‘Two tour victories would be a great achievement for us’
SHAUN Edwards reckons if Wales return home unbeaten from their summer Tests with Tonga and Samoa it will rank among their finest achievements of the Warren Gatland era.
The past nine years have seen the national side win two Grand Slams, a further Six Nations title and reach the semi-finals of a World Cup.
But defence coach Edwards, who has been an integral part of those successes, believes that if a Wales team depleted by the absence of 12 players on Lions duty manages to down the hard-hitting islanders it would be an effort to compare with all their silverware-winning performances since 2008.
Making the challenge even tougher, the tourists will without injured players such as Gethin Jenkins, Luke Charteris and Dan Lydiate.
“I was having a think this morning about how tough a tour this would be,” said Edwards.
“If we manage to pull off two victories with 17 or 18 of our top internationals missing, it would be as good an achievement as I’ve achieved with Wales.
“Probably one of the toughest games I’ve ever been involved in was the 2011 World Cup match against Samoa.
“It was a really hard game and we were lucky to come away as victors.
“The next time we played them they beat us and we had a full team out.
“So if we go over there, playing on their ground, and we can manage to pull it off it will be as good an achievement as I’ve managed in coaching.”
The Tonga match will take place in New Zealand but Samoa will be faced in Apia and they are a side who have regularly given Wales problems.
They are renowned for their bone-rattling hits.
But their players also have considerable talent that Wales are wary of, with Kahn Fotuali’i a world-class scrum-half.
“They have skill all over the place and an outstanding No. 9,” said Edwards. “They also have great footwork, as well as that power and size.
“It’s important we don’t try to take them on at their own game.
“There are certain aspects of the game that we excel at as well, so we need to put our game on them,” he added.