the 15th different breakaway combination he has tried out in his 21 Tests at the helm.
But it is not the only area of the team where he has regularly rung the changes.
There has also been something of a revolving door policy at centre.
In all, Pivac has selected eight different players to start in midfield: Jonathan Davies, Hadleigh Parkes, George North, Nick Tompkins, Johnny Williams, Willis Halaholo, Owen Watkin and, most recently, Josh Adams, an experiment which had to be abandoned when the Lions wing felt a calf problem in the warm-up for Sunday’s game and was withdrawn from the match.
Those players have been used in some 11 different combinations and that tally would have increased to 12 had Adams partnered Johnny Williams as planned at the weekend.
So, clearly, the Kiwi coach has found it difficult to settle on a preferred pairing, with various factors complicating the situation.
First, he had to deal with Parkes’s departure for Japan, which saw the exit of the man who had nailed down the No. 12 jersey for the previous couple of years, winning a Grand Slam along the way.
He was also without Lions Test centre Jonathan Davies for much of his first year in charge due to knee ligament damage.
Then, just when North looked to be making a successful switch from wing to outside centre, he too was struck down by a serious knee injury.
So it has been a real switchback ride, one which has continued this autumn with a different combination for each game.
Where now does that leave Pivac for the final match of the campaign against Australia this Saturday?
Well, perhaps, the answer is to return to what he was originally planning to do for the opening fixture versus New Zealand in October.
He has suggested Willis Halaholo would have started against the All Blacks had he not contracted Covid in the build-up, being forced into isolation.
“We’ll definitely be reviewing the [Fiji] game and looking at it,” Pivac said when asked if Halaholo had played his way into the starting team to face Australia.
“He’s one we wanted to use at the start of the series and you’re aware of that. The fact he’s been out hasn’t been down to anything other than Covid.”
It was a bodyblow for the 31-yearold Cardiff star to miss out. He had been so looking forward to lining up against the country where he was born and raised. He was also on good form, but it was not to be.
It did look as though this autumn campaign was going to pass him by.
He missed the New Zealand and South Africa games through being in isolation and then wasn’t selected in the 23 for Fiji, either, having had limited training time.
But then fate took a hand once more. The late withdrawal of Adams saw Halaholo drafted on to the bench when Tompkins was promoted to the starting XV. After 51 minutes, he got his chance when he replaced Johnny Williams at inside centre.
Almost immediately you saw his communication and organisation in defence coming to the fore as he called players into position alongside him in the line.
When it was his turn to make the tackles, he showed his physical presence, while also competing hard over the ball at the breakdown.
There was an obvious eagerness to get involved wherever possible after the frustrations of the past few weeks, as demonstrated by him joining the driving maul which culminated in Ryan Elias scoring his second try to put Wales back in the game.
But it is with ball in hand that Halaholo offers the real point of difference and there were a series of examples of what he can do on that front during his 30-minute outing.
Just past the hour mark, he received a pass just outside his own 22 and that was the cue for him to demonstrate his trademark footwork.
Putting in a shimmying hitch-kick, along with a show of the ball, he stepped away, eluding the clutches of two Fijian defenders to make it up to halfway before giving a no-look pass to the supporting Tomos Williams ahead of taking contact.
It was what Wales had been missing up to that point: someone who could beat a man and keep the ball alive.
He also did the basics well, showing good hands in getting the ball along the back line ahead of Alex Cuthbert’s excellent finish in the right corner.
Then, in the last few minutes, there were further examples of his ability to make ground and draw in defenders.
First he took a pass off Callum Sheedy from a lineout, broke the attempted tackle of Ben Volavola and then stepped back inside to get Wales over the gain-line and moving forward.
Then, in the final play leading up to Liam Williams’s try, came proof of just how hard a man he is to get down.
In the end it took five Fijians to finally get him to the deck as he spun and pirouetted his way out of their grasp, moving upfield.
With defenders otherwise occupied, the space was there for co-centre Nick Tompkins to break through and give the scoring pass to Liam Williams.
So, all in all, it was an impressive cameo from the eight-cap Halaholo, much like those he produced during the Six Nations title triumph.
He has proved he is up to speed following his Covid lay-off and he has confirmed he is the man most likely to breach opposition defences in midfield with his side-stepping and his strength.
You would think there has to be a really good chance of him starting against Australia now, with Pivac reverting to plan A from the start of the campaign. If so, then who to partner him? Tompkins had his moments against Fiji, notably his long pass to release Louis Rees-zammit ahead of the winger’s wonder try and his late burst which paved the way for Williams.
So he is very much an option. But you just wonder if Pivac will go for the experience and solidity of Jonathan Davies at 13.
Once more, the Kiwi coach has a centre conundrum to consider, but you do sense Halaholo may well be part of the answer to that puzzle.
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