Howley tells unchanged Wales to find redemption

Under-fire coach seeks reaction to Scotland defeat in Ireland clash, writes

It was appropriate that Rob Howley named an unchanged XV at the Vale Hotel yesterday, because we have been here before. Perhaps no sporting team over the years have so often been sent out with that word “redemption” ringing in their ears, being implored to do it for the shirt, for the country, for the fans.

Of course, the players have pledged to do exactly that, despite one of their number, Tomas Francis, admitting to feeling quite thankful that Exeter insisted on him returning to train last week so he could escape the “fish bowl” fallout from Wales’s defeat at Murrayfield. “I’ve been quite lucky,” the prop remarked. “I managed to get away from it.”

For the ones who stayed around, the headlines barked even louder than defence coach Shaun Edwards. Initially, the focus was on “kickgate”, “the penalty storm” in which captain Alun Wyn Jones signalled to go for the posts against Scotland before being talked out of it by his kickers. The scenario, with all its undertones of weak leadership, supposedly summed up the mess within a camp whose head coach, Warren Gatland, is on a one-year sabbatical with the British and Irish Lions.

Inevitably this led to the position of Howley, Gatland’s stand-in, coming under scrutiny, with the

wondering in a headline “Should Howley carry on?”, while being mindful that he has only two games left in the hot seat, but another two years on his contract as backs coach.

By Friday, Robin McBryde, the forwards coach, had turned the spotlight back on to the players, declaring that “if there is to be any chance of them going on that [Lions] tour, they have to raise their game”.

And all the while the stats folk in the background have been warning that if Wales lose both their remaining matches, with France away to follow Ireland in Cardiff tomorrow, they will drop to ninth in the rankings, just in time for the World Cup draw in Kyoto in May. Another “pool of death” would thus be a possibility, with confidence low about the Dragons dodging the axe as they so famously managed to do at Twickenham 18 months ago.

The last time Wales won only one match in the Six Nations was a decade ago, in the ill-fated Gareth Jenkins era. They actually avoided a whitewash in a 2007 with a win over England in the final game. That was a classic Wales “redemption moment” in its own right, with

reporting that “atonement and redemption prodded the home side into action”. As it transpired, Jenkins was fired a few months later anyway, immediately after Wales’s World Cup capitulation against Fiji. Unlike in the Bible, redemption is far from everlasting in Welsh rugby.

But that is all Howley has right now. Unlike McBryde, he can hardly tell faltering superstars such as George North that their Lions places depend upon it, because Howley is already going on the Lions tour himself, as Gatland’s assistant. So he could only sit there yesterday and field questions about resisting the urge to make changes to a side who submitted so meekly in the last half it played, and how the likes of Taulupe Faletau, Sam Davies and others could remain among the replacements.

“We discussed giving the opportunity to the side to redeem themselves for the performance against Scotland,” Howley said. “There were too many unforced errors from 40 to 55 minutes, after a really dominant first half, on the back of one of the best games in the Six Nations against England.

“Obviously, I know things have been said about some players’ performance. But this is the chance to go out in front of our own supporters and deliver a display which the players are proud of and for the fans to support. It will be a huge game.”

By this time, social media had already become ablaze with a Howley comment on the official team announcement. “You don’t become a bad team overnight,” he had said.

Wales have won only seven of their past 18 games, and Howley was duly asked to justify the claim. “If you look at the statistic for the Six Nations, it [the win ratio] is about 70-odd per cent,” he replied. “In sport, sometimes fine margins make a huge difference and we need to get on the positive side of them. We expect a reaction on Friday night.”

It is muddled, almost desperate thinking, as the winning percentage for the last two years in the Six Nations is below 60 per cent and