Eight into three just doesn’t go... so who will start at full-back and on the wings?
SELDOM can a Welsh squad have contained so many contenders for one area of the team as is the case with the current back-three options.
In all, there are no fewer than eight players who could feature in that department in next week’s Six Nations showdown with Ireland out in Dublin.
With big-name players returning to fitness, coach Warren Gatland has a big decision to make as he considers the permutations for the Aviva Stadium,
Rugby correspondent SIMON THOMAS runs the rule over candidates and predicts the likeliest outcome. Leigh Halfpenny What a difference a week makes in rugby. Going into the Championship opener against Scotland, you had people questioning Halfpenny’s position in the team and hankering after a more attacking option at full-back.
Yet when he was ruled out of the England game with a foot infection seven days later, you had people declaring what a disaster it was! It’s a funny old game. Of course, in between, Halfpenny had delivered a near-perfect display against the Scots, giving a masterclass in defensive positioning, scoring two tries and kicking immaculately.
And the positive reappraisal of his worth continued as his absence was felt at a rain-swept Twickenham, where Wales missed his solidity under the high ball and his peerless covering, not to mention his unerring place-kicking.
So, fingers will be firmly crossed that he fully recovers in time to be back in the mix for Dublin. George North It’s been an injury-ravaged season for North, who has twice been sidelined by knee ligament damage.
But now he’s back, looking lean and hungry for a slice of the action.
Having looked encouragingly sharp on his first start since October for Northampton against Harlequins on the opening weekend of the Six Nations, he was then drafted onto the bench for Twickenham.
And again there were positive signs after he entered the fray after 56 minutes, looking to get involved and coming off his wing to give the pass that would have seen Scott Williams go in at the left corner had it not been for the intervention of a certain Sam Underhill.
He offers something different out wide with his physicality and the damage he can do when he gets up a head of steam, while he also brings 73 capsworth of Test experience to the party,
So, we know what he can do, he’s ready to go and has to be in with a very real chance of starting against the Irish.
The one wild card consideration would be North starting in the centre, which is something Gatland has toyed with over the years. Steff Evans The autumn campaign was a real learning experience for Evans, in coming to terms with the pace and intensity of Test rugby and its unforgiving nature when it comes to punishing any defensive lapses.
To his great credit, he has taken that learning on board and re-emerged as someone who looks much more at home in the environment.
What’s particularly refreshing about him is that he never hides.
His workrate and appetite for the ball is demonstrated by the fact he has made the third-highest number of carries in